bread of the bostonian persuasion

Yes, that is a fancy way of saying Boston Brown Bread (BBB, cause writing out Boston Brown Bread gets kind of time consuming after a while, ya know?). You know the stuff. Dense, slightly sweet, steamed in a can instead of baked. My mouth is watering for some more just writing about it. It has literally been years since I have made BBB. I'm quite certain that the last time I made it I was in early high school, so we are looking at a good 6 to 8 years ago.

Well, I was looking through my old recipe file from 4-H and spotted this gem once more. What really made me stop, though, was that this recipe has no yeast in it. Bread made without yeast is kind of my holy grail right now (hmm. . .monty python anyone?). I digress. Since my roomie is allergic to yeast, it makes bread a might difficult. So seeing that this bread doesn't call for yeast made my heart beat a little faster (literally I think it did). It's a simple recipe that is easy to whip up, although it does take a little while to steam.

The original recipe calls for yellow cornmeal, white flour and rye flour. Two of those are out, but easy to substitute for. I also substituted almond milk for cows milk.

Scant 1 c. oat flour
Scant 1 c. rice flour
Scant 1 c. rye flour
1/2 t. salt
1 t. baking soda
1/2 c. almond milk
1/2 c. water
1/2 c. molasses

Start by combining all of your dry ingredients in a bowl.


Set that aside and warm the milk and water in a saucepan. Once it is warm, add the molasses.

Add the dry ingredients and mix until it just forms a dough ball. Do not over mix. (I'm not sure what exactly will happen if you over mix it, but my guess is that it will become tough, and no one wants tough bread. . .just sayin').


Place in a greased can.


Cover with waxed paper and secure. I used a rubber band because I had one handy. You can also tie it down with string. Place the can on a trivet in a pan of boiling water. If you don't have a trivet you can just place it in the pan, but it will make noise and be annoying. I suggest using a trivet. (I need to get one before I make this again). Add water as necessary to keep about 2 inches of water in the pan.


It will cook for an hour to an hour and a half. Mine was about an hour. Remove it to a cooling rack and after letting it cool in the can for just a bit, loosen the sides with a knife and it should just slide right out. And volia! Delicious Boston Brown Bread!

This lasted for about 2 days. . .okay, maybe a day and a half in our house. Yum!