Peanut Butter Bread, a recipe B. Dylan Hollis says was a 1930s answer to the shortage of eggs, butter and sugar during the Great Depression.
Mark Guydish | for Times Leader
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The ingredients for peanut butter bread, a food with a name that says it all.
Mark Guydish | for Times Leader
“Why are you only putting jelly on your sandwich?” Brother Ray said, acting out an imaginary conversation as one person watches another make a PB&J with only bread and the fruit spread. The reply: “The peanut butter is already in the bread!”
Ray and our other brother Joe had joined us for a dinner featuring smoked pork chops, stuffed baked apples, duchess potato casserole and other goodies that have been finding their way into these Test Kitchen articles. And the first thing on the table was this from the “Baking Yesteryear” cook book, a collection of kitchen ideas from the 1900s to 1980s compiled by B. Dylan Hollis.
This particular concoction, Hollis says, is from the 1930s, created in response to the scarcities of the Great Depression. From the author himself:
When eggs, butter and sugar were scarce during the height of the crisis, especially in urban centers, home economists found themselves lacking the foundational ingredients to make nearly any cake or quickbread. However, shelf-stable, affordable, and available jarred peanut butter offered a solution: Needed fat for texture and moisture, emulsifiers for good crumb, nuttiness for flavor, and a touch of sweetness.
Joe and Ray only took small samples (there was a pretty big meal working its way to the table), but both praised the bread.
Perhaps more telling, while the four of us only ate a little of the loaf, by the end of the next day there was less than a quarter of it still remaining, as MT and I kept slicing a piece now and then.
I have one note: As regular readers know, MT and I only stock Smucker’s Natural PB, which generally has a more intense peanut flavor and often comes with the oil separated and on the top, requiring fairly vigorous stirring before using and refrigeration to prevent separation redux.
Occasionally when a recipe calls for PB, I buy a more popular brand that typically adds sugar, molasses or other flavors while reducing peanut intensity (I mixed Skippy’s Natural with Smucker’s for a pumpkin and PB fudge). I didn’t do that this time, or when I made the Peanut Butter Sytrofoams.
Unlike when I made the Styrofoams, this time I didn’t let the PB warm to room temperature before adding, which made it a bit harder to mix in by hand.
Dobru chut!
Peanut Butter Bread (Baking Yesteryear)
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
¼ cup granulated sugar
1⅓ cups whole milk
½ cup peanut butter
Heat oven to 350°. Grease a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar. Mix in the milk and peanut butter until well combined.
Turn into the greased pan and bake for 55-65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing and setting on wire rack to cool completely.
A note regarding last week’s duchess potato casserole article: During a chat with MT, a reader noted that I forgot to explain exactly how to make the “topping,” and MT relayed that query to me. My apologies. It is just a matter of mixing the egg white, melted butter and salt together and pouring over the potatoes. Don’t beat the whites. The mixture is fluid enough that you can assure it covers the entire top by tilting the casserole dish in different directions as necessary.
