Oatmeal bread
Mar 7th, 2009 by Amy
We are back on the bread wagon, at least for this week. I actually made (or tried to make) bread the last couple of weeks, but the results were disastrous in one case and just kind of blah in another. I tried to make English muffin bread and it didn’t rise at all so I pitched it. I didn’t measure the temperature of the water before adding it to the yeast and I’m guessing that it was too hot and it killed the yeast. Last week, I made buttermilk fantail rolls featured in Gourmet a couple months ago. They looked beautiful, but turned out kind of tough. I was probably a little aggressive adding flour in trying to prevent the dough from sticking.
I am beginning to learn how yeast behaves and how long to let the dough proof in our home. We keep our house at about 62F, which lengthens the rising time significantly. I sometimes put it near the fireplace, but it still doesn’t get to the 75F-85F range recommended for a normal rise. For recipes that call for 1.5 hours of rising time, it takes about 3 hours in our house. I am sure there is plenty more to learn in the land of breadmaking.
This bread is slightly sweet from the brown sugar and is perfect for toast.
Oatmeal Bread, adapted from Beard on Bread
Makes 2 loaves
Ingredients
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup boiling water
2 packages active dry yeast
1 tsp granulated sugar
1/2 cup warm water (100F to 115F)
1 cup warm milk (100F to 115F)
1 Tbsp salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
4 to 5 cups all-purpose flour
Put the rolled oats in a large bowl and add boiling water. Stir and let sit for several minutes. Meanwhile add yeast and granulated sugar to warm water, stirring until yeast and sugar dissolve. Let it proof for 5 minutes. If it doesn’t become a little foamy, start over with new yeast. Add warm milk, salt, brown sugar, and yeast mixture to rolled oats, stirring well. Stir in 4 cups of flour, adding 1 cup at a time and mixing completely after adding each cup. Put dough on a lightly floured surface and begin kneading. Add flour a little at a time to prevent sticking. Knead for about 10 minutes. Shape into a ball and put into a buttered bowl, turning to coat on all sides. Cover and let rise in warm place until doubled in bulk. Depending on the temperature of your house, this could take 1-3 hours. We keep our temperature at about 62F, so it took 2.5-3 hours.
Punch the dough down. Knead for 2-3 more minutes and shape into 2 loaves. Butter loaf tins and place dough in tin. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 1-3 hours. The dough should almost reach the top of the loaf tin when its done rising. Preheat oven to 375F. Place bread toward the bottom of the oven in the center of the oven and back for 45-50 minutes. It will sound hollow when tapped on bottom of pan when done. Remove loaves to a cooling rack. Serve with butter and jam.
Looks wonderful! Our home is a bit on the cold side too. Sometimes I put the rising dough in the oven with just the oven light on which helps. On those really cold days I’ll cheat and turn the space heater that lives in the bathroom on, and put the pans/bowl in there. This really speeds things up, but not without burning some extra electricity.
John - Brilliant idea. Never thought of such a simple trick. And I’ve noticed before that the bathroom gets kind of warm when we close the door. Thanks for leaving a note!
Amy: Another way to get bread to rise is to put the bread bowl (covered) in the oven, and place a pan full of hot water underneath it. I usually crack the door open when I first put the pan of water in, as it is quite hot just after it comes off the boil, and then shut it later to keep in the heat. I guess the big duh would be don’t bring the water all the way to the boil, but anyway you get the idea.
Elin
Elin - Another great idea. Thank you for sharing. I am sure that would move the process along a bit faster, huh?