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Nut Brown Bread
Mix together three-fourths cup each of white flour and graham with one teaspoon of baking powder, and one-eighth teaspoon of salt; then add one-fourth cup each of molasses and chopped English walnut meats. Mix to a batter with milk (about three-fourths of a cup), and bake in a moderate oven.
— Mrs. H. B. Morrison
A small, single-loaf quick bread of the kind that filled community cookbooks around the turn of the century. The original gives neither pan, temperature, nor time, so those are the gaps worth filling.
- Oven temperatureA "moderate oven" in books of this period usually corresponds to somewhere around 350-375F. At that heat a loaf this size should take roughly 40 to 45 minutes; test with a skewer at the centre.
- Graham flourGraham is coarsely ground whole wheat, including the bran and germ. Ordinary whole wheat flour is the closest modern stand-in; stone-ground gives a texture nearer the original.
- Pan and yieldThe whole batch makes only a couple of cups or so of batter. Use a small loaf pan (about 7 by 3 inches) or two or three greased cans; a full-size 9 by 5 pan will give a flat, dry loaf. It serves four to six as tea bread.
- The batterThree-fourths cup of milk is a guide, not a rule, since flour absorbency varies. Aim for a thick batter that drops heavily from the spoon rather than pouring, and add milk a spoonful at a time to get there.
- LeaveningOne teaspoon of baking powder for a cup and a half of flour is on the light side by modern standards, and the acid in the molasses will spend some of it. A teaspoon and a half, or a teaspoon of baking powder plus a pinch of baking soda, gives a better rise. The loaf is meant to be dense either way.
- MolassesUse unsulphured dark molasses, not blackstrap, which is bitter and will dominate the walnuts. This is the only sweetener in the recipe, so the bread is barely sweet by current expectations.
- Walnuts"English walnut" simply distinguishes the common cultivated walnut from the native black walnut, which is far stronger in flavour. Toast the meats briefly before chopping if you want the nut character to carry.
- Resting and slicingQuick breads of this type slice badly warm. Cool completely, then wrap and leave several hours or overnight; the crumb firms and the molasses flavour evens out.
Graham flour takes its name from Sylvester Graham, the American temperance preacher and diet reformer of the 1830s who argued that unsifted whole wheat was more wholesome than the fashionable white flour of the day. By the time this book was compiled the moral argument had faded and graham flour was simply a pantry staple, valued for its nutty flavour and used freely alongside white flour as here. Nut breads themselves are often said to have gained popularity once chemical leavening was cheap and reliable, since a loaf could be mixed and baked in an hour without yeast. The brevity of the instructions is the giveaway that Mrs. Morrison expected her readers to already know what a moderate oven felt like.