Name: Quick Whole Wheat Molasses (or honey or maple!) Bread
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 55 min
Yield: 1
Ingredients: Oil or butter for greasing pan; 1 ½ cups milk of choice and 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (or 1 ⅔ cups buttermilk or plain yogurt*); 2 ½ cups white whole wheat flour or regular whole wheat flour; ½ cup cornmeal (I prefer medium grind cornmeal); 1 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon baking soda; ½ cup molasses (or honey or maple syrup, see notes on blackstrap molasses above)

Ingredients

1 serv.

Oil or butter for greasing pan
1 ½ cups milk of choice and 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (or 1 ⅔ cups buttermilk or plain yogurt*)
2 ½ cups white whole wheat flour or regular whole wheat flour
½ cup cornmeal (I prefer medium grind cornmeal)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup molasses (or honey or maple syrup, see notes on blackstrap molasses above)

Instructions

Tap a step to mark it done

1 Heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8-by-4-inch or 9-by 5-inch loaf pan (Bittman recommends a non-stick loaf pan but I prefer my stoneware loaf pan).
2 If using buttermilk or yogurt, ignore this step. Make soured milk: gently warm the milk gently (1 minute in the microwave will suffice) and add vinegar. Set the soured milk aside.
3 Mix together the dry ingredients. Stir molasses (or honey or maple syrup) into the soured milk, buttermilk or yogurt. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir with a big spoon, just until combined. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan.
4 Bake until firm and a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Allow the bread to cool in the loaf pan for 15 minutes, then carefully invert the bread onto a wire rack.
5 If you can stand it, let the bread rest for a day. I’ve found that whole wheat quick breads taste better the next day, when the flavors have had more time to develop. This bread freezes wonderfully. I slice it beforehand so I can pull out a slice of bread any time. Defrost it and boom—breakfast is served.