I’m reading a historical fiction novel, The Magnificent lives of Marjorie Merriweather Post (1887-1973). She was an American businesswomen, socialite, and philanthropist. She was the only child of C. W. Post who invented Grape Nuts cereal (in 1897) and Postum, a supposedly healthy, decaffeinated hot-powdered drink, intended to replace coffee (in 1895). Postum Cereal Company (now Post Consumer Brands, shortened to Post) was the original name of her father’s company, located in Battle Creek, Michigan, where Marjorie grew up. After his death, Marjorie inherited the company at age 27. For much of her life, Marjorie was known as the wealthiest woman in the United States.
Fast forward 125 years and Post bought out Northfield’s beloved Malt-O-Meal cereal company. Although Grape Nuts is still made, it is not made in the Northfield plant. (But the hot Malt-O-Meal cereal still is.)
In later years, Marjorie bought smaller food companies and combined them into one business called General Foods. It’s an interesting read.
As I was reading, I remembered my mother use to make a quick bread using Grape Nuts. They are hard, nutty kernels, but tasty. I decided I wanted to make that bread again. I remembered I liked it, especially toasted. I could not find my mom’s hand-written recipe in my collection, so I looked online and found a different recipe for a quick bread made with Grape Nuts. I made one loaf. It turned out OK, but it was not as good as I remembered my mom’s to be.
I reached out to my brother and he found my mom’s Grape Nuts bread recipe in their recipe box. So, I made her recipe and it was yummy. I’ve included the recipe below.
Now, I have to decide if I want to try Postum. 😉
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Ruby’s Grape Nuts Bread Recipe 1 Cup Grape Nuts 2 Cups Buttermilk 1 ½ Cup Sugar (originally 2 cups sugar...I reduced it) 2 eggs, beaten ½ tsp salt 2 tsp baking soda in 2 tsp. warm water 4 Cups flour 1 tsp baking powder Soak grape nuts in buttermilk for 15 minutes. Add sugar, eggs, soda and salt. Stir in flour and baking powder. Put in greased loaf pans and let stand 10 minutes. 2 large pans or 4 mini loaf pans. Bake 350* for 1 hour for larger loaves. Bake 350* for 30-35 minutes for mini loaves .