Easy Depression Era Peanut Butter Bread (No Yeast)
Look no further for the perfect Depression Era Peanut Butter Bread recipe. Tender, lightly sweet, and made with simple pantry ingredients: just flour, peanut butter, sugar, milk, salt and baking powder. And it’s ready in an hour! Chocolate chips are optional!
Have you heard of no-yeast peanut butter bread? And not like a piece of toast with peanut butter on it. Like a yummy quick bread made with peanut butter instead of oil? I just learned about this depression-era recipe yesterday. I accidentally hit enter too early on a Google search and I came across this and I’m so glad I did. The recipe requires no yeast, no sourdough starter, no eggs, and no oil! Apparently it’s big news right now and I can see why.
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Not only is a very tasty and easy recipe, it couldn’t be more appropriate for the current moment— many of us are stuck at home with a lot of extra time on our hands thanks to stay-at-home orders and social distancing. That feels weird to say, but it’s true. Sigh.
So with all this extra time, what are we to do? Sounds like a good time to bake of course!! This peanut butter bread went viral on social media and a lot of people are finding this and other old recipes to make right now. Other recipes that have been on repeat in our household right now are my sourdough pizza crust and this honey banana bread.
Depression Era Peanut Butter Bread ingredients
So you know when a recipe is from the Great Depression when there is going to be a surprise ingredient or lack of ingredients— this is a 6-ingredient peanut butter bread! It requires no eggs, no oil, and no yeast. Which explains why it is even more appropriate for this current age. We are stuck at home but some ingredients are tough to find, like eggs and yeast! All you need for this recipe is:
- All-purpose flour
- Sugar
- Milk
- Salt
- Baking powder
- Peanut butter
- Mini chocolate chips are optional but recommended!
No eggs, no oil, no yeast and no sourdough starter needed! Whew, what a relief.
Amazing! And very tasty. It has a wonderful, soft texture and it’s very subtly sweet (there’s only a 1/3 cup of sugar in the whole thing). The peanut butter flavor is also subtle, but the flavor is definitely there, just quietly. Chocolate chips sweeten it up of course. 🙂 By the way, if you’re looking for more with peanut butter and chocolate chips, you have to try this peanut butter cookie.
How to make Depression Era Peanut Butter Bread
Making this peanut butter bread is about as simple as you can get: just mix your dry ingredients: flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar.
Then add milk to the flour mixture and combine.
Get that peanut butter in and mix well. Make sure the peanut butter is fully incorporated but don’t overdo it on the mixing (no electric mixer needed!). Just get it combined well enough so that there aren’t big strands of peanut butter throughout the batter – these won’t blend in and will cause cracks in the bread. Stir in the chocolate chips if you will be using them.
Just pour into a greased loaf pan and bake for about 50 minutes and you’re set! While it’s baking you can brainstorm for toppings. I am obsessed with my cast iron loaf pan (affiliate link) from Lodge. Things bake up beautifully in it and they don’t stick. I usually still give a spritz of non-stick spray but generally cast iron is non-stick when taken care of.
The original recipe can be found here, but it’s originally from a 1930s cookbook called “Five Roses Flour – A Guide to Good Cooking”. I increased the salt by half a teaspoon and used 1/3 cup sugar instead of 1/4 cup. Also, some recipes say to bake at 350F, some say 325F and the original recipe says 325F-350F. I actually ended up baking two loaves. I baked one at 325F and one at 350F and I recommend 350F. The loaf baked at 350 held together and had nice golden brown edges. The one baked at 325 was still delicious but didn’t get golden edges and therefore didn’t hold together as well.
If you didn’t know yet, I love old cookbooks! I revamped another old honey cookie recipe here.
What to eat with Depression Era Peanut Butter Bread
When I make a loaf without chocolate chips, I like to enjoy a slice with some salted butter and strawberry jam and it is perfect that way but the possibilities are endless. I think this bread, with some Nutella and bananas on top would also be killer.
Storage Instructions
Once it cools to room temperature, store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Here’s a little youtube video I made back in 2020 when I first discovered this bread!
Want more peanut buttery treats?
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PrintDepression Era Peanut Butter Bread
A soft and very tasty bread made with just flour, peanut butter, milk, sugar, salt & baking powder.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 10 1 inch slices 1x
- Category: Breakfast, Dessert, Side Dish
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 1/3 cup milk
- 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
- 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips, plus more for topping (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Combine dry ingredients: flour, salt, baking powder and sugar.
- Add milk and stir just until combined, it doesn’t need to be smooth.
- Add peanut butter and stir until fully combined, don’t over mix but make sure peanut butter is fully incorporated. Then stir in chocolate chips if using.
- Pour into a greased loaf pan. Sprinkle with some extra chocolate chips (if using). Bake for 45-55 minutes, until a wooden skewer inserted comes out clean.
- Enjoy!
My 2 year old son helped me make this bread. It was so easy and delicious. I reduced the sugar to 1/4 cup and was still sweet enough. If you were using all natural peanut butter I would put more sugar in. Thank you
Hi Christine, Yes some other recipes use 1/4 cup or no sugar at all. I’m so glad you enjoyed this and that your son was able to help!
I have made this recipe several times using only ground peanuts but it always turns out dry. I was wondering if adding some coconut oil would help .
Hi Lesa, I always use the JIF brand creamy ‘natural’ peanut butter for this and really most of my baking that calls for peanut butter. Coconut oil might help as I think it is the additional oil in most processed peanut butters that help with keeping the bread tender and moist since their is no egg or additional oils in this recipe. You could give it a try by adding a small amount. I would trying adding maybe a scant 1/4 cup to start. I’m not sure though as I haven’t tried it. If you try it, I’d love to hear how it turns out. Good luck!
Easy and delicious! Can’t believe you can make bread like this.
What flour do you recommend? all-purpose or self rising?
Hi Cara, all-purpose. I’ll add that to the recipe. Thanks!
Great recipe, perfect for my eggless household! Cut the sugar to 1/4 cup and it was perfect. My only wish is that it could have more peanut butter flavor – maybe next time I’ll add some pb powder. Still wonderful, better the next day!
Hi Jess, glad you liked it! Yes the peanut butter flavor is pretty subtle, but peanut butter powder sounds like a great idea. Let me know how it goes! 🙂
I have a peanut butter protein powder. I added a 1/4 C and reduced the flour by 1/4.
Powerful peanut flavor and added protein.
Where can you buy the Peanut Butter Protein Powder? Thanks.
Is it ok to use brown sugar instead of the regular sugar?
It should work fine. Brown sugar has more moisture than regular but I don’t think it would throw it off significantly.
How many mini loaves would this make?
Hi Cortnee, I’m sorry, I don’t have that info as I’ve never tested the recipe that way.