Home › Bread and Bread Making › Graham Bread
Graham Bread
2 cups hot liquid (water, or milk and water) 1/3 cup molasses 2 1/2 teaspoons salt 1/4 yeast cake dissolved in 1/4 cup lukewarm water 3 cups flour 3 cups Graham flour Prepare and bake as Entire Wheat Bread. The bran remaining in sieve after sifting Graham flour should be discarded. If used for muffins, use two and one-half cups liquid.
Third Bread 2 cups lukewarm water 1 yeast cake 1/2 tablespoon salt 1/2 cup molasses 1 cup rye flour 1 cup granulated corn meal 3 cups flour Dissolve yeast cake in water, add remaining ingredients, and mix thoroughly. Let rise, shape, let rise again, and bake as Entire Wheat Bread.
A plain molasses-sweetened whole-grain loaf built on the book's Entire Wheat Bread method, with the flour half white and half Graham. The quantities are workable as given; the yeast and the oven need translating.
- Cool the liquid firstThe two cups of liquid are heated to dissolve the molasses and salt (and to scald the milk, if milk is used), but the mixture must come down to lukewarm before the yeast is added. Yeast begins to suffer above about 120F and is killed off nearer 140F, so this is the step worth watching.
- Yeast cake to modern yeastCompressed yeast cakes of this period varied in size; a small cake of roughly half an ounce is the usual working assumption, which puts a quarter cake at somewhere around 1/2 teaspoon of instant or active dry yeast, and the Third Bread's full cake at roughly 1 3/4 to 2 teaspoons. The small quantity in the Graham loaf implies a long, slow rise; the Third Bread's full cake a same-day one.
- Graham flourGraham flour is coarsely ground whole wheat, bran and germ included. Stone-ground whole wheat is the closest substitute; ordinary whole wheat flour works and gives a finer crumb.
- Sifting out the branThe instruction to discard the bran left in the sieve is a period preference for a lighter loaf. Leaving it in is fine and more nutritious, but the dough will absorb more water and rise less, so expect a denser, damper crumb.
- Granulated corn mealIn the second formula this means ordinary medium-grind yellow cornmeal, not corn flour or masa. Rye flour here is light or medium rye; whole dark rye will make a much heavier loaf.
- OvenThe recipe only says to bake as for Entire Wheat Bread, so follow that recipe's directions. As a modern equivalent, about 400F for the first 15 minutes, then 350F for a further 30 to 40 minutes. The loaf is done at an internal temperature of 200 to 205F and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.
- YieldSix cups of flour is enough for two loaves, or one very large one; the recipe gives no pan size, so that is a matter of judgement. Molasses doughs brown early, so tent with foil if the crust darkens before the centre is set.
- The muffin variationIncreasing the liquid to two and a half cups gives a much slacker mixture, closer to a thick batter than a dough. Fill greased tins two-thirds full and let rise until puffy; the book gives no figures for these, but a hot oven of around 400F for 20 to 25 minutes suits them.