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Nut and Raisin Bread
1 cup graham flour 1 cup entire wheat flour 1 cup bread flour 6 teaspoons baking powder 3/4 cup brown sugar 2 tablespoons melted shortening 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 3/4 cup chopped nuts 1/2 cup seeded raisins 1 egg, well beaten 1 cup milk 1/2 cup water Mix and sift flours, salt, sugar and baking powder; add remaining ingredients and beat well. Turn into 2 greased bread pans, let stand one--half hour, then bake in moderate (350 degrees) oven about 45 minutes.
A plain chemically leavened loaf of the type that filled the sandwich chapters of interwar menu books. The method is sound as written; the main adjustments are pan size and knowing what the three flours actually are.
- Graham vs. entire wheat"Entire wheat flour" is what we now sell as whole wheat. Graham flour is the same wheat ground coarser, with the bran left in flakes. If you can only find one, use whole wheat for both cups; the loaf will be slightly finer in crumb.
- Bread flourThe third cup is white bread flour, and it is doing structural work against two cups of heavy whole grain. All-purpose will substitute, but the loaf sits a little lower.
- Pan sizeThe recipe says only "bread pans", meaning small loaf pans; something in the 8 by 4 inch range suits this batter, and a single 9x5 will also work, in which case add 10 to 15 minutes to the bake.
- The half-hour restStanding the batter before baking lets the whole-grain bran hydrate, which keeps the crumb from being gritty. Double-acting baking powder tolerates the wait, and the second rise happens in the oven.
- Oven350F is correct as printed. Test at 45 minutes with a skewer in the centre; the loaf should read about 200F internally if you use a thermometer.
- Baking powderSix teaspoons across three cups of flour is a heavy hand by current standards, and old baking powder loses strength. Use fresh powder and do not increase it, or the loaf will taste faintly soapy.
- Raisins and nuts"Seeded" means the seeds have been removed, not that seeds were added; any ordinary raisin works. Toss the fruit and nuts in a spoonful of the sifted flour so they do not sink.
- Cooling and slicingQuick breads with this much sugar slice badly warm. Cool completely, then wrap and hold overnight before cutting.
- YieldTwo small loaves; sliced thin, each will give a dozen or so slices.
Nut and raisin breads belong to the great age of baking-powder loaves, when a household could put a sweet brown bread on the table in an hour without touching yeast. The use of graham flour points back to Sylvester Graham, the nineteenth-century American reformer whose name attached to coarsely ground unbolted wheat, and by the 1920s and 1930s such flour was generally sold simply as a wholesome pantry staple. Thin slices of a slightly sweet nut bread, spread with cream cheese or butter, were common at afternoon teas, bridge parties and club luncheons of the period.