Click on the image, above to submit to Pinterest.
Fruit Bonnag
Fruit Bonnag is a traditional Manx recipe (from the Isle of Man) for a classic sodabread with currants and mixed spice that's a tea-time treat. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Manx version of: Fruit Bonnag.
prep time
20 minutes
cook time
60 minutes
Total Time:
80 minutes
Serves:
8–10
Rating: 
Tags : Vegetarian RecipesMilk RecipesBaking RecipesCake RecipesBritish RecipesManx Recipes
This is what most people think of as the classic bonnag; essentially a soda-bread containing currants.
Bonnag is a traditional Manx bread which, it is believed, has been around for hundreds of years.
Bonnag is traditionally served with butter or some people like it dry, we like to give our guests the opportunity to try it many different ways. We also offer our guests fresh homemade marmalade, jam and a popular one Manx honey.
Bonnag and Scottish Bannock share an etymology and are similar in preparation. However, it does seem that the original spelling of bonnag was 'sonnag' and it was only after the introduction of modern baking soda did the bonnag spelling enter the vernacular. The Isle of Man's original grains would have been barley and oats not wheat.
The original Bonnag was a barley cake, about the size of a breakfast plate, cooked on a griddle. This was prevalent until the 1860s when chemical leavening (originally bicarbonate of soda with buttermilk and then double action baking soda) became popular and the traditional bonnags were replaced by the more cake-like forms of today, though barley was probably stilt the main grain.
Dried fruit also became prevalent in the mid 19th century and by the 1890s bonnag had become fruited breads leavened with soda with wheat flour becoming more common than barley. Indeed, the increased gluten in wheat flour is needed for a bonnag to rise properly. Though to be fair, imported wheat did not fully replace barley as the island's staple grain until the 1910s.
Manx slim cakes hearken back to the original method of making bonnag as a flat griddle cake.
Ingredients:
300g (2 1/2 cups) flour
200g (1 cup) sugar
150g (1 cup) currants
1 tbsp butter, diced
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 large tsp mixed spice
few drops vanilla extract
250ml (1 cup) buttermilk (or more, as needed)
Method:
Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and mixed spice into a bowl. Add the butter and rub into the flour until fully incorporated.
Mix together the vanilla extract and buttermilk then mix into the flour until everything comes together as a moderately soft dough.
Shape into a round, sit in the centre of a greased baking tray then transfer to an oven pre-heated to 180C and bake for about 60 minutes.
Cool on a wire rack. These are best sliced and eaten warm with plenty of butter.
