St. Martin's Day Cake

Every year on November 11^th, my mother makes a special St. Martin's Day Cake to celebrate the feast of St. Martin, because my father's name is Martin. St. Martin is the patron saint of soldiers and one of the patron saints of France. So we celebrate this day with "Pizza Di San Martino" (St. Martin's Day Cake), although we call this cake raisin bread; since it definitely has the texture of bread, and is made the same way as bread, with yeast and two risings. 

The description for this bread says, "This is a recipe for a coffeecake served in the Abruzzi region of Italy on the feast of St. Martin." My mother found the recipe in the cookbook "Cooking With The Saints" written by local Ernst Schuegraf, who is also a family friend. This is a large book with recipes for every saint you can imagine, along with background information and descriptions about all of the saints. It includes five recipes for Saint Martin: St. Martin's Day Cake, along with St. Martin's Day Croissants, St. Martin's Torte, Crabmeat St. Martin, and St. Martin's Day Duck.

I really enjoy this St. Martin's raisin bread. It makes a delicious breakfast, light lunch, or snack; and is good with butter, cheese, or nothing at all. It has a subtle orange flavor and is chock full of plump raisins. It is delicious fresh from the oven, room temperature, or toasted. It is not particularly difficult or time-consuming to make, in fact, it doesn't even require kneading. The recipe makes two, and we like to freeze one for later, it holds up in the freezer very nicely.  Happy Feast of St. Martin!