Skip to main content
Bread

Graham Bread

A yeast-leavened bread made with wheat flour, molasses, Graham flour, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Wheat and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,373 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Graham Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, combine wheat flour, molasses, yeast, salt, and warm water.

  2. Stir in enough Graham flour to make a stiff dough.

  3. Cover and let the mixture sit overnight.

  4. In the morning, add 1 teaspoon of baking soda dissolved in a little water and mix well.

Bake

  1. Pour the dough into two medium-sized greased pans, filling them halfway.

  2. Let the dough rise in a warm place until it reaches the top of the pans.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for one hour, covering with brown paper for the first 20 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Wheat + molassestop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together702 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Wheat flour
Provides the base structure and gluten that holds the loaf together.
Porto rico molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and deep color to the crumb and crust.
Yeast
Ferments the dough, producing gas that makes it rise and become airy.
Graham flour
Adds coarse bran and whole-grain texture, firming the stiff dough.
Baking soda (in the method)
Reacts with the molasses acids to add lift and darken the crumb.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until it reaches the top of the pans. Underproofed dough stays dense, while overproofed dough can collapse. Warmth and timing control how much gas the yeast traps before baking sets the structure.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

More graham bread recipes

Steamed 18Quick 13 See all 389 →

You might also like

Wheat BreadWheat Bread65 recipesWhole Wheat BreadWhole Wheat Bread55 recipesBarley Wheat BreadBarley Wheat Bread6 recipesCornbreadCornbread345 recipes