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.
This reminds me of the brown bread my mother used to make. It's even better the next day.
The bread is tasty but really dense and chewy. Great if you love molasses which my boyfriend and I do.
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 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.
