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Graham Bread
2 cups hot liquid ¼ yeast cake dissolved in (water, or milk and water) 1/4 cup lukewarm water 1/3 cup molasses 2½ teaspoons salt 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. 2 cups lukewarm water 1 yeast cake ½ tablespoon salt ½ cup molasses
A molasses-sweetened whole-wheat loaf built on the master method for Entire Wheat Bread. The quantities are given in the shorthand of a book that assumed you had already read the preceding page, so a few need translating before you start.
- Cool the liquid firstThe two cups of liquid are called for hot, but the yeast is dissolved separately in 1/4 cup lukewarm water. Let the hot liquid fall to about 110F before the dissolved yeast goes in, or you risk killing the yeast.
- Yeast cakeA compressed yeast cake is usually reckoned at about 0.6 oz, roughly equal to 2 1/4 teaspoons of modern active dry yeast, though period cakes were not all one size. A quarter cake works out at about half a teaspoon of active dry, which will give a slow rise rather than a fast one.
- Graham flourGraham flour is whole wheat, milled coarse with the bran left in. Modern stone-ground whole wheat is the closest match. The instruction to sift and discard the bran produces a lighter loaf; skipping that step gives a denser, more assertive one and is perfectly workable.
- The salt figureThe salt quantity as printed, 21 1/2 teaspoons, is not a usable number and is most likely a garbled 2 1/2 teaspoons. For six cups of flour, 2 to 2 1/2 teaspoons of table salt is a sensible proportion.
- MolassesUse unsulphured light or dark molasses. Blackstrap is far more bitter than what was sold as cooking molasses in 1900 and will dominate the loaf.
- BakingThe method is borrowed wholesale from Entire Wheat Bread, which is not reproduced here, so no oven wording can be quoted. In modern terms, bake at about 350F for 45 to 50 minutes in a standard loaf pan; the loaf is done at an internal temperature of 195 to 205F and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.
- YieldSix cups of flour makes two small loaves or one generous one. Whole-wheat doughs rise less than white, so fill the pans about two-thirds full and expect a close, moist crumb.
- The muffin variationThe recipe simply says to use two and one-half cups liquid if making muffins, which gives a softer, wetter mixture that can be spooned into greased tins rather than kneaded. No oven heat or time is stated; a hot oven of roughly 400 to 425F for 20 to 25 minutes is the modern equivalent.
Graham flour takes its name from Sylvester Graham, the Presbyterian minister and dietary reformer who in the 1830s campaigned against fine white flour and commercial bakers, arguing that coarse home-milled whole wheat was the wholesome alternative. By the time Fannie Farmer was teaching at the Boston Cooking School, the moral argument had largely faded and Graham flour was simply an ordinary grocery item, sold beside white flour and used in bread, muffins and gems. The molasses here is characteristic of New England baking, where it was cheaper than sugar and had been a household staple since the colonial trade with the West Indies; it also softens the flavor of coarse wheat and darkens the crumb.