Brown Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Mix water and cornmeal until thick.
Add 1 large cup of New Orleans molasses.
When cool, add 1 cake of compressed yeast dissolved in a cup of tepid water.
Knead and rise
Mix with wheat flour and knead thoroughly as wheat bread.
Let it rise overnight.
Shape and bake
In the morning, shape into loaves, handling as little as possible.
Let it get very light and bake as wheat bread.
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. See the original page.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Cornmeal (in the method)
- Thickens the mixture and gives the loaf a coarse, grainy texture.
- New orleans molasses (in the method)
- Adds sweetness, moisture and a dark color to the crumb.
- Compressed yeast
- Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light.
- Wheat flour (in the method)
- Its gluten forms the elastic network that holds the loaf's structure.
The step that matters
Let it get very light. Yeast gas must fill the dough before baking. Under-proofed loaves stay dense, while over-proofed dough can collapse in the oven.
“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 brown bread recipes
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipes
Chicken Broth257 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.