Sweet and Tart, Plump Prunes
Like many folks these days, I have gotten away from baking bread often, but when I do, I would go for a dense, deep flavored bread full of fruit and nuts. Prune-pecan bread is one such bread. The recipe is inspired by the one I have read at war-time recipe booklet, circa 1910-20. You can see how conservative the recipe methods were at that time. No dumping of butter and eggs for everything, like they are nothing. People were rational during those days, it seems. Also, if you read the bread bibles of present day, you would think that ‘yeast is west’. It doesn’t have to be yeast all the time, and also bread-baking without yeast matches our chapati/roti cookery style.
The original recipe has 4 teaspoons of baking powder, and it sounded too much to me, so I reduced the amount to one teaspoon, and mixed the dough with buttermilk. I purchased prunes, and I already have pecans and maple syrup at home. So I decided to include those ingredients along with prunes in my recipe. The bread may not look much, but it baked up great. The juicy, moist prunes, pecans and sweet maple syrup – it’s a good kind of bread.
Bread Dough Ready for Baking
Recipe:
1 ½ cups barley flour
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup prunes, finely chopped
1 cup pecans, finely chopped
1 cup maple syrup, more if you like a sweet bread
¼ cup ghee, melted
1 cup buttermilk, at room temp. (mine was from homemade yogurt)
1 teaspoon baking powder
Warm water to mix, about half cup to one cup
Take the barley and all-purpose flour in a big vessel. Add baking powder. Mix. Then add the prunes, pecans, maple syrup and ghee. Gradually adding buttermilk and warm water, whisk the ingredients to combine well. Pour the batter into bread pans. Cover the pans, and keep them in a warm place for about 30 minutes.
Bake at 350 F for about 45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the bread comes out clean. Remove and cool it for about ten minutes. Run a knife around the rim of the pan to loosen the cake and invert onto a plate. Let it cool completely. Slice and serve with your favorite jam.
Prune-Pecan Bread
Trust you, Indira, to make me think twice even about prunes! You are so right about wartime recipes — waste not want not. When my mom was a girl, her dad was away serving in WWII. They had a meatless day, eggless day, flourless day, sugarless day, just as in WWI — all this as well as the blackouts at night, living on the east coast and ever fearful of an attack.
It would be a wonderful world full of prune bread with plenty of pecans and maple syrup… and no wars. Looks delish; I think I’d have it hot with melting butter 🙂
Comment by Linda — December 11, 2007 @ 8:53 pm
What a difference to that time, and now with US waging several wars!
War or no war, it’s a delicious bread, Linda. Old is gold,:), I think you’d like it.
Comment by Indira — December 11, 2007 @ 9:03 pm
Wonderful. I made a similar bread with bananas and walnut! But this maple syrup would be a great addition I think. Want a slice immediately 😉
Comment by Nirmala — December 11, 2007 @ 9:45 pm
Oh my god! This is so yummy. Will surely try. And I love it even more that its an eggless, yeastless bread.
In India, it is not that easy to find pecans, prunes and maple syrup. Any suggestions for replacements?
Comment by Sneha — December 11, 2007 @ 10:34 pm
It looks delicious.
And very healthy
Comment by Happy Cook — December 12, 2007 @ 12:38 am
it looks more like fruit cake to me. is it slightly sweet?
Comment by Nags — December 12, 2007 @ 1:58 am
Awesome Indira, i made similar banana bread with whole wheat flour, oats, walnuts without eggs. it turned out great.. i like to see breads without eggs.. Yours is so tempting…
Comment by Kalva — December 12, 2007 @ 4:21 am
Indra,
This looks very delicious. Can we substitute barley? One of us cannot have barley for health reasons so I was wondering what a good substitute might be?
Thanks!
Comment by Deepa — December 12, 2007 @ 6:46 am
nice! will definately try this out….no eggs is my code for trying out anything 😉
Comment by Rajitha — December 12, 2007 @ 6:47 am
there’s some telepathy going on here. you’ll see what i mean later today.
Comment by bee — December 12, 2007 @ 6:52 am
The color of the bread looks so much like plum cake or fruit cake we get in Bangalore bakeries.
The picture looks great!
Comment by Kumudha — December 12, 2007 @ 7:09 am
Indira, how big are the loaf pans that you used?
Comment by padmaja — December 12, 2007 @ 7:47 am
I’m speechless !!!!
A must try for me.
Comment by Munni — December 12, 2007 @ 9:11 am
Hi Indira,
I have been looking for some recipes for bread without yeast. Do you sub it by adding more baking soda or some kind of natural yeast, which is accumulated while fermenting the dough (Similar to fermenting for idli). If you have any basic recipe for regular bread without yeast, it would be great if you can post it.
Comment by Smitha — December 12, 2007 @ 9:13 am
This looks great Indira. I am not a great fan of dense breads, but my hubby would love this :).
Comment by shilpa — December 12, 2007 @ 9:17 am
Okay, where’s my tea? 🙂
Comment by Cynthia — December 12, 2007 @ 12:10 pm
Wow.. cake looks really yummy…
I shall try dis cake this winter.. 🙂
Comment by Archana — December 12, 2007 @ 1:33 pm
Indira,
The idea of barley flour makes this bread very interesting and ofcourse healthy. Ancestors have been wise in all civilizations…
Goes into my have to try list..
-revathi
Comment by Revathi — December 12, 2007 @ 2:49 pm
Indira,
I love breads with fruits and nuts. Looks yummy. I was wondering if I can use whole wheat flour instead of all purpose flour.
Comment by lee — December 12, 2007 @ 11:01 pm
Thank you all for your lovely comments. This is a nice and dense fruit bread/cake, perfect for winter holidays.
Padmaja: They are aluminum foil mini bread pans, available at dollar stores and wal-mart etc. fits about one to one and half cups of bread batter.
For comments with questions: This fruit-nut bread is adaptable to any taste. Instead of barley, all purpose flour, pecans, prunes, maple syrup, you could use –
They all work, follow the basic bread/cake recipe. Add the ingredients of your choice.
Happy fruit-nut bread/cake baking.:)
Comment by Indira — December 13, 2007 @ 2:00 pm
Indira, I love the barley flour and the maple syrup in the cake. Looks fantastic! Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to you and your family.
Comment by mandira — December 17, 2007 @ 7:56 am
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Pingback by Blink and miss » Blog Archive » Honey nut bread — December 18, 2007 @ 12:46 am
Thank you for sharing such wonderful treasures with the rest of the world Indira. I have been visiting your website regularly for a while now and it seems to make me really appreciate the richness that food provide us. I quite enjoy the pictures of your cat as well. Thank you again for making time stop for a few minutes a day.
Comment by blueseawaves — January 6, 2008 @ 1:09 pm
My son is allergic to eggs. I use to make pumpkin bread for him when he was a kid. He is very sick now and has asked me to find the recipe to make some. I think it may have been a bisquick recipe but am not sure. Could someone help me out with a pumpkin bread (eggless) recipe. Thanks.
Comment by Roselle — August 30, 2009 @ 12:26 pm