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As of June 30, 2025, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) will remove the Healthy Recipes collection from MedlinePlus. You can still find many of these recipes at Delicious Heart Healthy Eating from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and at Food Hero, a USDA-supported initiative with Oregon State University Extension Service and the Oregon Department of Human Services.

For more on healthy eating, visit the MedlinePlus Nutrition health topic.

URL of this page: https://medlineplus.gov/recipes/quick-brown-bread/

Quick Brown Bread

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 50 minutes
Total time: 60 minutes
Number of Servings: 16

Ingredients

  • 2 cups whole-wheat flour
  • 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar, molasses or honey*
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups low-fat buttermilk

Directions

  1. Wash hands with soap and water.
  2. Preheat oven to 350 °F. Lightly grease a 9x5-inch bread pan.
  3. In a large bowl, mix together flours, sugar, baking soda and salt.
  4. Add buttermilk and stir until mixed.
  5. Pour mixture into the bread pan and smooth into the corners.
  6. Bake until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes.
  7. Cool about 5 minutes and remove from the pan. Cool at least 15 minutes more before cutting. Enjoy warm.
  8. Wrap leftovers and store at room temperature.

Notes:

  • No buttermilk? Add enough milk to 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice or vinegar to make 2 cups. Stir well and let stand 5 minutes.
  • If using honey or molasses, mix with the buttermilk before stirring into the dry ingredients.
  • *Honey is not recommended for children under 1 year old.
  • This recipe was inspired by Colonial Brown Bread, found in the children's book From Wheat to Bread by Kristin Thoennes Keller.

Find more delicious recipes from FoodHero.org

Food Hero Be A Food Hero Cookbook

Recipes that make it to Food Hero have had a long journey getting there. Most of the recipes have been used by our nutrition educators in the field and then submitted to the Food Hero team to be considered for the website. Recipes have the criteria found at this link: https://foodhero.org/recipe-criteria.