Happy National Homemade Bread Day and National Raisin Bread Month! In honor, here’s Mom’s copycat recipe for…
DARK & MOIST RAISIN-OATMEAL BATTER BREAD, Like Rags & Roses (Orleans, MA)
By Gloria Pitzer, as seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – Best Of The Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 148). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition).]
If you’re ever visiting the Cape Cod area, be sure to stop at a little restaurant in Orleans, MA, called Rags & Roses – where, for breakfast, you might be served sliced and toasted, homemade oatmeal bread, covered generously in softened cream cheese!
DON’T BE ALARMED about the amount of soda and baking powder in this recipe. It does sound like too much but trust me – it isn’t! The recipe does not contain shortening, as you will notice. It doesn’t need it! The finished bread is light and moist.
You might even suppose it had molasses in it, which is the thing that really threw me off when I began to test various combinations of ingredients to duplicate it. The bread keeps well if you refrigerate it, sealing it tightly in a plastic bag, for up to a week. It should freeze well for up to a year!
Of course, you can increase the number of raisins to your liking. Another cupful might be sufficient if you like raisins. Without any raisins, the bread was lacking something. If you don’t like raisins, however, you could probably substitute chopped walnuts or pecans. Be creative!
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups each: whole wheat flour and quick-cooking Quaker Oats
2 tablespoons each: baking soda and baking powder
2 cups buttermilk
3 eggs
1 cup packed brown sugar
½ cups raisins
INSTRUCTIONS:
Combine flour and oats and mixing bowl. Set it aside. Stir the baking soda and baking powder into the buttermilk. Let it stand a few minutes. Beat the eggs until foamy, about 2 minutes on medium speed of an electric mixer. Add brown sugar a little at a time, then beat in the buttermilk.
Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the liquid mixture. Stir to moisten all the dry particles. Run the raisins under water in a fine sieve. Drain and toss them lightly in a little all-purpose flour, just to coat them so that they won’t sink to the bottom of the batter during baking. Fold floured raisins into batter.
Pour into two 9 x 5” greased loaf pans. Bake at 350°F for about an hour or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack. Remove from pan and cool bread on rack about an hour before slicing to serve. Makes 2 loaves.
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