Quick Whole Wheat Molasses (or honey or maple!) Bread

Ingredients

• Oil or butter for greasing pan
• 1 ½ cups milk of choice and 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (or 1 ⅔ cups buttermilk or plain yogurt*)
• 2 ½ cups white whole wheat flour or regular whole wheat flour
• ½ cup cornmeal (I prefer medium grind cornmeal)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ cup molasses (or honey or maple syrup, see notes on blackstrap molasses above)

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8-by-4-inch or 9-by 5-inch loaf pan (Bittman recommends a non-stick loaf pan but I prefer my stoneware loaf pan).
2. If using buttermilk or yogurt, ignore this step. Make soured milk: gently warm the milk gently (1 minute in the microwave will suffice) and add vinegar. Set the soured milk aside.
3. Mix together the dry ingredients. Stir molasses (or honey or maple syrup) into the soured milk, buttermilk or yogurt. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir with a big spoon, just until combined. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan.
4. Bake until firm and a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Allow the bread to cool in the loaf pan for 15 minutes, then carefully invert the bread onto a wire rack.
5. If you can stand it, let the bread rest for a day. I’ve found that whole wheat quick breads taste better the next day, when the flavors have had more time to develop. This bread freezes wonderfully. I slice it beforehand so I can pull out a slice of bread any time. Defrost it and boom—breakfast is served.