Plant-Based Depression Era Peanut Butter Bread
Welcome to your new favorite budget bake! We're diving into food history to bring back a classic: Depression-Era Peanut Butter Bread, but with a simple, modern plant-based twist. During the Great Depression, eggs and milk were too expensive, so clever home cooks relied on peanut butter for fat and flavor. This easy, no-fuss quick bread perfectly captures that resourceful spirit! It's a sweet, comforting bread that tastes amazing plain, toasted, or slathered with jam.
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp flax meal
- 6 tbsp water
- 2 cups rolled oats organic
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ¾ cup deglet dates or medjool
- ¾ cup peanut butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups soy milk unsweetened, or plant based milk of choice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Stir the flax meal and water together and set aside.
- Lightly grind the oats in a blender to make flour and pour it into a large mixing bowl.
- Add the baking powder and baking soda and whisk well.
- Blend the dates with half of the soy milk until the dates are completely pulverized.
- Pour mixture into the bowl along with the peanut butter, vanilla, flax mixture and remaining soy milk and stir well.
- Pour into a silicone bread pan or parchment lined baking tin and smooth the top.
- Bake for 50 minutes.
- Let cool completely before cutting.
Nutrition
Calories: 291kcalCarbohydrates: 32gProtein: 10gFat: 15gSaturated Fat: 3gPolyunsaturated Fat: 4gMonounsaturated Fat: 7gSodium: 371mgPotassium: 378mgFiber: 5gSugar: 13gVitamin A: 175IUVitamin C: 3mgCalcium: 153mgIron: 2mg
I haver been seeing these recipes online. Can’t wait to make a plant-based version!
I like your recipes . Easy to follow!
Do you buy your dates in bulk; and if so where? I use a lot of dates and am
Always running to the store for more!
Thx you for your great recipes !
I either get them at my local ALDI when they have them or at Harris Teeter. They sell a 32 ounce bag for $11.50
Hi Jill, If you can’t use oats do you have a suggestion for a substitute. Thanks so much!!
All the best, Susan
I haven’t tried any other substitutions or combinations so I’m not completely sure. I think using all almond flour would work but it will be pretty heavy.
Costco has a big bag of deglet dates for cheap too!!
Looks good and the ingredients are always available in my house.
What is the difference between Baking Soda & Baking Powder?
Baking soda is only one ingredient. Baking powder is a mixture of baking soda and a dry acid. Baking soda requires some kind of acid in the recipe for it to work. Baking powder is activated with any liquid.
what size bread pan?
8.5 x 4.5 or 9 x 5
I made the bread this evening. I like it a lot!
Moist and delicious and very easy to make. I mixed in 1/2 c. vegan chocolate chips before baking. Not gonna lie, they do the heavy lifting. Will definitely make this again.
What is the weigh for the dates? These can be so variable in recipes. Do you measure them whole, chopped, pressed down ? Thank you.
I never measure them by weight, sorry. I measure them whole and just slightly press them into my measuring cup. This recipe is very forgiving so the date measurement doesn’t need to be super precise.
Wow! This bread is so good! I assumed it would be sweeter but it still very good in a wholesome breakfast way. Would be so good with jam. I baked it in a 9×9 cake pan like I do for all these kinds of breads so it doesn’t take as long and more baked surface area goodness. 5 stars for sure, thank you!
I wonder if I could sub agave for the dates.
I’m not actually sure.
Looks so good. I’m trying to lose weight. That’s too many carbs and calories for me right now. Once I get my weight I’m making it
We love peanut butter in our house so I was looking forward to making this bread. It was a huge hit all around. Next time I’m going to add some raisins or nuts. Excellent!
I love cake but am usually too lazy to make it. This recipe was so easy, though — I see lots of cake in my future 🙂
I was out of dates on the day I wanted to try this recipe, so I used a similar amount of dried plums (aka prunes). It was really good that way, so if there’s folks out there without easy access to dried dates, maybe try prunes. Also, I am a cheapskate and didn’t want to bake it (our electricity is so expensive). So I used the microwave and cooked the batter in a silicone pan at 50% power (1800 watt microwave) for 18 minutes. It was perfect!
Another great recipe ??
I made this bread yesterday and it was excellent. I used almond milk as I did not have soy milk. I did mix in some pumpkin seeds and cranberries and topped with flax seeds. Timing of 50 min was perfect and what a beautiful looking loaf. I would like to cut down on the calories. Would this work with almond butter?
yes
Wow! Absolutely delicious. I used crunchy peanut butter and enjoyed the bread sliced, warmed a bit in the microwave, then topped with Concord Grape jelly. Thank you!
This was great!
Jill, can the oats be substituted with buckwheat flour instead? I want to say a big Thank You to you and your team for the amazing work with these recipes. Before I came across your channel I struggled to find great foods and treats I wanted to make as an sos vegan. Merry Christmas when it comes
You’re so welcome. We are so glad you are enjoying the recipes. Hmmmm, buckwheat flour instead of the oats. I think it would work. My only concern is for the consistency. It is already a pretty crumbly bread and buckwheat tends to be pretty dry. Let me know if you give it a try.
I recommend cassava flour instead of oats for those wanting a substitute. It’s gluten free, and works well as a flour in baked goods.
Hi Jil
I’m wondering if you could just grind whole oat kernels into flour instead of using rolled oats. If I grind the kernels into flakes first and then mill them, wouldn’t it be the same thing in the end? This is a fundamental question I keep asking myself.
Perhaps you have a good answer?
Thank you so much for the wonderful recipes and your dedication!
Monika
Hello Monika, I have tried using oat groats, grinding them into a flour and using them in my baked goods but for some reason it makes the bread too dense and heavy. Not exactly sure why it works differently than grinding rolled oats but that has been my experience so I just stick with rolled oats.
This turned out EXACTLY like the picture!! What a rise, and so yummy!
Hi Jill, I was wondering what I could use instead of dates in your recipes. I have to limit them due to having Chronic Kidney Disease, so I don’t think raisins or prunes would work either. Thank you. Love your show!!
Hmmm, that is a tricky one. You might be able to use maple syrup but I would try 1/2 cup. I think it might work but because it is a liquid you might have to reduce the soy milk by 1/4 cup too.
We made this today and it was really good. I baked it around 58 minutes based on what I was seeing for a toothpick test, but it still came out a little moist/gummy in the center of the loaf. We aren’t shy about that around here, but do you have any tips on preventing this? I was worried that continuing to bake would overbake it.
I think baking it a bit longer would be ok. Mine tends to be a little bit on the dry side but it might just be the difference of the peanut butter brand and consistency.