Loaf Manx Bonnag Bread
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Manx Bonnag Bread


Isle of Man
Makes:
Effort:
Sched:
DoAhead:  		 24 oz
**
1 hr
Yes		 Bonnag is the best known food from the Isle of Man. This recipe is fairly close to it's traditional form - see Comments.




13
2
1
1
2
1
10
oz
T
T
t
oz
t
oz
Flour (1)
Butter cold
Sugar fine
Salt
Raisins
Baking Soda
Buttermilk (2)
Make:   -   (1 hr - 25 min work)
  1. Preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C.
  2. Weigh Flour and sift into a mixing bowl.
  3. Cut the BUTTER into small pieces and work it into the Flour with your finger tips until it is evenly distributed and has the texture of bread crumbs.
  4. Work in the Sugar, Salt, Baking Soda and Raisins until evenly distributed.
  5. Make a well in the center of the bowl of flour. Pour in most of the Buttermilk. Get your hands in there and mix quickly, using a little more buttermilk as needed until you have a dough that's quite soft and quite sticky.
  6. Flour your baking pan well or use parchment paper. This dough will stick real well to "non-stick" surfaces.
  7. Put the dough out on the floured baking pan. With wet hands organize it into a round loaf about 1-1/2 inches thick Cut a cross across it about 3/8 inch deep with a very sharp knife. The cut goes all the way around the edges to the pan.
  8. Slide into the 375°F oven and bake about 35 minutes until golden. The loaf should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.
  9. Cool completely on a wire rack before cutting.
NOTES:

  1. Flour:

      Use unbleached All Purpose (UK Plain) flour, not bread flour. All Purpose flour approximates the soft wheat flour traditionally available on the Isle of Man. Measure is by weight.

  2. Buttermilk:

      Modern kitchens don't usually have buttermilk on hand, as we no longer churn our own butter. Just fake it up, which works fine. For this recipe, 1-1/3 Tablespoon Vinegar and 10 ounces of Milk.

  3. Comments:

      In past times, this was a very plain bread, often made with 3/4 Barley Meal and 1/4 Wheat Flour. It was, and is, a "soda bread", leavened with Baking Soda and Buttermilk and/or Cream of Tartar for acid. There was no Sugar and no Fruit. Today, it is often made more as a fruit cake than bread, with a cup of sugar per loaf and piled with dried fruit and candied rinds. This recipe has a touch of sugar and fruit, but is very close to the basic recipe.
  4. U.S. measure: t=teaspoon, T=Tablespoon, c=cup, qt=quart, oz=ounce, #=pound, cl=clove in=inch, ar=as required tt=to taste
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