Marzipan, Cherry & Orange Blossom Sweet Soda Bread

A delicious and really simple sweet soda bread flavoured with marzipan, cherries and orange blossom water. 

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Firstly, I hope you all had a lovely Easter weekend, we spent lots of time relaxing with family which was absolutely lovely. I also spent far too much time browsing the internet for new cameras 🙂 it’s very possible I may snap one up quite soon (and I’m very excited about it 🙂 ). I’ve now got my fingers firmly crossed for some sunshine over the next couple of weeks so I can get the boys out and about during the school holidays (so far we’ve had plenty of rain so I’m not too optimistic!).

A few weeks ago the internet was choc-a-bloc full of recipes to celebrate St Patrick’s Day and quite predictably this meant lots of Irish soda bread recipes. It got me thinking that it’s been ages since I shared a new soda bread recipe and so I got to work creating a new flavour.

I’ve been meaning to make something with marzipan and cherries for a while as it’s a firm favourite flavour combination in my household, and I had some orange blossom water leftover from making Maltese figolli biscuits so I threw some of that in too as I know how well it goes with the almond flavour in the marzipan – the result was just yummy!

There was just one slight problem… Marzipan isn’t a huge fan of being baked and has a tendency to burn in the oven if it’s at the surface of the bread. To ensure this doesn’t happen (and it’s really something you want to avoid as it gives a very bitter flavour to the crust if it burns), I grate the marzipan so the pieces are small (then if a little bit catches it’s too small to really notice), cover the bread with a thin layer of flour (that gives a little protection), and cover the bread in foil relatively early in the baking process just after it has browned.

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Marzipan, Cherry & Orange Blossom Sweet Soda Bread

A delicious and really simple sweet soda bread flavoured with marzipan, cherries and orange blossom water.

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Active Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Servings: 8 slices (1 loaf)

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INGREDIENTS

• 200 g plain flour - + a little extra to sprinkle on top
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 20 g caster sugar
• 50 g marzipan
• 50 g glacé cherries
• 1 tsp orange blossom water
• 140 ml buttermilk

INSTRUCTIONS

• Pre-heat your oven to 220ºC/200ºC fan.
• Chop the glacé cherries (50g) in halves and coarsely grate the marzipan (50g).
• Put all of the dry ingredients into a large bowl (200g plain flour, ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda, 20g caster sugar, grated marzipan and chopped cherries). Give them a good mix.
• Add the orange blossom water (1 tsp) and buttermilk (140ml) and stir until fully combined.
• Form the dough into a ball and place it onto a baking tray. Sprinkle a little flour on top and then use a sharp knife to cut slits into a cross shape on top.
• Put the bread into the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Loosely cover the bread with foil (to stop the top burning) and return it to the oven for a further 20 minutes.
• Check the loaf is cooked by tapping the bottom, it should sound hollow. If it doesn't pop it back into the oven (still covered in foil) for a few more minutes.
• Once cooked, place the bread on a wire rack to cool.

NOTES

Suitable for vegetarians

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NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION

Serving: 1slice | Calories: 153kcal | Carbohydrates: 30.9g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 1.2g | Saturated Fat: 0.1g | Fiber: 0.9g | Sugar: 11.5g

Any nutritional information provided is the estimated nutritional information per serving. Please refer to my guide to Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen nutritional information if you would like to learn more about how this is calculated.

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Course: Dessert, Snack

Keyword: Cherry, Edible Gifts

Author: Charlotte Oates