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Peanut Butter Bread
2 cups flour 4 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 cup sugar 1/4 cup chopped peanuts 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup peanut butter 1 cup hot milk 1 egg yolk Sift flour, baking powder, sugar and salt together, cut in peanut butter, then the milk and beaten egg yolk. Beat thoroughly and bake in greased loaf pan in slow (325 degrees) oven about 45 minutes. Delicious for sandwiches filled with cream cheese, or lettuce and mayonnaise dressing.
A baking-powder quick bread built around peanut butter, from the era when "modernistic" meant streamlined menus and pressed sandwich loaves. It comes together in one bowl and wants a light hand despite the instruction to beat thoroughly.
- The chopped peanutsThey are listed but never assigned a place in the method. Stir them into the sifted dry ingredients before the liquid goes in, so they stay suspended rather than sinking.
- Oven temperatureThe original helpfully gives the number: 325F, a slow oven. Keep it there. Peanut butter and sugar both brown fast, and a hotter oven sets the crust before the centre is done.
- Hot milkThe heat is probably deliberate: warm milk would help loosen the peanut butter cut into the flour so it disperses instead of staying in lumps. Warm, not boiling, is enough.
- "Beat thoroughly" is misleadingThis is a chemically leavened batter with no fat creaming step. Mix only until no dry flour remains; extended beating develops gluten and gives a tough, tunnelled loaf.
- Egg yolk onlyThe yolk adds richness without lightening. If you would rather not have a spare white, a whole egg works and gives a slightly more open crumb.
- Pan and timingA batter of this size suits an 8 by 4 inch loaf pan. The stated forty-five minutes may run short for a dense peanut butter batter; start testing at 45 and allow up to 60 minutes for a clean skewer.
- Yield and slicingOne small loaf, roughly ten to twelve slices. Cool completely and preferably wrap and hold it overnight before slicing, or it will crumble under a knife and refuse to take the cream cheese cleanly.