Boston Brown Bread is usually steamed in a can, but this one, based on a King Arthur Flour recipe, is baked in a foil-covered loaf pan, which sits in a water bath—much faster, and tastes delicious!
Boston Brown Bread (baked version)
3/4 cup (78g) rye flour (alternative: pumpernickel flour)
3/4 cup (106g) yellow cornmeal
3/4 cup (85g) white whole wheat flour
(or whole wheat pastry flour, or all-purpose whole wheat flour)
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (141g) currants (or raisins)
1-1/2 cups (340g) buttermilk
(Alternative: 1.5 cups whole milk + 1.5 tablespoons cider vinegar)
1/2 cup (170g) molasses (or maple syrup)
Kerrygold butter for buttering the bread pan
Preheat the oven to 325°F. Lightly grease an 8-1/2″ x 4-1/2″ loaf pan.
In a medium-size mixing bowl, whisk together the pumpernickel flour, cornmeal, whole wheat, baking soda, salt and currants.
In a separate bowl, beat the buttermilk and molasses together until smooth.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined; there’s no need to beat the batter.
Spoon the batter into your loaf pan, and place loaf pan in a larger 9×13 pan with about an inch of water. Cover both loaf pan and 9×13 pan in one big foil tent, fastening the foil tight to the edges of the pan (so the bread will steam a bit), but ballooning it in the center, so the bread has room to expand without hitting the foil.
Note—If using a metal 9×13, bake an hour. If using a ceramic, or glass 9×13, baking may take 1-1/2 hours.
Bake the bread for 1 hour. Remove the foil (the middle may be slightly sunken; that’s OK), and bake for an additional 10 minutes.
Cool the bread in its loaf pan for 10 minutes before removing.
Serve with Kerrygold butter or cream cheese.