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Bran Bread
2 cakes FLEISCHMANN'S YEAST 1 cup lukewarm water 1/2 cup molasses 7 cups flour 5 cups bran 4 tablespoonfuls lard or butter 2 teaspoonfuls salt Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm liquid. Add molasses and four cups sifted flour. Beat well. Then add the bran, lard or butter, balance of flour, or enough to make a dough that can be handled, and the salt.
Knead well, cover, let rise until double in bulk-about two hours. Divide into three loaves. Place in well-greased pans.
Cover and let rise about forty-five minutes or until double in bulk. Bake forty-five minutes in a moderate oven.
Note-The addition of one cup of raisins to the bran bread dough provides a very pleasant occasional change.
A commercial yeast pamphlet formula, straightforward except for one number that does not add up. Read the liquid note before you start.
- The liquid is shortOne cup of water cannot wet 7 cups of flour and 5 cups of bran; the printed quantity is almost certainly an error or assumes a larger measure than we would read it as. Expect to need roughly 3 to 4 cups of lukewarm liquid in total, added gradually until the dough just clears the bowl.
- Yeast cakesTwo cakes of Fleischmann's compressed yeast is about 1.2 oz fresh yeast, equivalent to roughly 4 1/2 teaspoons (2 packets) of active dry. Dissolve dry yeast in the warm liquid the same way, around 105-110F.
- Moderate oven350F. Loaves this size want the full 45 minutes; check for an internal temperature near 200F rather than relying on the clock alone.
- BranMiller's bran or unprocessed wheat bran, not bran breakfast cereal, which is sweetened and already baked. Bran absorbs water slowly, so let the dough rest 10 minutes after mixing before judging whether it needs more flour.
- Salt added lastSalt is listed at the end of the second mixing step, going in with the bran, fat and the balance of the flour rather than at the start. Whatever the reason, it must be worked in thoroughly during kneading or the loaves bake unevenly seasoned.
- Pans and yieldThe recipe specifies only well-greased pans; standard 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch loaf tins suit three loaves from this quantity. A heavy bran dough will not dome much, so fill the pans about two-thirds and let the second rise run its full 45 minutes.
- LardFour tablespoons of lard gives a softer crumb and keeps better than butter here; butter is a direct substitute by volume if you prefer the flavour.
- RaisinsAdd the cup of raisins at the end of kneading, after the dough is formed, or they tear the gluten. Dusting them lightly with flour keeps them suspended rather than sinking.
The Bride's Cook Book belongs to a large family of early twentieth-century booklets published or underwritten by food manufacturers, and the capitalised FLEISCHMANN'S YEAST at the head of the ingredient list may hint at such an arrangement: the recipe would then exist partly to sell compressed yeast cakes, which the company delivered fresh by wagon route in that era. Bran bread itself rode a wave of enthusiasm for roughage that ran from the late nineteenth century through the 1920s, when bran was promoted heavily as a corrective to refined white flour and to the digestive complaints of sedentary city life. Molasses rather than sugar is the traditional sweetener for a coarse loaf of this kind.