Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Have Thirds!

Have you ever heard of thirded bread? Me neither, that is until I spent an afternoon reading Crescent Dragonwagon's new book: The Cornbread Gospels. In the chapter titled "Northern Cornbreads", she explains that in the colonial era in the United States, wheat supplies were very low, leading to the new British immigrants combining wheat and rye flours with cornmeal in their bread baking. Both quick and yeasted breads were "thirded" and it's a practice still used today for items such as Boston Brown Bread.

Newfound knowledge in tow, I decided to try my hand at a "thirded" bread of my own, with my own blend of grains and molasses. Essentially this old recipe turned into a "use - up" type of sweet, dark quickbread that I wouldn't hesitate to make again with whatever bits and pieces of flours and grains I had around. It is whithout a doubt an easy, infinitely variable and fast accompaniment for anything you could care to serve it with. Andrew and my dad each got half of this creation, so I'm eagerly awaiting the verdict!

Thirded Sweet Quickbread
Serves 12
½ cup rye flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
¼ cup buckwheat flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp fresh ginger
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp cinnamon
Pinch salt
½ cup buttermilk
1 egg
6 tbsp blackstrap molasses
  1. Preheat oven to 375F. Grease a loaf pan.
  2. Combine flours, baking powder, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
  3. Seperately, combine the remaining ingredients.
  4. Add the wet mix to the dry ingredients and blend just to combine. Do not over-mix.
  5. Pour into pan and bake 40 minutes, or until it tests done.
  6. Cool 10 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack and cooling completely.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 74.7
Total Fat: 0.7 g
Cholesterol: 18.1 mg
Sodium: 21.8 mg
Total Carbs: 15.4 g
Dietary Fiber: 1.6 g
Protein: 2.2 g

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