linbakesbread

Good morning fellow bread-bakers.

Today I’m revisiting the oatmeal bread I made a while back, but this time substituting whole wheat flour for some of the white flour. I think this will make very tasty toast!

Here is the recipe. Please bake Whole Wheat Oatmeal Bread with me.

The ingredients:

Oat Mixture:
1 ½ cups boiling water
1 cup rolled oats
½ cup honey
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1 Tablespoon sea salt

Dough:
1 Tablespoon (or 1 packet) active dry yeast
½ cup warm water
1 teaspoon honey
2 cups whole wheat flour
3 ½ - 4 cups Montana Sapphire flour
1 teaspoon olive oil for greasing the bowl

Preparing the oats: Pour the boiling water into a large mixing bowl and add the oats. Stir in the honey, butter and salt. Let cool to room temperature.

Proofing the yeast: Dissolve and activate the yeast in the ½ cup warm water and teaspoon of honey. When it’s frothy, add it to the oat mixture and stir it in. Stir in the whole wheat flour and about 2 ½ cups of Montana Sapphire flour. Mix until it begins to hold together and pull away from the sides of the bowl adding in more flour as necessary. Dump it onto a floured work surface.

Kneading and Rising: Knead the dough until it feels together, adding only enough flour to keep it from sticking. Give the dough a rest while you clean out your bowl. Continue kneading the dough until it is elastic and springy and doesn’t stick to your work surface (this took me another 5 minutes or so)

Form it into a nice ball and place it in a greased bowl to rise, turning it to grease the top. Cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel and put it someplace warm to rise until it’s about double in size (It took my dough almost 2 hours).

Shaping: When you can poke your finger in the dough without it springing back at you, punch it down, turn it out onto your work surface and divide it in two. Shape into loaves and place in your bread pans that have been sprayed lightly with olive oil (honestly, I’m not sure if that’s necessary, but I wanted my loaves to come out easily). Cover the pans and let the dough rise about 45 minutes.

Baking: Place the loaves in a cold oven, set temperature to 400 degrees for 15 minutes and then down to 350 degrees for another 25 minutes.

The finished Bread:

Reflections on this bake:

Very good. The addition of the whole wheat flour gives it a pleasant earthy taste. I love it toasted and then slathered with butter and honey. The only reason I didn’t give it a higher rating is because if I made this bread again, I would probably make it without (or use less) whole wheat flour.