Molasses Bread

This recipe comes from a children's cookbook called Recipes From Many Lands. The entry is in Israel's chapter, which I never understood. The flavors and texture are very much American.

A note on quick breads. They're called that because you don't have to wait for yeast to do its thing. Most loaves of quick breads take about an hour to bake, which is not exactly the speedy way to make breakfast.  This one takes over an hour because of the relatively low cooking temperature.  A plus, though, it's low fat.

I finally broke down and bought some buttermilk. Wow, that stuff smells awful.  You can use regular milk if you substitute baking powder for half of the soda.  I'm going to print the recipe as it appears in the book, but I didn't use two flours.  I used 2 cups of regular All Purpose flour, sifted after measuring, and 2 Tablespoons wheat bran flakes.  Close enough.

1 C unbleached flour
1/2 C sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1-1/2 C whole wheat flour
1 egg
1 C buttermilk
1 C molasses

1.  Preheat oven to 325º.  Grease a standard loaf pan.

2.  Sift the unbleached flour, then measure.  Resift with sugar, soda, and salt.  Stir the whole wheat flour before measuring, then add to dry ingredients.

3.  In a separate bowl, beat the egg.  Add milk and molasses, and stir to combine.

4.  Pour liquid ingredients into dry ingredient bowl.  Stir until just combined.  Do not overmix; it's ok if it's lumpy.  Pour into loaf pan.

5.  Bake for 1hour, 15 minutes, until center is set.  Allow to sit for several minutes in loaf pan, then remove to wire rack to cool.

Makes 1 loaf

Difficulty rating  π