This bread is good! It's a soft bread, deep brown, and studded with raisins. It also uses two cups of sourdough discard, which give the bread a great yeasty taste. The texture of the bread, though, is something in between a yeast and a quick bread--a little unusual, but it works well! The bread tastes just barely sweet because of a bit of brown sugar and slightly nutty from the whole-wheat flour in the batter. Your kitchen counter will stay clean (well, reasonably), because the bread requires no kneading. In fact, you really can't knead the bread, because the ingredients yield more of a batter than a dough. The bread is great for breakfast, toasted with butter and jam, if you like. Or, if you need something to go with your evening meal, the bread will be great then, too. I like slices of the bread with cheese any time of day. Really, the bread is that versatile!
Sourdough Brown Bread -- Makes 2 Loaves
2 cups of sourdough discard/starter, divided
1 1/2 cups of buttermilk
5 tablespoons of canola oil
1 large egg
1 1/4 cup of raisin bran
2 cups of whole-wheat or white-whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup of all-purpose flour
1/2 cup of dark brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 cup of raisins (optional)
2 tablespoons of turbinado sugar
Spritz two loaf pans (I use 4- X 8-inch pans) with non-stick cooking spray (or line the pans with aluminum foil and spritz the foil with spray) and set them aside. In a large bowl, combine well 1 cup of discard/starter, the buttermilk, canola oil, and egg. In a second bowl combine the remaining cup of discard/starter the raisin bran, whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, stirring until the discard/starter is mixed in with the dry ingredients. The dry ingredients will be barely moistened with the discard/starter. Stir the discard/bran/flour mixture into the wet mixture and beat everything together--a big wooden spoon works fine--until thoroughly combined. Add the additional raisins if you really like lots of raisins in your brown bread. Divide the mixture evenly between the two prepared loaf pans. Sprinkle the top of the batter with the turbinado sugar and loosely cover the pans with plastic wrap. Let the batter stand for an hour or two (depending on the temperature of your kitchen). The batter won't rise much and should just barely crest the top of the pans. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and bake the breads for 35-40 minutes or until they are firm to the touch and reach an internal temperature of 185 degrees. Let the breads cool in their pans for a few minutes before turning them out to cool completely. The breads will slice better after they have completely cooled.
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