Whisky Bread

I originally received this recipe from an American acquaintance of mine, a long time ago, and it used to annoy me how it used “cups” instead of a more sensible measurement such as grams and millilitres. Thanks to the fantastic invention known as the interweb, though, I’ve since managed to convert it. Past annoyances aside, it’s a great recipe and makes for delicious bread, especially if served with whisky butter.

You’ll need:

• 3/4c raisins
• 1/2c whisky – a blended whisky is your best bet here, pretty much whatever you have at home will do
• 2c flour
• 1/2c of sugar
• 1tbsp baking powder
• 1tsp salt
• 1tbsp medium-grated orange zest
• ½tsp baking soda
• 1c buttermilk
• 4tbsp melted butter

And the method behind the madness:

1. Place your raisins in a bowl, one by one or all at once, and pour over the whisky. Leave to soak overnight, and make sure not to eat them all in the morning – they will be delicious. On a side note, I like to soak raisins in whisky for a couple of days and cover them in chocolate as a Christmas treat.
2. Day 2: measure out your sugar, flour, baking powder, salt and orange zest and mix it all up in a decent sized bowl. Add your raisins and give it all a final, good, stir.
3. Grab a small bowl or a glass and pour in the milk, add the baking soda and stir for a little bit until it dissolves.
4. Add your milk-soda to your big bowl and stir well.
5. Grab a 9×9-ish pan and butter it up gently, once the tin is fully lubricated fill it up with your mixture.
6. Slap in a pre-heated oven, about 350F should do, for about 50 minutes or until it’s a nice golden brown on the outside.

Serve! As I mentioned earlier on it’s delicious with whisky butter, which is a lot like brandy butter, and can be made by combining, say, 8tbsp of softened butter with about 1tbsp of whisky.