By Jeff Gordinier
- Total Time
- About 2 hours
- Rating
- 4(86)
- Notes
- Read community notes
Bread that slides out of a can? It might strike many Americans as a dubious culinary eccentricity, but throughout New England it is a staple, often purchased at the supermarket and served at home with a generous pour of baked beans. “I had this growing up,” said Meghan Thompson, the pastry chef at Townsman, in Boston, where the cylindrical brown tower comes to the table as something of a regional wink. Her version, commissioned by the chef Matt Jennings, dials down the cloying sweetness and amps up the flavor with a totally different manifestation of beans: doenjang, the funky Korean paste made from fermented soybeans.
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Ingredients
Yield:2 coffee-can-size loaves, or 1 standard loaf
- Nonstick cooking spray
- ½cup plus 3 tablespoons/70 grams white rye flour
- 1cup plus 2 tablespoons/140 grams stone-ground whole wheat flour
- ½cup plus 3 tablespoons/70 grams dark rye flour
- 1cup/142 grams fine-ground cornmeal
- 1cup/198 grams lightly packed dark brown sugar
- ½teaspoon/3 grams baking powder
- 2teaspoons/11 grams baking soda
- ½teaspoon/3 grams kosher salt
- 1tablespoon/16 grams doenjang (Korean soybean paste)
- 2cups/480 milliliters buttermilk
- ½cup/120 milliliters egg whites (from 4 to 5 large eggs)
- ¾cup (scant)/169 milliliters blackstrap molasses
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (2 servings)
1741 calories; 18 grams fat; 3 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 7 grams monounsaturated fat; 6 grams polyunsaturated fat; 356 grams carbohydrates; 40 grams dietary fiber; 115 grams sugars; 56 grams protein; 2438 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
Step
See AlsoSimple and Delicious Pemmican RecipeSheet-Pan Croquembouche Recipe on Food52Candied Pecans RecipeThe best classic deviled eggs recipe you'll ever taste!1
Heat oven to 350 degrees and generously coat the insides of 2 10-ounce coffee cans or a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray. Place the white rye flour in a large skillet over medium heat and toast, whisking constantly, for 7 minutes. The flour will darken slightly and smell nutty.
Step
2
Whisk the flours, cornmeal, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the doenjang and buttermilk until combined; set aside. With an electric mixer, whip the egg whites with 1 tablespoon of the molasses until stiff, silky peaks form, about 5 minutes. Whisk the remaining molasses into the buttermilk mixture. Gradually stir the buttermilk mixture into the dry ingredients until combined. Fold in the whipped egg whites in 2 additions.
Step
3
Pour batter into the prepared cans or loaf pan. Coat pieces of foil with cooking spray, then cover the tops of the cans or pan securely. Set the cans or pan in a baking dish and add enough hot water to come about ¼ inch up the side. Transfer to oven and bake until the top springs back when lightly touched, about 1 hour 40 minutes for the cans, or 2 hours for the loaf pan. Let cool 20 minutes on a wire rack, then invert and remove the bread to a cutting board. Let cool completely before slicing.
Ratings
4
out of 5
86
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Cooking Notes
CAMarasco
I don't plan to make this recipe. It has way too many ingredients for Boston Brown Bread. You don't need 2 different rye flours--just a combination of whole wheat, rye, and cornmeal--egg whites or doenjang. There are plenty of easier recipes out on the web.
E. Nassar
I agree that there are "easier" (or shorter I suppose) recipes on the web, but is that really the main qualifier without even trying the recipe out? If this recipe makes an outstanding Boston brown bread, a few more ingredients are worth it compared to going the short route.
RickMichigan
I agree with CAMarasco in that to make a traditional brown bread that one bought in the can does not require two type of rye flour plus an ingredient that most pantries don't have - i.e., Korean Soybean Paste. If you want to make it harder then need be then go for it.....
James L
This is not difficult, and I do have all the ingredients. It is a combination of brown bread and steamed pudding. I would substitute some of the sugars with maple syrup and maybe a little Red Boat fish sauce for the soybean paste umami flavor. Interesting variations on the recipes I have made many times are welcome and it is always fun to see "what will happen".
Rachel
Boston brown bread is a humble working-class staple that requires no leavening, kneading, or rising. It was once made by hobos over an open fire. I know I shouldn't knock it till I try it, but toasting the flour? Whipping the egg whites? Then folding them in two different stages? This seems contrary to the spirit of Boston brown bread. Granted, it's probably delicious, but it seems awfully time consuming and uses quite a few bowls and utensils.
Cindy at the beach
I like to add golden raisins to this recipe. It is delicious slathered with cream cheese!
Jane
Joy of Cooking (1997) has a delicious, moist brown bread recipe that is the same as the above without the extra sugar, eggs, baking soda and soy, and that includes 1 cup pf chopped raisins. It is cooked for 2 to 3 hours in a steamer with water 1/2 way up the mold, at a very gentle just simmer. I used a small (1 3/4 qt or 1.8 liter) cast iron/enamel covered casserole (heavy enough not to float) and made 1/3 of the above recipe, and it was perfect.
Joyce Stein
This is the best brown bread I've every eaten. I dont care how many ingredients!
Tricia
Can anyone offer instructions for those of us with steam ovens with the option of 10% up to 100% steam? 100% at 350, same amount of time, but no need for the pan of water?
msd
Please tell me how to measure 169 mL of blackstrap molasses! And the weights of cornmeal and brown sugar? Time to put away the calculator and provide practical information. I'm betting that 140 g and 200 g respectively would work.
Jane
Joy of Cooking (1997) has a delicious, moist brown bread recipe that is the same as the above without the extra sugar, eggs, baking soda and soy, and that includes 1 cup pf chopped raisins. It is cooked for 2 to 3 hours in a steamer with water 1/2 way up the mold, at a very gentle just simmer. I used a small (1 3/4 qt or 1.8 liter) cast iron/enamel covered casserole (heavy enough not to float) and made 1/3 of the above recipe, and it was perfect.
Rachel
Boston brown bread is a humble working-class staple that requires no leavening, kneading, or rising. It was once made by hobos over an open fire. I know I shouldn't knock it till I try it, but toasting the flour? Whipping the egg whites? Then folding them in two different stages? This seems contrary to the spirit of Boston brown bread. Granted, it's probably delicious, but it seems awfully time consuming and uses quite a few bowls and utensils.
Leslie
The brown bread at Townsman is amazing, so the adaptations to the traditional recipe make an outstanding final result. I just have to get all the different flours to try this at home.
Phyllis
Are you certain that the 1/2 teaspoon baking powder equivalent is 3 grams? When I weighed the baking powder it took quite a bit more than 1/2 teaspoon to bring it up to 3 grams. Thanks.
Eloise
Made this recipe as written, but baked in two 6x4 inch round pans. It was delicious, but definitely did not need 1hr 40 min baking time. Checked after 65 min, and it was ready to come out of the oven. Will make it again.
Cindy at the beach
I like to add golden raisins to this recipe. It is delicious slathered with cream cheese!
Ellen
What about leaching aluminum, polymers and chemicals out of the coffee can during baking? I've read that cooking in coffee cans is not safe.
Harriet123
Three brands of coffee, Cafe la llave, Don Francisco, Cafe Bustillo are packaged in metal cans; however, the size is 12 ounces. Just tear off the paper cover and use the can opener to cut off the inside lip and you have re-usable baking cans.
TheCafe la llave and Cafe Bustillo brands are espresso coffee's, that are quite good (at least to me) and I use the coffee in the Keurig coffee maker, the reusable coffee holders.
Elle Kaye
@Harriet123
Thanks for the source brands of coffee cans! My coffee beans come in moisture-proof sacks from the local roaster. I haven't seen a coffee can in years, my local stores might have the Bustillo brand.
Alison
The recipe sounds a bit complicated, more so than other brown bread recipes I've used, but I'm willing to give this one a go. I think it will work well with a crowd so that I can get feedback from a range of palates.
James L
This is not difficult, and I do have all the ingredients. It is a combination of brown bread and steamed pudding. I would substitute some of the sugars with maple syrup and maybe a little Red Boat fish sauce for the soybean paste umami flavor. Interesting variations on the recipes I have made many times are welcome and it is always fun to see "what will happen".
CAMarasco
I don't plan to make this recipe. It has way too many ingredients for Boston Brown Bread. You don't need 2 different rye flours--just a combination of whole wheat, rye, and cornmeal--egg whites or doenjang. There are plenty of easier recipes out on the web.
E. Nassar
I agree that there are "easier" (or shorter I suppose) recipes on the web, but is that really the main qualifier without even trying the recipe out? If this recipe makes an outstanding Boston brown bread, a few more ingredients are worth it compared to going the short route.
RickMichigan
I agree with CAMarasco in that to make a traditional brown bread that one bought in the can does not require two type of rye flour plus an ingredient that most pantries don't have - i.e., Korean Soybean Paste. If you want to make it harder then need be then go for it.....
RickMichigan
Exactly what I thought and questioned the use of doenjang when most Boston brown bread has just molasses. In most case simple is best.
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