Grape-nuts Bread
I did it! I made the Grape-Nuts Bread. What a success!!!! In my last post (Orange Bread) I talked about having had a poll to decide what I would make and Orange Bread won over the Grape-Nuts Bread. I had decided that I would make the Grape-Nuts Bread the week after the Orange Bread, because I was intrigued by it.
Just like a lot of the other old recipes, there was no measurement given for at least one ingredient. Salt. I guessed 1 tsp. This recipe called for 3x7 loaf pans and baking at 350 degrees for one hour and the recipe makes two loaves. So, what did I do first? You have to soak the Grape-Nuts in two cups of sour milk "for a few minutes", so I needed to start that before gathering the other ingredients. But first, sour milk? I googled sour milk and found out how to make sour milk for baking. Once I made the sour milk, I stirred in 1 cup of Grape-Nuts cereal. Next up I sifted 3 cups flour with 1 tsp baking soda and 2 tsp baking powder. I mixed 1 tsp salt, 2 eggs, and sugar with the sour milk & Grape-Nuts mixture and mixed the dry ingredients about a cup at a time. It seemed a little lumpy, so I actually used a whisk for most of the mixing and my favorite wooden spoon for some. The batter seemed fairly thin, but I had to try it exactly like the recipe.
I poured half of the batter into a greased and floured loaf pan. Into the other half of batter, I added half a cup of chopped honey roasted pecans & cranberries and poured that batter into my second greased and floured loaf pan. I placed both loaf pans into my wonky, old oven which I had pre-heated to 350 degrees, set the timer and went and kept myself occupied. I was ready to go when the timer went off. I removed both pans and set them on cooling racks. After they had cooled for a while, I loosened the edges with a knife and removed them from the pans to continue cooling on the rack and a little while later, I cut myself a slice of the loaf to which I added the pecans & cranberries.
The result? Like I said above, this recipe was a success. I'm not sure I would do the nuts in this bread again, but dried cranberries or cherries even would be okay. It is wonderful without any additions. I really liked the flavor of the bread and the texture was good. I thought the crust was fine. Nice and brown, but I would have liked it a tiny bit less "crusty", so maybe a few minutes less baking time would be fine. I will 100% make this again. Thank you to, Mrs. Ralph M. Wilson, who submitted this recipe to the church community cookbook, aka the cookbook that started me on this cooking/baking adventure.
Also, I made French toast with the bread this morning and it was so good, so try that also. It's just me, so I decided to freeze most of what I made using my FoodSaver vacuum sealer. We will see in several weeks/months, how well this bread keeps in the freezer. I am betting it will be just fine.
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