I Made This Recipe for Peanut Butter Bread from 1932. Here’s What Happened.
Updated: Apr. 12, 2024
Move over, banana bread—peanut butter bread is our next obsession. I tried a recipe that's going viral to see (and taste) what all the buzz is about.
If you’ve been on social media at all the last few weeks, you know that #quarantinebaking is all the rage right now. You probably also know that yeast is sold out in many areas!
That led us to the banana bread craze. Yes, banana bread is great (I’m personally obsessed with Chrissy Teigen’s recipe), but now there’s a different quick bread stealing everyone’s hearts: PEANUT BUTTER BREAD.
What started as a YouTube video has become a social media sensation, with tons of people whipping up the basic recipe for peanut butter bread. I love both baking and eating, so I decided to find out if it’s as easy—and delicious—as everyone says.
How to Make Peanut Butter Bread
This recipe originally came from a 1930s Depression-era cookbook, Five Roses Flour: A Guide to Good Cooking.
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1-1/3 cup milk
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
Instructions
Like most Depression-era recipes, the steps for this one are straightforward. Preheat the oven to 325° F. Mix all of the dry ingredients together, then mix in the milk and peanut butter. Pour the batter into a greased or parchment-lined 9×5-in. loaf pan. Bake for approximately an hour or until set.
Initial Thoughts
I’ve made banana bread before so I’m well aware that you can make delicious bread without yeast. However, I was skeptical of this recipe—peanut butter is the only ingredient with any real flavor, so I was worried it would be bland. Not only that, but peanut butter is incredibly dense, so I was concerned the bread would turn out to be a flat loaf, not the heavenly fluffiness I dreamt of.
Baking the Bread
This recipe is exactly the kind of recipe I appreciate: minimal ingredients and even more minimal instructions. It’s virtually impossible to mess up, which is great for those of us who aren’t the best cooks in the world. I liked that the ingredients were easy to combine, as well. I didn’t even have to use an electric mixer—I simply stirred them together by hand. I set my oven to 350° F and my bread was perfectly golden brown within about 50 minutes.
The Outcome
I’m not saying I’m a bread expert but I’m not not saying it either. I love carbs, especially in loaf form. So, having had some pretty amazing ones (hello, Amish friendship bread), I’m pretty particular about the breads I eat. This peanut butter bread was surprisingly moist and tasty. It wasn’t as light and fluffy as I would have liked, but the flavor was all there. And by the end of the loaf, I had started to appreciate the denser, muffin-like texture.
My final verdict? It may not beat banana bread, but it’s certainly easy! This 1930s recipe is worth a try as a fun baking experiment—especially if you’re out of yeast!
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Originally Published: May 11, 2020
