Thursday, March 26, 2020

Oatmeal Bread

Well, it certainly is crazy out there. Covid-19 has people panic buying, so I am going to go over how to make a couple of staple, in my opinion, products that seem to be flying off the shelves, starting with a loaf of my favorite oatmeal bread.

Ingredients:

Bread

365 gr bread flour
1 cup rolled oats (old fashioned oats)
2 tbsp butter or oil
1.5 tsp salt
4 tbsp honey
3 tsp instant yeast
1.25 cup warm milk*

Topping:

1 egg white**
1 tbsp water
2 tbsp rolled oats (old fashioned)

Directions:

I recommend using a stand mixer for this, it's a pretty loose dough that is hard to manipulate by hand.

Using the bread dough hook of your stand mixer, gently bring all of the bread ingredients together in the bowl of your stand mixer. Once everything is incorporated and a sticky, gluten-y mass has formed, knead on medium high speed for 5 minutes or until the dough is smooth.

Place the dough ball in a greased bowl and allow to rise for 1 hour. It should nearly double in size.

After an hour remove the dough and press it out into small (6"x8") sheet before rolling it into a log. The easiest way is to fold the upper corners in and then roll it into a log. Place in a greased loaf tin and allow to rise for 1.5 hrs or until it rises about an inch above the tin.

When the loaf is nearly ready, preheat the oven to 350.

Before placing your loaf in the oven, whip the egg white with the water and brush over the top before sprinkling on the rolled oats.

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the internal temp reads 190. If the top browns too quickly, cover with tin foil to prevent burning.

Turn it out on to a rack and cool completely before slicing.

*Putting the milk in warm helps the dough rise faster, a slower rise will yield more flavor, but you might need to adjust the amount of time you let it rest.

**I know that separating eggs is a bit of a pain, but a whole egg will brown quicker than just an egg white. This might fool you into thinking the bread is done too soon, which might ruin the loaf.