Books for Cooks: Bread recipe survives trip across Great Plains to the West

Some recipes have a story.

Whether it’s the carrot cake passed down three generations before it was finally written down or the cake innovated to rely on an unusual ingredient because others were in short supply, America’s Test Kitchen has collected them in a new cookbook.

Out of the 2,800 submissions to the contest for lost recipes, the editors of the test kitchen tried 300 and settled on the best 121 for “America’s Best Lost Recipes.”

The recipes are family favorites, but editors also were looking for “a recipe that tells the story of a place, a generation, a style of cooking or even a family.”

Hungarian Cabbage Noodles, Tennessee Stack Cake, Runsas, Naked Ladies with Their Legs Crossed, Peach Puzzle, 7-Up Cake and Cold Oven Pound Cake all made the cut.

Most of the recipes are sweet, with just two of the six chapters dedicated to savory starters, salads, sides, soups and main courses.

Spokane’s Memory Blodgett shared her husband’s family recipe for Pioneer Bread for the cookbook. She was given the recipe by her mother-in-law after her wedding. The bread recipe, which came with Blodgett’s husband’s great-grandparents when they crossed the Great Plains from Minnesota for a new life in the West, was traditionally made for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Pioneer Bread

From Memory Blodgett of Spokane, published in “America’s Best Lost Recipes.”

3 cups whole-wheat flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 large egg

2 cups buttermilk

1/2 cup corn syrup

1 cup walnuts, chopped

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup dried dates, chopped

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 300 degrees. Grease two 9-by-5-inch loaf pans. Whisk the flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl. Beat the egg in a medium bowl, then stir in the buttermilk and corn syrup. Stir the egg mixture into the flour mixture until just combined (a few streaks of flour should remain), then stir in the walnuts, raisins and dates until just incorporated.

Divide batter evenly between the prepared loaf pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cool on a rack for 10 minutes, then turn out onto the rack to cook completely, at least 45 minutes. Serve. (The bread will keep at room temperature wrapped in plastic wrap for up to 4 days. The bread can also be wrapped in two layers of aluminum foil and frozen for up to two months.)

Notes from the Test Kitchen: This bread fits the bill for everything from morning toast to an afternoon snack. An equal amount of pecans can be substituted for the walnuts.

Yield: 2 loaves

Approximate nutrition per 3-ounce serving: 213 calories, 5 grams fat (less than 1 gram saturated, 19 percent fat calories), 6 grams protein, 39 grams carbohydrate, 12 milligrams cholesterol, 3 grams dietary fiber, 243 milligrams sodium.