Boston Brown Bread I

Wow, does this bring back memories! My Grandma Helen used to make a fabulous brown bread that I loved as a child. This comes very close. I used 3/4 cup of molasses and 1/4 cup of brown sugar. I love baking with buttermilk as it really does make everything come out very moist. I baked it at 350 for 1 hour and 15 minutes.This is a wonderful bread that is chewy, sweet and chock full of raisins! Perfect served warm with butter!

Great recipe, BUT I did change it to make it more like the true Boston Brown Bread. I used equal portions of white, wheat and rye flour. (Next time I will try using corn meal which is what is in the original Brown Bread recipes.) I took the raisins ( 2/3 cup) and mixed them in with one egg and let sit in the refrigerator for a couple of hours ( adding at the end). I baked the bread in a loaf pan at 350* for approximately one hour, tenting for the last 15 minutes. When done, I removed from the pan and placed the bread inside the foil that I used to tent the bread and wrapped it loosely...This gave it the steamed affect....It was pretty close to the old B&M Boston Brown Bread (in a can). I am sure this recipe is fine just as is...I just have the habit of changing recipes that I come across. Enjoy!! (An old Bostonian)

I would recommend baking this recipe in smaller loaf pans. Making it in one 5 x 9 caused the outside to get very well done before the inside was done. Otherwise excellent in every way.

I've been looking for years for a good recipe for Boston Brown Bread, and I've finally found it! This was quick & easy to make, and it has the wonderful molasses taste I was hoping for!

This bread was just what I needed to go w/ homemade split pea soup w/ lots of carrots (for sweetness). I made a half recipe b/c that was all I needed. Unfortunately I made it w/o reading the reviews first and found out the hard way that the baking temp. needed to be lower (350 deg.). The outside of my bread, both top & bottom, was almost burnt while the inside was still too wet. I made it a 2nd time w/ half the molasses called for, a little additional buttermilk to make up for the missing portion of molasses, and cooked it longer at 350 deg.. It was still quite moist like it should be, not as dry as cake, but it did not taste anymore like uncooked dough inside. Like most no fat baked goods, the texture was a bit rubbery, but the raisins helped break it up. I think it's important to use lighter molasses--definitely not blackstrap or the taste will be too strong. I'll bet English golden syrup would work well too. The corrected recipe is now my go-to boston brown bread--better than store bought, and perfect w/ baked beans.

I love molasses, but this was a little to molasses for me. I will try this again, but next time I would cut back on the molasses to 2/3 cup. I added about 1 cup of raisins. I put the batter in muffin tins and baked it for 25 minutes.

The bread is tasty but really dense and chewy. Great if you love molasses which my boyfriend and I do.

This reminds me of the brown bread my mother used to make. It's even better the next day.

I don't have any kids so I couldn't rate that part, but I'm a novice cook & this was not only easy for me, it was also a big hit. I can't wait to have some with baked beans...guess I'll have to make another loaf for that.

I love a dense, chewy bread and this certainly fits the bill, and it tastes great as well. I didn't have quite enough molasses and substitued corn syrup for the remainder. I thing it would be even better with the full molasses flavor. Since others had some problems with the outside burning before the center was done, I also made this in two smaller loaf pans. The outside was crunchy and the inside moist. This is a quick and easy recipe that I will make again.

Thanks for a very tasty and healthful recipe! I added 1/2 tsp cinnamon,1/4 tsp fresh ground nutmeg and a dash ground ginger and it tasted just like the round brown bread in a can that I remember from my childhood! Delicious!

How can anything this easy and healthy, taste this good? Even better if you top it butter!!!

I was disappointed with this recipe. The texture was typical of low-fat bread -- very chewy -- and the molasses flavor was overly strong. Also, the bread began to burn on the outside after 45 minutes in the oven but was still not completely cooked in the middle.

Very tasty bread. I love the flavor of molasses and this bread delivers. I'm taking one star off because I think the oven temp is a little high. I searched other brown bread recipes and the oven temp was either 325 or 350. I used the oven temperature given and the inside wasn't quite done and the outside was rather dark. I had to drop the temperature to 350 to finish baking. Other than that this is worthy of 5 stars for me. Next time I make this I will make the adjustment to the oven temperature.

This is a great recipe - so ridiculously simple, which is a good way to guarantee that you'll get the same results every time. I've done some experimenting. The first is that I've never made it with buttermilk. My son is allergic to milk, so I substitute a teaspoon of vinegar in soy milk. It works perfectly. I have also taken to subbing out one of the cups of ww flour for a cup of rye flour. I use a combination of black strap and full flavor molasses. That may sound potent, but my son is only 3 and I have to cut him off. He'd eat the whole loaf. Speaking of loaf size - I've also divided this into two pans and cooked for 45 minutes. We have a friend with a milk and egg allergic son, so we like to share a loaf with them.

I made a half batch, because of lack of enough molasses, it yielded six muffins. They tasted just like the B&M canned brown bread. I was thrilled. Will definitely make that again.

Wonderful, wonderful recipe!!! I followed the recipe exactly, but I ommited the raisins and added cinn.,nutmeg and ginger. Tasted just like what Mom used to buy in the can.......DELICIOUS!!!! I love it toasted with lot's of butter.......Thanx for the great childhood memories!!

Couldn't find brown bread in Sweet Bay so tried this recipe instead & am so glad I did. It was great & worth the work. Only thing I did differently was to bake @ 350 not 375 & did the 2 flours 50/50. Also plumped the raisins before adding to the batter. I will be making this again.

After moving to Mexico, (one month ago) I was in for a surprise that I can't find my beloved dense brown bread! I can only find the "fluffy" brown bread. After searching the net for a recipe, I picked BBB1, going to the store for ingreds. was another surprise! Not reading or speaking Spanish I could not find B milk or Molassas. I substituted a yogurt like cream for b milk (adding a little water for the right consistanty and carmel liquid used for flan for the molassas. I also added two tablespoons of toasted flaxseed. I made a half dozen muffins (35 mins) and a small loaf (45 mins. I also had to guess the temp. of the oven as my oven doesn't show the degrees! To my surprise it turned out good, it hits the spot! Great toasted with butter. I would make again when I get cravings for dense brown bread, but I will still search and experment for a denser European bread.

Moist, chewy, dark, packed with flavor and easy to boot! I made 1/2 recipe last night to go with home baked Boston beans & baked this smaller amount 45 minutes in my bread machine bake cycle. 1/2 recipe made loaf 4x9x2". It was surprizingly similar to my usual steamed bread. Definate keeper.

Yum! Lowered the temp to 370 (but I'm at high altitude, so the temp was good for me). Made one loaf with raisins and one without... will never make it without raisins again! Next time I might try to cut back on the molasses a little and sub some brown sugar instead, to mellow the flavor a little. But awesome! THANK YOU!

I love this bread. My mom always baked it in small coffe cans for the cutest little round loaves.

I made this today and it is nearly all gone my husband and visitors went crazy eating it. It is so moist and really excellent.

This is good bread. It is very dense and chewy, with a strong molasses flavor. It was actually a little hard to cut. I don't eat raisins as snacks, but they go very well in this bread. After 50 minutes, the inside was baked through, but the top had burnt a little. It didn't affect the taste. It is an easy recipe with a minimal amount of ingredients. I would like to try other brown bread recipes on this site for comparison, but I will add this one to my repetoire.

AWESOME! I was not expecting this -- I got online to find something to help use up some buttermilk and I now have a new favorite! I did make one change as I was low on molasses....as suggested I used 1/2 cup of molasses and 1/2 cup of brown sugar. My bread turned out so moist and wonderful -- sweet, but not overly sweet -- that I will continue to go with that mix. What a great find!

Sorry, but this is the first recipe I have ever made from this site that was a total bust. It just didn't work for me and I love Boston Brown Bread.

Loved this recipe. I made it just as indicated which I always do first. It came together quickly and was delightful. One different step I did do was to bake at 350 degrees and tented for the last 15 min like one of the reviewers suggested - then used the tin foil to wrap loosely. Delicious. Thanks Much

This was so good. Got home from work, mixed it and poured into a pan. It was just delicious. I, also, lowered temp to 350 for the baking. Thank you!!!

Wow, this bread was easy to make! It is really sweet though, and did not pair well with chili. It would pair nicely with chicken soup or most other mild soups. Be sure to bake it long enough. Knowing my oven, I was afraid to bake it at 375, so I had it at 360. I let mine bake about 55 minutes, but it should have had another 5 minutes. Next time, I would use two smaller pans instead of the large loaf pan, because the load was nicely brown on the edges, crispy on top, but the middle was not quite done. All in all, a yummy nutritious quick bread recipe.

This turned out excellent! Instead of making 1 large loaf, I made 4 mini loaves and they were done after 30 minutes. A very quick and simple thing to make and I'll be making it again I'm sure.

Excellent. The only change I made was that I baked this in mini loaf pans which took about 35 minutes.

I substituted 1/2 cup corn meal and 1/2 cup All Bran for the regular flour and upped the raisins to a cup, plumped in hot water for 15 minutes. This is my go to recipe for brown bread.

A good, dense, filling bread. Best eaten warm with butter and a glass of something cold. Will make again!

Very good, easy. The second time I made this I baked it with the loaf pan in a secondary pan of water, It made the bread more moist, more like canned boston brown bread.

This is an interesting "quick" bread. Dense, sweet and excellent toasted this bread is bound to become one of your favorites. If you use full flavor molasses decrees to 3/4 cup and if you love raisins (like my family) this recipe can definitely handle 1 c. or more. To keep it from browning too much, tent it lightly with foil half way through the cooking time. This bread is great warm out of the oven and is a filling breakfast toast. Don't forget to to the baked bread (especially toasted) with butter!

I have also been looking for this recipe after having "molasses" bread in Boston years back. This is exactly it!! Its soft and rich. I also used an equal part rye.

Being a rookie baker since retirement, I thought I would try this recipe. Having liked Boston brown bread since I was a kid.Greenfield Village has a hobo bread I really like. Their recipe has a few too many ingredients for me. So I tried this one. Tastes close to their hobo bread and the family loves it too. The Basset hound even stole half a loaf off the counter. All around , a great brown bread recipe.

I made six muffins instead of a loaf (half the recipe) and baked them for about 35 minutes. This isn't bad--but I guess if I were eating bread with dinner, I'd want a yeast bread instead of this. It's easy to make though.

Although not in the typical cylinder shape, it had all the flavor of the brown bread we've been used to. I would reduce the baking time for a more moist bread however.