Steamed breads in a can.

Amigo Posts: 240 Join date: 2011-07-12

Bread in a can, I know it sounds bad at first glance, however we served some yesterday and it was a huge hit, as in not a scrap left.

Boston brown bread, either plain, or with raisins, nuts or dates. The first successful batch was made with raisins.

Plans for Christmas include a batch made with dates and pecans in lieu of Christmas pudding which I don't like at all, and neither do most people that I have asked.

So for those adventurous few, here's the recipe.

3.5 cups of sour milk. I used regular milk and added 1 Tblsp. of vinegar per cup to make a total of 3.5 cups.

1 tsp salt

2 tsp. baking soda

1 cup molasses

1 cup flour

1 cup corn meal

2 cups graham flour.

Add raisins, dates, nuts, or any combination of these.

Mix all dry ingredients, then add milk and molasses, and mix. This is going to look like a fairly thin cake batter, kind of foamy. Fear not, it's going to work out just fine.

Pour mixture into greased cans, such as asparagus tins, or tomato tins, about 2/3 full. Cover the tins with waxed paper, then tin foil and put an elastic band around each one. You could also tie them up with string.

In a large pot bring water to a boil, pop the tins in and cover the pot. Let it steam for as long as it takes, anywhere from one to even 2 1/2 hours. The tins should have water roughly 2/3 of the way up the sides. Be sure not to let the water get too low.

Start checking after about 50 minutes with a bamboo skewer. Once it comes out clean, you're done. Remove and replace waxed paper and foil after checking.

Let the breads cool before removing them from the tins.

Re: Steamed breads in a can. on Tue 20 Dec 2011, 11:34 by raqueteer

Pete, it's not necessary to use smooth sided cans. The ridges actually add a bit of interest. After the bread has cooled sufficiently, as in about room temperature it shrinks, the knife just helps loosen any bits which may have stuck. I use a lot of butter to grease the cans first. The absolute best tins are those tall ones for asparagus, but if you're not fond of asparagus, tomato tins work just fine.

Amigo, I think polenta would work really well, you might want to reduce the wet ingredients a bit, the batter should be like cake batter, or even a bit thinner. Some of these ingredients are really pricey. The molasses jar was about $10 U.S. and only enough for 2 batches. Corn meal is also pricey and that Bob's Red Mill graham flour is outta sight price wise. Having said that buying a 16 ounce tin of this stuff in the U.S. is at least 5 bucks, I got 5 for roughly $10 total using the expensive stuff, so it is worth it to make it yourself.

The minute I'm finished with the big bucks ingredients I'm moving to whole wheat flour and piloncillo, which will reduce the price in a major way.

Here's a link for polenta:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polenta

If I were going to use polenta, I'd also run that through the food processor first, so it mixed in better.

Cheers

Steamed breads in a can.

Steamed breads in a can. :: Comments

Steamed breads in a can.