Bran Cake Bread
A slightly sweet high fiber quick bread made with unprocessed wheat bran. The recipe works great with mini loaf pans. For the eggless version (flax), I've only tested with mini pan. I also prefer the version with ⅓ cup sugar over the 2 tablespoons version.
Servings 16
Cost 5
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.
Notes
Coconut sugar can vary in density, so if using coconut sugar it's best to measure by weight. I used 70 grams which can be anywhere from ⅓ to ½ cup of coconut sugar if the coconut sugar is very light and dry. If using brown sugar, a packed ⅓ cup should be just right. Or you can stick with the original amount of just 2 tablespoons of sugar for a much less sweet bread.