Authentic Boston Brown Bread

I have definitely been in a bread baking mood lately! I busted out the rye flour that I bought a while ago and wanted to try a few new recipes with it. This was a yummy one, even though I had to do some rigging to "steam" it the way you are supposed to. It was definitely worth the work!!

Authentic Boston Brown Bread
(recipe found in Taste of Home)

1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup rye flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup molasses
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon canola oil
3 tablespoons chopped walnuts, toasted
3 tablespoons raisins
cream cheese, softened, optional

In a small bowl, combine the first six ingredients. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, molasses, brown sugar and oil; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in walnuts and raisins. Transfer to a greased 8x4 inch loaf pan; cover with foil.
Here is the pot that I used to steam my bread.

I set a small glass dish at the bottom of the pot to set my loaf pan on top of.

Place pan on a rack in a deep kettle; add 1 inch of hot water to kettle. Bring to a gentle boil; cover and steam for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean, adding more water to the kettle as needed.

Remove pan from the kettle; let stand for 10 minutes before removing bread from pan to a wire rack. Serve with cream cheese if desired.