Oatmeal Bran Bread

In an effort to move along with the cookbook, I whipped this out on Sunday afternoon before I started planning the week's reading and math lessons. The District of Columbia Public Schools has adopted the Common Core Standards, and the planning is pretty fierce. The form is set up so one is supposed to plan a week at a time. I sat down at the computer around 4:00 in the afternoon and didn't move until 7:00, but things were planned out. I have to say that the evenings in the rest of the week were fairly free of work.
However, I digress. The bread was ready so quickly that my husband was confused.
"Doesn't it have to rise?" he asked. No, it doesn't.
You just add all the wet ingredients, all the dry ingredients and mix them together. If you don't want to buy buttermilk, and then have it hanging around in the refrigerator until it goes bad, you can add a teaspoonful of vinegar to the milk and it gets like buttermilk. This recipe turns out a sweetish, nutty tasting soda bread that is excellent spread with butter.

Oatmeal Bran Bread

2 cups flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 tablespoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cup rolled oats

1 cup whole bran cereal

1/2 cup raisins

2 eggs lightly beaten

1 1/3 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup light molasses

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Sift together the flour, sugar, salt and baking soda. Stir in the oats, bran and raisins.

3. Combine the eggs, buttermilk and molasses. Add to dry ingredients and stir until just moistened. Pour into a greased 9-by-5-by-3 inch loaf pan. Bake one hour, or until done. (You will know it is done by sticking a skewer into the bread. If bits of dough come out clinging to the skewer, the bread is not done.) Makes one loaf