Why it works: Molasses and bread work together. They rank in the top 31% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 529 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓
Bran Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Add ½ cup of strained molasses and 2 handfuls of clean bran to the bread dough while kneading.
Omit the sugar.
Allow the dough to rise until very light.
Finish baking as instructed in the previous recipe.
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.
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Molasses + breadtop 31% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together529 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
- Strained molasses
- Adds sweetness, moisture and a deep brown colour to the loaf.
- Clean bran
- Adds a coarse, grainy texture and a nutty flavour to the crumb.
- Bread dough
- Provides the gluten structure that traps gas and holds the bran and molasses together.
The step that matters
Kneading in the bran. Bran has sharp particles that can cut through gluten strands, weakening the dough's ability to trap gas. Knead it in thoroughly but gently, then let the dough rise until very light so the loaf still gets enough lift.
“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.
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