Are You Baking More? Making Old Recipes? Peanut Butter Bread

With the seclusion to stay healthy and COVID-19 free, a lot of people are turning to baking to pass the time and feed their families. It came to my attention that there is a group on Reddit for Old Recipes. If you have some time, you might want to check through it for some inspiration.

There was recently one recipe that was getting a great deal of action, because of its few ingredients, you may have seen people posting about it online. It is called Peanut Butter Bread. The recipe coming from a 1932 flour company called Five Roses Flour (not to be confused with Four Roses Bourbon, lol). Allegedly, this recipe was posted in one of their cookbooks.

Here is the recipe as written:

• 2 cups Five Roses Flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1 1/3 cup milk

The directions are as follows:

Mix as directed, lightly rubbing the peanut butter into the flour mixture. Bake in a moderately slow oven (325 to 350 degrees F) 1 hour.

For a richer Peanut Butter Bread, with a more cake-like texture, use 2 eggs. Reduce baking powder to 3 teaspoons and milk to 1 cup.

Got that?

So after seeing all of the photos of what people made and those photos show a pretty dense and pale bread, I knew I needed to change it up a bit.

They weren't really clear with their mixing methods, so I immediately thought, all the dry in one bowl, all the wet in a second bowl and then fold to combine. Then I got to thinking about don't most recipes start by creaming the butter (or the fat) with the sugar and then combine the eggs slowly one at a time? It got me to thinking (because the reviews were people either loved the bread or it was not edible) maybe people weren't mixing it right?

Here is what I did. I went with the more 'cake-like' bread.

I started by putting one tablespoon of cornstarch into a one cup measuring cup then once that was in the cup, filled the cup up the rest of the way with the all-purpose flour. Then I added a second cup of all-purpose flour to the bowl. The cornstarch helps to lighten the texture and the crumb.

Then I added the 3 teaspoons of baking powder to the flour, along with the 1/2 teaspoon salt. Set to the side.

In my mixing bowl, I put the 1/4 of granulated sugar and mixed it with the 1/2 cup of peanut butter, until combined. Then I added the eggs, one at a time, until combined. Do not just dump both eggs in there and have at it. Mixing them in one at a time, actually helps to stabilize your batter. Trust me.

Then because I wanted to boost the nut flavor, I added 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract and 1/4 teaspoon of pistachio flavoring. If you have a nut liqueur, Pisa or even an Amaretto you can add up to two teaspoons here, but it is not required.

Then I alternated the flour and the milk. Starting and ending with the flour. Make sure to gently fold the ingredients together, don't just dump and mix or you will end up with something super tough.

Then right before I poured this into the greased loaf pan, I added about 3/4 cup of peanut butter chips and 1/2 cup of mini semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Baked it in a 350 degree oven. I checked it after about 45 minutes and turned it around to even out the coloring. I decided that mine was getting a little darker than I wanted it, so I covered it with aluminum foil and baked for about another 20 minutes total.

It is ready when you poke it with a knife in the center of the loaf and the knife comes out clean.

I served this warm and offered Nutella for those who wanted a more 'dessert' like experience.

How was it? It was gone before I could take pictures. I think that means it was well received, at least from my people.

Make sure to use a regular type of peanut butter. Keep that one that separates for another occasion. For this recipe, you want just regular (or crunchy) peanut butter. Good luck, let me know which version you use and make sure to include a photo.