A Monday Recipe: Oatmeal Bread

Another from my Amish cookbook. I think this is very liberally titled, as it's CALLED oatmeal bread, but it's really wheat bread with a little bit of oatmeal in it. Still good though!



Oatmeal Bread 
as usual, I put my changes in parentheses. Read through the original instructions, which I'll put first, then I'll add my own instructions, or what I did differently. :)

1 c quick oats
1/2c whole wheat flour
1/2c brown sugar
1T salt
1T oleo (butter)
2c boiling water

Original Instructions:
Combine preceding ingredients. Mix well. Dissolve 1pkg of yeast (not listed) in 1/2c warm water (not listed). When batter is cooled to lukewarm, add yeast. Stir in 5c of white flour. Mix well. Let rise till double. Form into loaves. Let rise in pan. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes

My instructions:
Proof 1pkg yeast in 1/2 c warm water w/ 1T brown sugar for 10 minutes, or until a good foam forms. While the yeast is proofing, set water to boil. In large bowl, stir together the oats, wheat flour, brown sugar, butter, and **2T wheat gluten**. When water boils, stir half of the water at a time into the oats/flour/sugar mixture, until all the water is added. Let sit about 5 minutes.

It's ok if the yeasts proofs longer than 10 minutes (or until the oatmeal mixture is cool). When the oatmeal/flour/boiling water mix has cooled, stir in the yeast and the all of the white flour. Once most of the water seems to be absorbed, knead the rest of the flour crumbs into the dough by hand, continuing to knead until it seems stretchy and *almost* sticky, about 3 or 4 minutes. Grease bowl, add dough, cover w/ a towel and rise in a warm place 1 hour.

Punch down, divide into to greased loaf pans, rise 1.5 to 2 hrs (covered w/ towels) until it's doubled in bulk. Bake at 350 for 35m. Brush with butter immediately out of the oven, cool 5 minutes, then turn out onto racks to continue cooling.

This bread feels like a heavy loaf but while it's dense, it's not TOO dense or too yeasty. It has a very light flavor and has enough body to slice well for use for sandwiches. I'm pretty pleased with this and may make it again. It also makes a VERY good toast!

I bet y'all didn't know I ever made bread without my bread machine!