Homemade Boston Brown Bread

Submitted by ncmysteryshopper

"Wonderful bread! Although tradition dictates that this bread should be served with Boston Bake Beans it is also great with a bowl of soup, a salad or with a main dish. You will need 3 10-ounce coffee cans to bake this bread, although it can also be baked in 8X4 loaf pans (but then you will not have the beautiful rounds that make this bread special). The loaves can be frozen for up to 1 month. This recipe is from Massachusetts' infamous baker René Becker of the Hi-Rise Bread Company. I have only made it with fragrant organic flours, but I am sure non organic flours would work as well."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 50mins
• Ingredients: 11
• Yields: 3 Loaves

ingredients

• 2 1⁄3 cups organic rye flour
• 1 1⁄4 cups organic all-purpose flour
• 1 1⁄4 cups organic whole wheat flour
• 1⁄2 cup organic oat flour
• 3⁄4 cup coarse stone-ground yellow cornmeal
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup dried currants (4 ounces) or 1 cup dried blueberries (4 ounces)
• 1 quart milk
• 3⁄4 cup unsulphured molasses

directions

1. Remove one of your oven racks and preheat oven to 300°.
2. Generously butter three 10-ounce coffee cans. In an extra large mixing bowl combine all the flours. Stir in cornmeal, baking soda, baking powder, salt and dried fruit.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the milk with the molasses. Slowly add to the dry ingredients, stirring until the batter is smooth and combined.
4. Pour the batter into the greased coffee cans. Stand the cans in the center of the oven and bake for about 1 1/2 hours, or until the loaves are springy to the touch. Place cans on wire rack and let cool for about 10 minutes, then unmold. Slice bread into rounds and serve.
5. When the loaves have reached room temperature, they can be wrapped in wax paper and placed in a thick plastic bag and stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Reviews

[Kathy228]

Yum! And easy to make. I halved the recipe and used one large sauerkraut can and two smaller cans. Worked perfectly. I didn't have oat flour so subbed flax seed flour which gave the bread a rich color. Very good and healthy brown bread. Thanks NcMS

 

[free-free]

WOW!!! First off: I have had my eye on this recipe for months...I think the baking in a coffee can drew me towards it because that's what my Nana used to bake her brown bread in. I was also attracted to the mixes of flours (quite the bouquet here!!) This recipe is divine...the bread is incredible. To date this is my favorite discovery on ZAAR. I used my normal coffee cans and followed the instructions with no deviations (very unusual for me) - my cans were slightly off sized (11.5- I think), but close enough and I knew I could work around the fact that they had a little lip to the top part of the can ...I filled them 3/4 full and they rose and bloomed into sort of "muffin topped" rounds when baked for the exact 1.5 hour. After some cooling time (when I could handle the cans) I cut the top portion off (the little muffin shaped top part - YUM), turned the cans lip end down and used a can opener to cut the bottom open. The rounds then fell out from the opened lip-less end. They were perfectly shaped with the lovely fluting from the can molds. The presentation is wonderful and the flavor is even better. The loaf rounds are moist with a fabulous texture (all of those fantastic flours)...btw, the crispy "muffin tops" were delicious too - I saved those all for myself while giving 2 loaves away and allowing my husband to devour the third. As far as my flours, my all- purpose was not organic, but I was able to splurge with the rest. I used raisins but am absolutely dying to get my hands on good dried blueberries and make this again to give to my Mom when she visits me next month (I can't wait :) - better get to drinking my coffee to get more cans prepped ) I think she will be thrilled with this taste of her childhood. This recipe is my new favorite thing...thank you very much for sharing a winner with us NcMysteryShopper. This is off the charts good! There are not enough star to give this!

 

[ellie_]

Delicious! We had this with hotdogs and beans -- for a great trip down memory lane when we used to have Boston Brown Bread with franks when I was a kid (eons ago). I did change the amounts of flour a bit, as I only used one cup of rye flour (ran out of) and added 1 1/ cups of all purpose to make up for the difference. I also used the blueberry option for the dried fruit - delicious. Thanks for sharing this keeper and the trip down memory lane!