THE ORIGINAL ‘RECEIPT’

BAKING POWDER BREAD

Sift together thoroughly 1 quart Five Roses flour, 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon sugar, and 8 teaspoons baking powder.

Add enough water to make a stiff dough (about 2 cups).  Stir together quickly with a large spoon.  Then turn it immediately into a well-greased brick-shaped baking pan, and bake at once for ¾ hour in a hot oven, covering with paper the first ¼ hour to prevent crusting too soon.  Have the oven heated right before beginning to mix the bread, and have the pan greased and ready.

~Five Roses Cook Book. Montreal: Lake of the Woods Milling Company Limited, 1913.

THE UPDATED RECIPE

• 4 c. all-purpose flour (sifted)
• 1 tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. granulated sugar
• 8 tsp. baking powder
• 2 c. cold water.

Preheat oven to 400F.

Grease a 9 by 4 ½-inch loaf pan with butter.

Sift the flour and measure it;  then sift all the dry ingredients together into a mixing bowl, and blend them thoroughly.

Pour in the water, and mix all together quickly with a large wooden spoon, until the dough is evenly moistened.

Turn the dough immediately into the buttered pan, and place it directly into the preheated oven.

Place a piece of heavy paper over the loaf for the first 15 minutes of baking, to prevent the crust from browning too quickly.

Bake the bread at 400F for approximately 45 to 50 minutes, until the crust is lightly browned, and the bread has a hollow sound when rapped with the fingers.

Remove from the oven, and cool on a rack for a few minutes;  then remove the loaf from the pan. 

Note:  this recipe will make two smaller loaves, using 3 ½ by 7 1/2 -inch pans;  or the quantities of the ingredients given may be halved to make one such loaf.

This Baking Powder Bread has a nice flavour, and a distinctive texture;  it is moist, and keeps well, and makes excellent toast – so surprisingly easy and good!

A note from Patricia: Bread-making is daunting to me….. the yeast and the rising and the kneading…. no thanks. However, this recipe was right up my alley because it’s a quick bread that is yeast-free and uses baking powder as the leavening agent. I was pretty impressed with the results – the bread was gorgeous looking, was nice and crusty on the outside and was beautifully soft on the inside. I don’t eat gluten, so I couldn’t go to town on this bread, but I toasted up a thick slice of this and spread it with almond butter. I took two huge bites, and was in heaven. Eating fresh, crusty bread that is warm from the oven is one of life’s great pleasures, and as someone who doesn’t eat gluten, it’s something that I miss terribly. I’ll try to get my hands on gluten-free bread flour in the near future so that I can make this again. For now, unfortunately, I’ll be packaging up this lovely loaf, and dropping it off at a friend’s house.

I will also recommend “Durkee’s Baking Powder”: it is sold in all Canadian stores and drug-shops, at 7 ½ d. The sealed packet, on which are printed directions for using it.  This powder imparts no ill taste to the bread or cakes;  producing a very light cake with no trouble.

~Traill, C.P. (Mrs.). The Female Emigrant’s Guide, and Hints on Canadian Housekeeping. Toronto, C.W.: Sold by Maclear and Company, 1854.

In using baking powder, the proper proportion should, in every case, be mixed intimately and uniformly with the dry flour….

~The Home Cook Book. Toronto: The Musson Book Co. Limited, 1877.

Toast. – The bread at least a day old.  Cut the rounds the flat way of the loaf, about half an inch thick.  …Hot plates ready;  butter it on both sides, and slip on to a clean hot plate;   serve instantly, and send in each round on a fresh hot plate.  If the rounds are piled one on another they become swampy.

~Copley, Esther. The Housekeeper’s Guide; or A Plain and Practical System of Domestic Cookery. London: Jackson and Walford, 1834.