A delicious and really simple sweet soda bread flavoured with marzipan, cherries and orange blossom water.
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.
Marzipan, Cherry & Orange Blossom Sweet Soda Bread
Active Time:10 minutes
Total Time:45 minutes
Makes 1 small loaf (about 8 slices)
Ingredients
- 200g plain flour + a little extra to sprinkle on top
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 20g caster sugar
- 50g marzipan
- 50g glacé cherries
- 1 tsp orange blossom water
- 140ml buttermilk
Method
- 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.
If you love the sound of this bread then you’ll also want to look at…
My MARZIPAN AND CHERRY CAKE with a layer of gooey marzipan running through the centre, or if you like sweet soda bread you should try my CHOCOLATE CHIP SODA BREAD.
Nutritional Information
Calories: 153 kcal (8%), Fat: 1.2g (2%), Saturated Fat: 0.1g (1%), Carbohydrates: 30.9g (12%), Sugar: 11.5g (13%), Fibre: 0.9g (4%), Protein: 4.0g (8%), Salt: 0.2g (3%)
Suitable for vegetarians
This is the estimated nutritional information per slice (assuming 8 slices from 1 loaf). Please refer to my guide to Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen nutritional information if you want to learn more about how this is calculated.
Free From/Suitable For
- Suitable for vegetarians
- Egg-Free
- Corn-Free
- Soy-Free
The ingredients for this recipe are commonly available free from all these allergens. However, please ensure you double-check allergen information for all ingredients.
I’m sharing this post with #AlphaBakes with The More Than Occasional Baker and Caroline Makes . Each month you have to create a recipe based on a random letter of the alphabet, the letter of the month for March is C (for cherries in this case).
Jacqui says
Golly that looks good and I love the flavour combination.
Charlotte Oates says
Thanks Jacqui, it’s one of my favourite flavour combinations
bakingaddict says
Such a gorgeous looking loaf and great flavour combinations. Hope you had a good Easter! Thanks for entering AlphaBakes.
Charlotte Oates says
Thanks Ros. I had a lovely Easter and I’m really enjoying having both of my boys home for the holidays.
Julia@HappyFoods says
I only bake brown soda bread but I am so in love with this version. And..I am craving a slice (or two) right now!
Charlotte Oates says
I rarely made savoury soda bread, I like the sweet version too much! I really should make it more though as it’s so quick and yummy.
Angela / Only Crumbs Remain says
This sounds amazing Charlotte. I’m a big fan of marzipan so this would certainly be something I’d very happily try. I really like how you’ve teamed it with the cherries and a little orange blossom; great flavour combo.
Angela x
Charlotte Oates says
Thanks Angela. I’ve noticed plenty of marzipan over on your blog too – it’s so yummy isn’t it 🙂
Kerry at Kerry Cooks says
This looks so delicious!!
Kate - gluten free alchemist says
That’s a lovely looking loaf Charlotte. Cherry and Marzipan is such a great combination I agree….. and those cherry pieces look so pretty nestled in the dough!
Charlotte Oates says
It’s one of my favourite flavours – I suspect I’ll have a cherry and marzipan version of every sweet treat on my blog before long!