Bran Cake Bread is a recipe originally from one of the greatest nutrition journalists of all time, Jane Brody. If you haven’t heard of her, she’s an award winning health journalist who has had a long career of making complex health information understandable. Of all her books, my favorite is Jane Brody's Good Food Book. I've carried it with me for years. At one point I had two copies but gave one to a friend who I hope still uses it too. But back to the bread...
Sweet, But Not Quite Cake
Jane Brody’s Bran Cake Bread is not gluten-free or vegan, nor does it call for protein powder, alternative sweeteners or cottage cheese. What it does have is fiber from unprocessed wheat bran and a combination of molasses, vanilla and cinnamon which give it a sweet, dark and flavorful crumb perfect for holding an assortment of dried fruit and nuts. Or not!
You can leave out the fruit (which I used to do for my daughter) and still have a quick bread perfect for breakfast or snack. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s dessert, but you can play with the sweetness, which is what I did this week.
Mini Loaf Pan Version
My intention was to just make the Bran Cake Bread as mini loaves so that I could take new photos. But because I’m extremely forgetful and accident prone lately, I used too much sugar and the Bran Cake Bread was even better! I made it again with the extra sugar, which happened to be coconut sugar, and stuffed it with as much dried fruit as I could, and also swapped in a little blackstrap molasses.
No-Egg Version
Jane Brody’s Bran Cake Bread is usually a 9x5 inch loaf that calls for only 1 egg. A lot of my friends don’t eat eggs, so I was curious to see what would happen if I just left it out and added in a tablespoon of ground flax. It worked. So now there’s an eggless version of this recipe too.
At the end of the day, credit goes to Jane Brody for the original recipe which is apparently fool-proof. However, I think this fool made some happy mistakes and I’m including the original recipe with my no-egg mini loaf pan version.
Recipe
Bran Cake Bread
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup unprocessed wheat bran (60 grams)
- 1 ½ cups milk
- ⅓ cup mild molasses (or use a combo of mild and blackstrap) (110 grams)
- 2 cups all-purpose or whole wheat flour or half & half (260 grams)
- 2 tablespoons sugar, regular or turbinado, slightly rounded or use up to ⅓ cup brown or coconut sugar (70 grams), go by weight**
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten, or leave out and use a tablespoons of ground flax mixed with only 2 tablespoons water.
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 3 tablespoons oil of choice
- ⅓ cup coarsely chopped walnuts
- 1 cup chopped dried fruit of choice (raisins, currants, prunes)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan and line with parchment or dust with flour. For mini loaves, grease and line 3 or 4 3x6 inch loaf pans.
- Combine bran, milk and molasses in a medium bowl and let sit for about 10 minutes to soften bran.
- Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the toasted nuts and dried fruit.
- Add the egg, vanilla and oil to the bran mixture. Stir well, then combine the bran mixture and flour mixture and stir until evenly blended. Stir in the fruit and nuts. Spoon into pan (batter should be fairly thick and just slightly pourable) and bake on center rack for about 50 minutes. The mini loaves should take about 40, but check at 35.
Katrina says
My loaf and your loaf look like identical twins, and I change a lot of the ingredients-including adding two mashed bananas. This is definitely a "regulator" kind of bread! 😉
janet says
Cancel my above question about wheat bran and unprocessed bran, I finally put the right words into Goggle and got my answer.
Leela says
Being a visual persona, I'm kind of bummed put by the fact that Brody's book doesn't contain photographs. So thanks for this post. I will definitely try it. Thanks also for the tip on toasting walnuts in the microwave. Good to know that can be done.
Lisa Ernst says
Jane Brody brings memories of years gone by! She was an early advocate for healthful eating, and this recipe reminds me of the kind of breads and bran muffins I used to bake. I've got a bag of dried cranberries that would be great added to this recipe.
Dev says
Bran is very good source of fiber. Looks yummy. Thanks for sharing the reciepe
claire says
Mmmm...this looks great! I love bran stuff.
Sara says
Yum, this looks great! I'm a huge fan of bran anything. Can't wait to try out the recipe.
Elyse says
Mmm, this bran cake sounds delicious. I love the flavor that molasses can provide for a dish. I'm with Fuzz: walnuts are awesome! Looks like she'll be in for a real breakfast treat.
Pearl says
cake and bread into one form? mm!
janet says
Hi Anna, is wheat bran the same as what you used? The bread looks reallly good. Thanks!
Shannon says
Can you really toast nuts in the microwave? I've never heard of this before! Do they get as toasty as they would in the oven or in a skillet on the stovetop?
Jennifer says
Sounds healthy and great!
Anna says
Derek, I think it's sweet enough and low fat enough to where regular butter would work well. Peanut butter might work....it would be like putting peanut butter on a bran muffin.
Carrie, you could give it a try. I weighed the bran and got 2.25 oz. So for All Bran cereal, you'd probably want to weigh out 2.25 oz to get the same mass. That's probably a little less than 2 cups of All Bran. Use the scale. It's worth a shot!
Katrina, I did know that. LOL.
Karen, I think I might try the brownies tomorrow. The only thing I don't have is the dry milk powder. Also, have you ever tried the Baked Spinach Squares? Those sound good.
Karen says
I haven't thought about that book in ages! I'm sure it's still in my basement somewhere. I was really into that book, too, back in the mid 80s. Maybe I'll dig it out again.
This cake looks great, just the type of thing I like to have for breakfast.
Katrina says
I would love this, bet you knew that.
Carrie says
That does look good. Do you think there is anyway that Allbran cereal would work for the bran? I have a box to use up and this looks good. If I give it a try I'll let you know.
Derek says
Looks good and healthy... just needs a nice slathering of PB and honey now :).