“This can be baked in two loaves with a mixture of raisins and nuts in both or with raisins in one loaf and nuts in the other.”
-James Beard, Beard on Bread
“Or, you can just skip the raisins altogether and make two loaves of nut bread!”
-Me
I feel slightly guilty that I made Raisin and Nut Bread without any raisins, but any misgivings disappeared as I gobbled down slice after slice of delicious, raisin-free bread.
Here are the ingredients:
I used two different types of nuts: sliced almonds on the left, and pecans on the right.
Raisin and Nut Bread starts as a basic white bread. After the initial rising, I attempted to divide my dough into two equal portions and kneaded almonds into one portion and pecans into the other. I shaped the dough into two loaves and placed them in my 9 x 5 pans.
After the second rising, I realized that I didn’t divide the dough as evenly as I could have:
After only 20 minutes at 400 degrees, my loaves were golden brown and ready to be eaten.
Raisin and Nut Bread (or my version, Nut and Nut Bread) is delicious–fluffy, soft, with just a hint a sweetness and a satisfying crunch from the nuts. I preferred the pecan loaf, since the pecans provide more flavor. Also, the rich nutty flavor of the pecans is brought out nicely by toasting, in the unlikely event you have any bread that didn’t get gobbled down fresh out of the oven. The only thing that might ruin these lovely loaves? Raisins!
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