Depression Era Peanut Butter Bread Recipe (6 ingredients, no yeast!) - The Fig Jar (2024)

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 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.

Not only is it very tasty and easy to make, 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? Bake of course!! This peanut butter bread went viral on Reddit and is continuing to gain popularity.

Disclaimer: this post may contain affiliate links, which means if you decide to purchase any of the items linked in this post, I should earn a small commission. This creates no additional cost to you and helps support the work that goes into running The Fig Jar. Thank you! -Becky

Depression Era Peanut Butter Bread ingredients

So you know when something is a depression era recipe there is going to be a surprise ingredient or lack of ingredients— this recipe 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 🙂

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 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. 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 after this using them.

Just pour into a greased loaf pan and bake for about fifty 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.

When I make a loaf without chocolate chips, I like to enjoy a slice with some salted butter and strawberry jam and it was perfect that way but the possibilities are endless. I think this bread, with some Nutella and bananas on top would also be killer.

The original recipe can be found here, but it’s originally from a 1932 cookbook called Five Roses Flour. 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 350, some say 325, the original recipe says 325-350. I actually ended up baking two loaves. I baked one at 325 and one at 350, definitely recommend 350. 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.

Here’s a little youtube video I made back in 2020 when I first discovered this bread!

Want more peanut buttery treats? Check out

Tried this recipe?

If you try this recipe, please consider leaving a comment/rating below and let me know how it went. I’d love to hear from you! You can also connect with me on instagram and Pinterest.

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