Oatmeal Bread

I love homemade bread.  Some of my most cherished childhood memories involve coming home from school on a rainy day to the smell of bread baking.  I love cooking, but baking can be a little...fiddly.  Knead, rise, punch, rise, knead, proof....

I found a recipe for oatmeal bread in my most recent copy of the Penzey's spice catalog.  It looked like a winner because (A) it invovled whole wheat flour and oatmeal, and I really like whole grain bread, (B) I actually had all the ingredients, and (C) it looked really easy.  As it turned out, it was easy, and quite good, and I even had it ready before my husband got up for work (don't be too impressed, he works a late shift).

Yesterday was rainy, and my bread was nearly gone, so I decided to make another batch.  When it comes to cooking in general, I treat recipes more like guidelines.  I improvise.  I wing it.  In my mind, at least, I improve upon the original.  I'm a free spirit, man, and it drives my husband crazy.  He of the scientific method questions how I can possibly know what the recipe was supposed to taste like if I never follow it.  He has a point, so I try to make a control sample, following the recipe.  You know, for science.

But this was batch number two, so I took a stroll through the pantry to see what I could find!

 

The Original Recipe for Oatmeal Bread

(as published in the Thanksgiving 2012 Penzeys Spice catalog--Donna Timm, contributor)

 

1 Cup regular oats (I took this to mean rolled oats)

2 Cups boiling water

2 Tbs yeast

1/3 Cup warm water

1 tsp cinnamon

1tsp salt

1/2 Cup honey

2 Tbs canola oil

2 Cups whole wheat flour

2-2 1/2 Cups white flour

 

The first batch was sweet, moist, and suprisingly cinnamony considering it only had one teaspoon of cinnamon between two loaves of bread.  It was really good, but I am incapable of leaving well enough alone.  The things I found in my pantry to jazz it up included:  molasses, maple syrup, flax meal, and pecans.

 

First I put the cup of oats in the bowl for my stand mixer and poured the two cups of boiling water over it.  Looks good, right?  Mmm.  Soggy oats.  Bonus points for doing this while a one-year-old crawls around your feet playing with some tupperware.  Where did he find it?  The drawers are locked.  This needs to soak for about 30 minutes.  In the  meantime, assemble the rest of the ingredients, and try not to trip on the baby.  I am using instant yeast, so I don't bother to bloom it.

 

 

Dry goods!  Two cups each of wheat and white flour, one teaspoon of cinnamon, and one teaspoon of salt.  I added about a quarter cup of flax meal on a whim later on.

 

Sugar!  Instead of a half cup of honey, I used a quarter cup of maple syrup and about an eigth cup each of honey and molasses.  And it was good.

The recipe tells me to mix it all together, adding more white flour as needed to acheive a "nice consistency."  With the first batch, I had a dough so sticky it was almost a batter at this stage.  This modified batch is still sticky, and I added about a half cup more of white flour, a tablespoon at a time.

With the addition of the extra flour, my dough started to come together and make a break for freedom.  This is when I added my chopped and toasted pecans.  I used up the last of a bag I found in the back of the pantry, about a third of a cup.

I put my dough in an oiled bowl and draped a damp tea towel over it to rise for a couple hours.  The baby was napping, so I got my dishes done a put away, played on Facebook, Pinned a bunch of things I'll never bother trying, and took a short nap myself.  This is the best part of dough rising/baby napping time.



Mmm.  Lumpy dough logs.  I mean rustic.  Rustic dough logs.

When my two hours of awesome time were up, I put my malformed logs of dough into two loaf pans and left them alone for about a half hour to rise again.  Yes, I could have rolled out my dough and formed it into nice, plump little loaves, but I am a lazy baker.  I cut the dough in half and tossed it in the pans.  I will call it "rustic."  In the meantime, I preheated the oven to 350 degrees.

I baked the bread for 30 minutes, then turned it out onto a cooling rack. 

They're not very pretty, but they sure do taste good.  This batch was not as sweet as the control sample, nor as cinnamony, but it has a toasty, nutty flavor that I dig.  I'll be making this again, but since I'm me, it will probably be different.  Again.