Oatmeal Bread

I'd been itching to make an oatmeal bread, as it is one of my favorite favorites. My last fall in Blacksburg, VA, I'd go to the farmer's market every week and buy the Oatmeal Bread from the bread vendors there. I lived on that bread, with Brummel and Brown spread and blueberry jam, until it was gone 2 days later. Not the healthiest diet, but a nice tradition nonetheless.

You can use a preferment, or just a piece of "old dough" to make this bread, but it's not necessary. The best part about the recipe is that you make what is basically a massive bowl of oatmeal to start out with. Well, my bowl of oatmeal is massive when baking for the restaurant. Yours might not be so big.

I found the recipe on the blog Farmgirl Fare. I'll include the recipe here, but you'll want to check out the Farmgirl blog because there's detailed dough shaping instructions, and in the comment section there's lots of good extra info about this recipe. I'd like to try making it here at home in smaller batches, because at the restaurant I have problems with the tops of my loaves splitting during the final rise, and I've tried both round free loaves and log shaped loaves in loaf pans. The loaves still taste awesome though.

This recipe make three pound and a half loaves, plus 10 oz of dough to save for your next batch. You can freeze this extra dough until you need it. You don't have to remove the extra dough, and you don't have to use this same kind of dough as your preferment. Heck, you don't even have to use a preferment, but it makes it better if you do.

4 cups hot water or milk

2 1/2 cups (11 oz) rolled oats (not instant)

1/2 cup (2 oz) oat bran

1/2 cup (3 1/2 oz) packed golden brown sugar

1/2 cup (1/2 stick, 2 oz) butter

1 T instant yeast

6 to 7 cups bread flour (about 2 pounds)

1 T salt

10 oz "old dough"

Stir together the oats, oat bran, brown sugar, butter and hot water. Let sit together for about 30 minutes, letting the mixture cool and enzymes develop.

Combine the yeast with 2 cups of flour and stir into the oat mixture. Stir and add flour one cup at a time until its dough-like enough to be kneaded on a well floured surface or in your mixer with the dough hook. Knead by hand for about 8 minutes or knead by hook for about 5. Cover the dough and let it rest for 20 minutes.

Knead in the salt and the old dough until they are completely combined; about 5 minutes.

Put the dough in a large bowl that have been sprayed with oil and dusted with flour. Dust the dough with flour, too. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp tea towel.

Let rise for an hour and a half at 70 or 75 degrees. If the room temperature is much coolor or warmer, the rise time will be slower or faster. When the dough is ready, you should be about to poke your finger deep into it and the indentation won't spring back.

Once the dough has risen, remove the 10 oz for the next batch, if desired. Put it in a ziplock bag and plop it in the fridge or freezer.

Now it's time to shape your loaves. I usually make round loaves. Here is a great description of how to shape a round loaf, with pictures.

Farmgirl makes log loaves and bakes in a loaf pan, and her post has good instructions on that. Here also is a site with pictures.

Once your loaves are shaped, brush the tops with water and sprinkle with oats. Or, as I did, put some oats on a plate and dip the top of your loaf in them. Very pretty.

Let the bread rise an hour more. You'll want the bread to be close to it's final size because this loaf doesn't have very much "oven spring," or it doesn't rise very much once in the oven. Again, try the finger indentation test.

Bake the loaves for 35 minutes at 375, or until golden brown and hollow sounding when the bottom is tapped. Remove from the pans and cool on a rack so the bottoms don't get soggy while cooling. Wait at least 40 minutes before slicing.

These loaves freeze well! They taste amazing toasted with butter and blueberry jam!!

Here's a shot of some of the bread goodies at the market.

Mmmmmultigrain

Oh Peter Reinhart, you are a bread god. Thank you for this multigrain bread.

Besides the taste, texture, healthfulness and cool speckly appearance of this bread, the best part is that the it requires no pre-ferment, only a soaker. All you have to do is mix up some various grains and water the night before. Many of the grains are ones you probably have in your house any way, and if they're not, give them a shot. It's fun to find new ways to use cornmeal, quinoa, millet, oats, wheat bran, etc in every day meals.

I made a few adjustments to the recipe, based on need and preference. I love, love, love the way it turned out.

Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire, from the Bread Baker's Apprentice

Ingredients:

Soaker

3 T cornmeal (polenta), millet, quinoa or amaranth (I used cornmeal and quinoa)

3 T rolled oats or wheat, buckwheat or triticale flakes (I used the rolled oats)

2 T wheat bran (I used wheat germ and bulgar wheat)

(also consider: Steel cut oats, wheat germ, bulgar wheat and others)

1/4 cup water

Dough

3 cups bread flour

2 T brown sugar (I used 1 T white sugar and 1 T molasses)

1 1/2 t salt

1 T instant yeast

3 T cooked brown rice (I used black rice that they happened to have at the restaurant)

1 1/2 T honey

1/2 cup buttermilk or milk (I used half and half)

3/4 cup water

On the day before, make the soaker. Combining the grains with the water activates the enzymes which will improve the bread flavor and behavior. Cover the bowl and leave it at room temperature overnight.

To make the dough, stir the flour, brown sugar, salt and yeast in the bowl of an electric mixer, or in a large mixing bowl. Add the soaker, rice, honey, buttermilk and water. Stir (or mix with the paddle attachment) until the ingredients form a ball. Knead on a floured surface for 12 minutes, or mix with the dough hook for 8-10 minutes on med-low speed). The dough should be soft and homogenous, but not sticky. When you pull a bit of the dough out into a square between your fingers, it should form a thin, translucent "windowpane" instead of tearing. Thats when you'll know that the gluten has sufficiently developed. Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise at room temperature for about an hour and a half, until the dough has doubled in size.

When the dough has risen, its time to shape it. You can either form a loaf and bake in a loaf pan, or you can form a round "boule" like I have in the above picture. In either case it's important to have enough surface tension that the bread can rise in a nice shape, so pull around the edges of the dough and tuck them into the middle of the loaf. Place your loaves in or on the thing they will be baked in or on, and let them proof, or rise again, for another 90 minutes.

Towards the end of this rise, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Then when it's time, bake the loaves for 20 minutes (small loaves should be done), then rotate (for larger loaves) and bake for 15 minutes more. If the inside is tested with a thermometer, it should register 185-190 degrees.

When the loaves are down baking, remove them from their pans and let cool for an hour or two before slicing in. The cooling completes the baking process.

Take note of the delicious specks of grains! This bread tastes fab with butter and jam, and could be a great sandwich bread.

Oh, last friday was rough. I baked almost 200 lbs of flour in one looong night. All for the farmer's market. Pictured are 2 of the 3 racks I filled.

Boy howdy I love it though.