Nova Scotia oatmeal molasses bread is a rich and delicious loaf of brown bread, perfect for sandwiches, toast and to mop up soup. Very easy to make, with only a few ingredients, but will fill your home with a mouth-watering aroma.
Nova Scotia Oatmeal molasses bread
It’s hard to articulate just how tired I feel at this moment in time, and the last few months feel like a blur. As some of you know, right at the start of this pandemic my family and I sold our house and moved to the ‘farm’. Essentially our rental house. Well, finally last Sunday we flew out and have moved back to Nova Scotia. It’s a project that has been years in the making.
I’ve flown back from the UK plenty of times before, I know the routine well. However, due to the current situation, our direct flight was cancelled. Instead, we flew via Toronto, in total spending roughly 18 hours on planes and in airports. Getting into our new house at 2 am, or 6 am according to our body clocks.
When I woke up the next morning, I stumbled downstairs in a desperate search for coffee. What greeted me was something even more welcome, a loaf of my Dad’s oatmeal molasses bread. No doubt the recipe was inspired by the book ‘Out of Nova Scotia Kitchens‘
If you’ve ever lived in Nova Scotia, or with a Nova Scotian, there’s a good chance you’ve had a version of this bread before. Sometimes known as Brown Bread, it is a slightly sweet, but very flavourful loaf. Amazing toasted with some melted butter (ok, a lot of melted butter). I grew up on this stuff, and it brought an immediate smile to my face.
It may take me another couple of weeks, not least because I have one more week of quarantining with my family before we can venture outside, to recover from everything. In the meantime, myself and Thing 1 got started on our new life in Nova Scotia with coffee for me, juice for him, and a couple of slices of toasted oatmeal molasses bread with jam and butter. Not a bad start.
Ingredients
• 2C Boiling water
• 1C Rolled oats
• ½ C Molasses
• 1/2T salt
• 1T Butter
• 2 ¼ teaspoon dry active yeast
• ½ C Warm water
• 5 C Plain flour
Instructions
- In a heatproof bowl, add the boiling water to the rolled oats and let stand 1 hour.
- Add molasses, salt, butter, and with warm water and mix.
- Lastly, add flour with yeast and mix thoroughly to distribute the yeast evenly.
- Let rise all day or overnight… until doubled in size.
- Beat thoroughly and put into two greased bread pans and then let rise again
- Bake in a hot oven (425) for 10 minutes then reduce heat to 350 and bake 35 minutes more.
- Resist the urge to cut into the loaf and drench in butter.
Equipment
To make oatmeal molasses bread, you only need a large bowl (I swear by my Mason Cash bowl, but any large one will do) and two bread loaf pans.
Tips and Variations
For a heartier bread, change the white flour with wholemeal. You will have a denser loaf but will add a great new texture.
You might like these other recipes
Nothing quite compares to fresh warm bread with butter and jam. Check out this strawberry red currant jam recipe, and this plum and citrus jam recipe.
This oatmeal molasses bread is also great for mopping up soup and stew. I love Irish stew, so check out this lamb and Guinness stew from Craft Beering.
The classic pairing in Nova Scotia though is baked beans. Try this recipe (and beautifully shot) by Kelly Neil.
Pairings
Drinks
If you’re having it with toast, just have tea or juice. However, if having it alongside a soup or stew, it goes great with beer.
Music
It’s Nova Scotian, so enjoy it while listening to the Stanfields.
Recipe
Nova Scotia Oatmeal Molasses bread {Nova Scotia Brown Bread}
Equipment
- Heatproof bowl
- Bread pans (2)
Ingredients
- 2 Cup Boiling water
- 1 Cup Rolled oats
- 1/2 Cup Molasses
- 1/2 tablespoon Salt
- 1 tablespoon Butter Try for unsalted
- 2 1/4 teaspoon Active dry yeast
- 1/2 Cup Warm water
- 5 Cup Plain or Bread flour
Instructions
- In a heatproof bowl, add the boiling water to the rolled oats and let stand 1 hour.
- Add molasses, salt, butter, and with warm water and mix.
- Lastly add flour with yeast and mix thoroughly to distribute the yeast evenly.
- Let rise all day or overnight… until doubled in size.
- Beat thoroughly and put into two greased bread pans and then let rise again for 30min.
- Bake in a hot oven (425°) for 10 minutes then reduce heat to 350° and bake 35 minutes more.
- Resist the urge to cut into the loaf and drench in butter.
i love my large (but light) Mason Cash mixing bowl too! my mum used to make a similar loaf to this using All Bran cereal, which is literally just bran. very simple and delicious.
hope you’re doing in these hard Covid times.
cheers
sherry
That would be good, I’ve made all bran muffins before and they were delicious. I could see it working well here too! Thanks Sherry!
What a great way to welcome you back to Canada! I’m so glad the move went well – er, at least without major troubles. I mean 18 hours in airports/airplanes with 2 kids would be enough to send anyone to the looney bin. I probably would’ve devoured an entire pot of coffee along with the whole loaf of this bread. It sounds fantastic! Baking bread is one of my favorite kitchen activities, and I’m putting this one on the list. In fact, I’ll probably make 2 loaves – 1 for my buddy here who grew up in Nova Scotia. 🙂
I am glad you were safe during your travels, regardless of the complications. And this bread is everything – the perfect welcome to your new adventure. Pinned to try, looks incredible.
I love molasses bread, but I haven’t had it in a while. My father usually makes molasses raisin bread a few times a year, and I’m the lucky recipient of a loaf or two. Nice that this brown bread showed up on your first morning back in Nova Scotia. Hope you got that coffee too! Welcome back to the east coast. Happy you made it here safely, even if it was a long journey!
Welcome back (to the roots) to Nova Scotia Matt! Even though your travel adventure sounds a little insane, you’re finally here and can enjoy all the molasses bread, speaking of which, I haven’t tried yet. In fact, I got a couple of Nova Scotiaan recipe books last year, but I haven’t tried any recipe yet either. So thanks for the inspiration – I’ve got to start doing that; well perhaps this delicious molasses bread is a great start.
Without a doubt one of my favourite things to eat in Nova Scotia, when it’s fresh nothing beats it.
We used to go to Nova Scotia every summer, except this year. We love finding fresh baked brown bread! Is there a way to make this in a bread machine? Cheers!
That’s so great! I’m not sure about a bread machine, I suppose you can as long as it has enough rise time. Let me know if you give it a try!
Nova Scotian Brown Bread (Bread machine recipe)
1 C water
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
100 ml molasses
1/3 C quick oats
2 C all-purpose flour
3/4 C whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast
Use the sweet dose cycle on your breadmaker. I invert the pan at the end of the first rise removing the dough from the pan. Remove the bread paddles and grease the posts with shortening, reform the loaf and place it back in the pan. This way you are not left with big holes in the bottom of the loaf from the bread paddles.
I was born, raised in Nova Scotia and also returned as an adult. I grew up with brown bread and baked beans every Saturday night. I adapted this recipe from my mother’s brown bread recipe.
I just tried this recipe for oatmeal brown bread and it turned out so nice! I didn’t need to let the bread rise for the 12 hrs though. I did rise it twice, once in bowl used for recipe, for approximately 2 hrs and then in pans for another couple hrs using the quick rise yeast. So yummy!
Made this when I was a teenager. Lost the recipe,so glad I found it again here.
Trying this for first time, do you mix the yeast with water?
Yes!
What size of bread pans?
Standard loaf pan!
If im using a bread machine do I use bread machine yeast same as other breads or do I use regular yeast
I wouldn’t suggest using a bread machine for this recipe given the need to pre-hydrate the oats!
Step 5, beat thoroughly — what do you mean by this? After the dough is formed and risen? I’m not sure what to do for this step.
My dad is from NS, trying to make this for him for Christmas.
Thanks
Hi from Nova Scotia!
By beat down, it means to ‘knock it down’. eg you knock out the air and then shape it in the bread pan. This will help your bread have a more even spread of air bubbles when you bake it after its second rise in the pan.
Love this recipe! I have family from Nova Scotia who have missed their brown bread from Mahone Bay since moving to the states. I decided to try out this recipe and she said it tastes just like home <3 thank you for sharing!!
Great recipe! Thanks for the explanation of beat it down above as I wasn’t sure what that meant.