Oatmeal Bread
This recipe brings back memories of weekend snow skiing in the winter. For a couple of years, we rented a small condo out our local ski resort and one of the things I would do for my family is pack our own lunches, forgoing the expensive, both cost and health wise, on mountain fare of burgers and fries. Of course, in hindsight, I’m guessing my children would have preferred the food at the mountain lodge but at least I tried…lol ;)!! However, my favorite take away from these lunches was this bread I made for our sandwiches. This is still my favorite oatmeal bread.
Oatmeal Bread Recipe
Special Note: Along the way, I’ve learned a lot of lessons about making bread, which is more science than art. A couple of those lessons is to make certain you are using ‘unexpired’ yeast. Yes - yeast expires and when it is expired, it won’t activate and rise the bread. The next is the temperature of the water. I first tried to do what I had seen my mom do, check the temperature of the water on her wrist. Well, my wrist is super unreliable. So, I bought a kitchen thermometer to make certain I had the ideal temperature of the liquids…too hot kills the yeast and too col won’t activate the yeast.
Ingredients:
1c old-fashioned rolled oats
3/4c milk
3/4c water
1/4c unsalted butter
1tbsp dark molasses
2 - 21/2c bread flour (I used all-purpose flour)
1tsp salt
1 package quick-rise yeast
Instructions:
Place 1c oats in bowl of electric stand mixer.
In saucepan over low heat, combine milk, water and butter and bring to a boil.
Pour above over oats and let stand until lukewarm (110 degrees F) - stir to hasten cooling (about 30 minutes).
Add molasses, 11/2c of flour, salt and yeast and, with blender covered with a towel, blend at low speed.
Gradually (approx 2 tbsp at a time) enough of remaining flour to make a soft dough that holds its shape.
Switch to dough hook.
Knead until dough is not sticky and pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 6 - 7 minutes. (I find it’s better to ‘overknead’ than adding too much flour :))
Form the dough into a ball and place in a clean greased bowl, turn to grease all sides.
Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 45 - 60 minutes.
Lightly flour a heavy baking sheet.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured working surface and press flat.
Cut in half, knead briefly and form each into a ball.
Place well apart on prepared baking sheet and press lightly to flatten.
Cover loosely with greased plastic wrap and let rise again in warm space until doulbled, 20 - 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F
Uncover the loaves and bake until golden brown and loaves sound hollow when tapped, 25 - 30 minutes (watch this in your oven…i found my oven was cooking the outside to fast in comparison to the centre…)
Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
