Red River Pumpernickel Bread

Dreamer in Ontario's Note:

In Germany this bread would be called black bread (schwartzbrot). The recipe comes from KLM Airlines. I clipped it out of the paper many years ago. It's really easy to make and very healthy.

• Total Time: 2 hrs 10 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 2 hrs

Ingredients:

Serves: 16

Yield: 1.0 loaf

• ½ cup molasses (or malt extract)
• 3 cups hot water (just below boiling point)
• 3 cups four-grain cereal (I used Red River Cereal which has 3 grains)
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. In your 2 cup measure, measure the 1/2 cup molasses and pour it into the beater bowl.
2. Now in the same measuring cup (to rinse out the molasses) measure the almost boiling water and add it.
3. Mix together the red River Cereal, whole wheat flour, baking soda and salt and add them to the molasses mixture.
4. Beat hard for 2 minutes.
5. Cover very well and let stand 2 hours or overnight. No need to refrigerate.
6. Grease, paper line and butter a 9 x 5 x 3" loag pan.
7. Turn in batter and smooth top.
8. Bake at 275 F for 1 hour then reduce temperature to 250 F for 1 more hour (2 hours total).
9. During last hour slide a foil oven protector below to be sure it doesn't overbrown.

Reviews

[Molly53]

Delicious flavor. I believe that the next time we make this, we'll use brewed coffee as part of the liquid to increase the depth of flavor a little. We used Hodgson's Mill Mixed Whole Grain cereal and Brer Rabbit Mild Molasses.

[Slatts]

This is a lovely bread. I do agree it has the taste/consistancy of a bran muffin. I used a 6 grain hot cereal mix. This is great with a bit of butter and some strawberry jam!

[queenofeats]

This was fun to make and tasted really great too! We needed a side dish for our Halloween feast and I couldn't help trying this recipe out as "Tombstone bread!" On any day, however, this bread is a wonderful quick way to make something good. My husband and I both think that it tastes a little more like a bran muffin than pumpernickel, and we agree that it is really more like a cake than a bread in texture, but once we put aside our preconceived notions of "bread" we really enjoyed it. I think maybe a small amount of salt might have added to the flavor a little as well, and I might try that next time I make this. Can't wait to try it with some toppings as recommended by other reviewers!