Marie Wallace's Wheat Germ Bread

from the Dark Shadows Celebrity Cookbook

After having made a handful of great lunches, dinners, and a dessert from the Dark Shadows Celebrity Cookbook, I began to wonder what I might find there for breakfast.  Marie Wallace's Wheat Germ Bread seemed like a perfect choice.  I was especially interested to try it because Marie mentions it as having been a family favorite, and actress Ruth Buzzi writes of it longingly in her very affectionate introduction to Marie's delightful autobiography On Stage and In Shadows.  I found it to be a real winner for a variety of reasons.  The ingredients are good for you and readily available, and it goes together so simply that it would be a great recipe to use for introducing children to cooking.  Also, this is a "quick" bread.  (Remember that chapter from your old Betty Crocker Cookbook?)  There's no proofing of yeast, long rising time, or kneading involved.  Total preparation and clean up time is within an hour and the results were better than I had imagined.  This recipe produces a loaf that is golden brown, lightly sweet, and very moist with a tantalizing nutty flavor that keeps you coming back for another slice.  Kind of like Dark Shadows episodes!  It was so fragrant coming from the oven that I served it warm with freshly brewed coffee.  It quickly disappeared from the cutting board with barely a few crumbs of evidence left.  It reminded me a bit of a good bran muffin and you could bake this batter in muffin tins if you wished.  I like the fact that it's a recipe reflecting Marie's life-long practice of conscientious eating, and in keeping with that I substituted unrefined sugar for the white sugar in the original, which I think Marie would gladly endorse.  It did strike me that Jenny Collins probably did not prepare this bread since she spent most of her time locked in the tower room and never struck me as a cooking type, but I have no doubt that Megan Todd whipped this up of a morning before opening up the antique shop.  Perhaps Marie herself could enlighten us.  Once you try this you'll want to make it again!