Whole Grain Nut Bread

From the book The Basic Gourmet by Diane Morgan, Dan Taggart, Kathleen Taggart, and Georgia Vareldzis

Introduction

This bread is slightly sweet with honey and filled with rich flavors of whole wheat and pecans. It is a fine breakfast or dessert bread, muffin-like in its texture but with plenty to chew on, thanks to the nuts. If you’ve never made a loaf of bread in your entire life, you may as well start with this one — it is that easy to do!

Ingredients

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 350°F with a rack in the center position. Spray the inside of a 5x9-inch loaf pan with nonstick spray, dust it with 3 or 4 tablespoons of flour, invert the pan, and knock out the excess flour.
2. In a medium bowl, combine both flours, oats, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir thoroughly —use a large wire whisk if you have one—to make sure that the baking powder and baking soda are blended into the flour mixture well. Add pecans, mix again, and set aside.
3. Break eggs into a 4-quart or larger bowl and whisk together with buttermilk. Add melted butter and honey, and mix well. Add the flour mixture and, using an over and under “folding” motion, blend them into the liquids. Don’t overdo this; it is better to see a few lumps than to have the mixture look like a milkshake with nuts.
4. Scrape the mixture into the prepared loaf pan and bake until a cake tester or skewer comes out clean and dry, 55 to 65 minutes. Cool 10 to 15 minutes, run a knife all around the loaf to loosen it from the pan, and invert on a wire rack to finish cooling.

Notes

• This is easily made in a medium or large food processor. Fit the processor with its metal blade. Place the flours, oats, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in the work bowl. Pulse the machine 10 times. Add pecans and pulse 5 more times. Empty the flour mixture into a bowl. Place eggs, buttermilk, butter, and honey in the processor work bowl. Run the machine 10 seconds. Spread the flour mixture evenly over the liquids and pulse a few times, just until most of the flour mixture has been blended into the liquids. Do not allow the processor to run steadily for even a few seconds or a tough loaf will result. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan.
• Use walnuts or almonds instead of pecans. Or add a tablespoon of finely grated orange zest.

This content is from the book The Basic Gourmet by Diane Morgan, Dan Taggart, Kathleen Taggart, and Georgia Vareldzis.