Bonnach Strùthan is a traditional Scottish recipe (from South Uist) for a classic Michaelmas soda bread flavoured with caraway seeds and containing currant, raisins or candied peel that's finished with a flour, treacle, mil, and sugar caudle coating. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Scottish version of: Bonnach Strùthan.
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This is a South Uist recipe for a traditional Michaelmas cake. Michaelmas takes place at the end of September and marks the end of the harvest. As legend has it, when Lucifer was expelled from Heaven he fell in a blackberry bush at Old Michaelmas, so you are not supposed to pick brambles beyond this date in case Satan has spat on them! The Sunday before Michaelmas was also traditionally the time to lift carrots.
Ingredients:
For the Bannock:
500g plain flour
1 tsp baking (bicarbonate of) soda
Sour milk – enough to make a dough
1 tsp caraway seeds,
for flavour — Dried currants, sultanas/raisins, and/or candied peel
For the Caudle Coating:
3 tbsp treacle
2 tbsp milk
1 tbsp sugar
Plain flour — enough to make a dough
Method:
Pre-heat your the oven to about 150C (a low-medium heat).
Prepare a baking tray for the bannochs to sit on when ready to bake.
Sift together the flour and baking soda into a bowl and form a well in the centre of it.
Gradually add in the milk, bringing everything together until you have a workable dough. As you do this, say: Progeny and prosperity of family, Mystery of An Dagda, protection of Bride.
Add in the caraway seeds and dried fruit, or whatever flavourings you like (as much as you like and will keep the dough workable – about a handful or two of the dried fruit is enough).
Shape the dough into a bannock — either a large, thin, round one, or smaller ones intended for individual family members or participants. As they cool they will become hard, so try to make them as thin as you can.
As you shape the bannock, say: Progeny and prosperity to ________ (whoever it’s for – person or family name) mystery of An Dagda, shielding of Bride.
Each bannock can be decorated with patterns to distinguish who it’s for, if necessary, or else bless the bannock for the family as a whole again. Given the coating that needs to be added, lumps, bumps and depressions are better, to make sure they stay distinguishable once they’re coated.
Make sure you set aside a small piece of dough for offering. This can be baked with the rest of the struans or burnt in a fire for the purpose.
Bake in the oven on a baking tray at 150C, or a low heat, until they are about to start turning golden (about ten minutes or so for the individual bannocks).
While the bannock is in the oven, mix together the ingredients for the caudle coating, adding enough flour to make a dough.
Coat the bannock(s) with the dough and return to the oven until the caudle coating is cooked.
Any Bonnach Strùthan that break should not be used.
