Did you know you can make bread without yeast? They are called quick breads or soda bread. They use self-rising flour, baking powder, baking soda or a combination to rise the bread instead of yeast. Think about biscuits and banana bread for examples. In addition, they are fast and painless to make.
The texture will be a lot like cornbread and not like a typical yeast bread. It will also be a softer bread with a tender crumb much like a muffin. If you let it cool completely, you can make sandwiches and toast with it, but my family found it much better as a “sopping” bread. They called it that as it was used to dip into soups, and to sop up the gravies left on plates. It’s a unique and wonderful creation you should try at least once.
My favorite thing about quick bread is how versatile the recipes have become. For instance, you can make it sweet, savory or a combination of the two. Or for another example, you can swap out half the flour and add cornmeal for cornbread. If you like your cornbread more southern, skip the sugar. The more north you get, the sweeter the cornbread until it’s nearly a cake. Northern people love sweetness in their savory dishes.
Or try to put in some spices like a tablespoon of cinnamon and substitute the sugar for brown sugar for a neat surprise. Add in some fresh fruit like apples and get an apple pie reminiscent type flavor. Once you learn to make quick bread, the possibilities are limitless. Only your imagination will stop you.
There is one thing to remember. There are two main types of rising agents used in quick bread. Baking powder or baking soda. Those made with baking soda are often called “soda breads” and are much cheaper to make as baking soda is the cheapest of all the leaveners out there. Soda breads are popular in my culture.
Baking Powder is used when you don’t have an acidic ingredient like buttermilk, cocoa, or lemons. Most baking powder brands are typically a combination of both baking soda and cream of tartar. Baking Soda needs an acid to rise. Without acid: always, always, use baking powder. Also, an easy way to remember the difference is that the words acid and soda each having four letters.
In comparison, self-rising flour takes the guess work out for you and puts in both rising agents. However, they can be a little salty, so try various brands of self-rising flours.
Line or grease a bread pan. 
Stir together dry ingredients. 
Add the wet ingredients and stir. 
It will be a shaggy batter. 
Sometimes you get cracks as it bakes. 
This is normal. 
Sometimes there isn’t. 
It will taste the same! 
And slices well, but a bit crumbly. 
It’s delicious and fast! 
Happy baking!
Quick Bread for Beginners
Ingredients
- 3 cups (450g) flour
- 1 ¼ cups (300mL) milk
- ½ cup (100g) sugar
- 2 large (100g) eggs
- ¼ cup (60mL) oil
- 1 tbs (12g) baking powder
- ½ tsp (2.5g) salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F (180C.)
- In a large bowl, sift together all dry ingredients. Stir well.
- In a separate container, mix all wet ingredients together until well blended.
- Add wet ingredients to dry, stir until just combined. Batter will be slightly lumpy.
- Pour into a greased and floured or parchment lined 9×5 (23×13 cm) pan.
- Bake 55-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Center of bread should read between 190F (88C) – 210F (100C.)
- Cool in pan 5-10 minutes before removing.
- Cool completely on wire rack or serve warm. Makes 18 slices.
Absolutely love this it came out perfect. It’s my first time making bread by myself that my mom‘s house she always made the bread. I just started doing it. I used bread flour to make this.
But can I substitute the sugar for molasses?
Marah,
Congratulations on making your first loaf of bread! It is so exciting learning how to make your own. Yes, you can use molasses. I would cut the amount in half so you use less sugar as molasses can be very sweet. In general, you can use as little as 1 tablespoon of sugar in this recipe. It will not brown as dark, the bread will go stale about 1/2 days sooner but it will not affect the overall structure of the bread. It just makes it less sweet.
Can you use almond flour? And if so, would it be the same amount?
Hi Chrissy,
Unfortunately, the bread would become claggy and dense if you substituted almond flour for this particular recipe. The ratios of the other ingredients would weigh down the almond flour and make it unpleasant to eat. There are a lot of keto websites that have bread made with almond flour. Type “keto bread made with almond flour” into google and you’ll get a few good choices. When it comes to baking with almond flour, the keto folk seemed to have accomplished making decent bread.
This is really good, I’ve already made it twice in one week! Thanks for the great recipes😊
So glad you liked the bread, Amy! You can add all kinds of flavors to the batter once you get the hang of it. Sometimes we add a tsp of garlic powder and around a cup of cheddar cheese, for instance.
Is the sugar necessary for the chemistry of the bread? Or is it just for flavor?
Would it still taste okay without?
It is not necessary, you can reduce it or eliminate it entirely. It will affect the moistness, crust texture and color but it will still taste okay without it. What I personally do when I make it is use between 1 – 2 tbs or 12.5 – 25 grams as I am not a fan of sugar in bread overall. It will dry out faster and the crumb will be a little more crumbly with a slightly paler crust. But I like it this way. Hope this helps, Aggie.
Using this basic bread recipe. Can you then add ingredients like chopped apples and cinnamon etc?
You can add chopped apples, but they can take longer for the bread to bake unless you cook them down on the stove prior to adding them. I typically toss apples in sugar and cinnamon, then heat them on a medium heat on the stove top until tender, constantly stirring before adding to breads and cakes. Hope this is helpful!
I love all the recipes that are here. It’s so easy to follow and helps with teaching the kids to cook as well.
I’m so glad you like the recipes, Magdelena! It is great you are teaching your kids to cook. 🙂
What is replacement for eggs and the quantity??.
1/4 cup of pureed pumpkin or applesauce have been common substitutions for egg. However, I have not personally tested it on this recipe.