Greetings!
For older bakers only: I'm looking for a recipe to make at home a whole grain sandwich loaf that resembles the bread in the Subject line.
In the early '80s, I was eating Catherine Clark's Original Recipe Brownberry bread. Yes, I know it is still sold under that name, but no, it is NOT THE SAME! The original was mostly whole wheat and had some type of seed(s) that would pop or crackle in the toaster. the the texture was very structural, not like the gummy texture of today's version. I have no idea when, or how many times, the formula has changed since then.
For those who remember this bread from that era, do you have or know of a recipe that mimics that loaf? Please?
Hi KVBakes. Did you have any luck with any recipes for Catherine Clark's Brownberry Bread? (outside of this website) The original had very few ingredients as compared to the one sold today. I also seem to recall that the label stated that the bread should be stored in the "ice box". I grew up on that bread. We have a restaurant and that was one of our main breads. We still use it today but it is absolutely not the same recipe!
I've tried to track down Catherine and Russell Clark's kids...(two daughters) to see if they had the real original recipe but, so far, no luck. I also remember the original bread being vegan. Have you found any other breads available commercially that are comparable?
Hello @KVBakes & @BlueSwede, I am also a CC Wheat Bread lover and grew up in the 60s/70s eating this favorite! I recall it being named “Cracked Wheat Bread”. Does that ring a bell?
I agree about the crumb texture, that it seems gummier than the original decades ago, yet we still buy it regularly and enjoy it.
I’d like to make a wheat bread at home as close as possible to this one with freshly milled wheat berries, but need a recipe :)
I’m going to dig into this to see what I can find. How’s research going at your end over the past year?
Interesting this bubbled up for me. That Red Label wheat is almost the only bread I eat save for some occasional rye. I worked there for some years so I have some working knowledge of the large scale process. Yes, that formula has changed several times over the years and I'll agree, taste and texture have changed a lot since I first had it in the late 70s. Process aids, freshness enzymes, and cost savings all contributed to that.
The one ingredient that made that loaf unique was the use of crushed/flaked wheat (not cracked) that was well hydrated before being mixed with the remaining ingredients. I do have a formula from the early 2000s but wouldn't want to share it as is. I would consider sharing without out the conditioners and freshness/process aids (which we wouldn't want to use anyway) but I would not know how that might affect an attempt at a reasonable facsimile of that loaf. I would think that a basic formula might be attainable if one were skilled at baking and adjusting ingredients, which I am not.
Come to think of it there was one competitor that had a very, very similar loaf. I believe it was called New England Brown Bread from Country Hearth. Their ingredient list is: crushed whole wheat, water, enriched unbleached flour (wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), honey, yeast, wheat gluten, sea salt, soybean oil, vinegar, ascorbic acid as a dough conditioner, enzymes, sesame flour. Picture attached.