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:

• 170g of raisins
• 120ml of whisky – a blended whisky is your best bet here, pretty much whatever you have at home will do
• 450g of flour
• 110g of sugar
• 1tbsp baking powder
• 1tsp salt
• 1tbsp medium-grated orange zest
• ½tsp baking soda
• 240ml buttermilk
• 60ml 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 wee 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 175c 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, 120g of softened butter with about 1tbsp of whisky.

Here are some related posts that you might want to read:

• Whisky Caramelized Bacon
• Whisky Burger
• Grilled bananas (with whisky, of course)
• Whisky Cocktail: Lynchburg Lemonade
• Whisky Marinade