Hot from the oven is THE best way to eat bread. Thus, it has been very difficult to endure an hour-long wait post-bake time for the sandwich breads I’ve baked of late. Dense and moist, these loaves need their space for a little bit before being sliced up with the bread knife. Otherwise, you end up pulling and tearing at your previously beautiful, steaming creation. Given my heavy hand with the molasses, I consistently end up with a somewhat softer center than promised by the recipes, but herein lies the beauty of baking fresh bread: love your edible mistakes, eat them, and try again.
This recipe for Oatmeal sandwich bread comes from the King Arthur Flour web site, where you’ll find over ten different ways to make an oatmeal loaf. I’m digging this version. One note – I split the flour into half hard white and half whole wheat, as I have local wheat flour available to me, and enjoy a bit more grain. Here’s what the original recipe calls for:
1 1/4 cups boiling water
1/2 cup rolled oats
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons molasses or maple syrup
2 tablespoons honey
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
1/4 cup Dry Milk
3 to 3 1/4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/2 cup pecan meal OR finely diced pecans or walnuts
Place the boiling water, oats, butter, salt, molasses or syrup, and honey into a medium-sized bowl, stir, and let the mixture cool to lukewarm.
Mix the remaining dough ingredients (using the lesser amount of flour) with the oat mixture, and knead – by hand, mixer, bread machine or food processor – until you’ve made a soft, smooth dough. Add the extra flour (if necessary) while you’re kneading. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover it, and let it rise for 1 hour; the dough should be doubled in bulk. Gently deflate it, shape it into a log, and place it in a lightly greased 9 x 5-inch loaf pan. Cover the pan with lightly greased plastic wrap or a proof cover, and let the loaf rise till it’s crowned about 1 inch over the rim of the pan.
Bake the bread in a preheated 350°F oven for 40 to 45 minutes, tenting it loosely with aluminum foil if it seems to be browning too quickly. Remove it from the oven when the internal temperature registers 190°F on an instant-read thermometer. After 5 minutes, remove the loaf from the pan and allow it to cool on a wire rack.
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Thanks for the bread recipe…always on the look-out for new ones. I remember your dad making loaves of bread in the oven when we were kids, Lynea, and us eating slices of them with lots of butter while they were still steaming .