Bread for the Spread

Following up on Meg's post about butter, how about some bread?

Honey-Molasses Oatmeal Bread

On January 25th, I’m teaching a City Market class on soup and homemade bread. I’m casting around for recipes that are easy, family-friendly, and relatively quick to make. What this recipe has going for it is that you don’t have to knead it. While it contains active dry yeast, the dough is moist enough that it puffs up more or less on its own. It’s also light and fluffy, and has a slightly sweet taste. It’s similar to New England’s classic “anadama bread,” but instead of cornmeal and molasses, it contains oats and a molasses/honey mixture.

Anyway, as I prepare for the upcoming soup & bread class, you’ll probably find more experiments here!

Honey Molasses Oat Bread
¾ cup rolled oats
1 ½ cups boiling water
2 tsp. salt
4 Tbs. softened butter
2 Tbs. molasses
2 Tbs. honey

1/3 cup luke-warm water
1 package (approx. 1 Tbs.) active dry yeast
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat bread flour

In a large mixing bowl, combine rolled oats, boiling water, salt, softened butter, molasses, and honey. Stir well and allow to cool to a luke-warm (body) temperature.

Meanwhile, dissolve yeast in 1/3 cup luke-warm water and allow to rest for about 5-10 minutes, until bubbly. When the oat mixture has cooled enough, add yeast mixture and stir. Add all-purpose and whole wheat bread flour and stir again.

1st rise: Stir the dough vigorously with a long-handled wooden spoon. It will be sticky. Cover and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in size, anywhere from 45 minutes to several hours.

2nd rise: Stir the dough vigorously again. Prepare two medium loaf pans by greasing and sprinkling a little cornmeal or flour on the bottom. Divide dough into two halves and place one half in each pan. Cover again, and allow to rise until puffy, another 45 minutes-1 hour.

Heat oven to 450. Before baking, make a few slits in the top of the loaves. Place in hot oven and immediately turn temperature down to 400. Bake until loaves are dark and crusty and the bottom is hollow when tapped (the recipe says 50 minutes, but mine were done in about 35 minutes, so it depends on the heat of your oven). Since the bread contains honey, it will naturally darken quite a bit in the oven – you want to catch it before it becomes too dark, but when it’s baked all the way through. The bottom should sound crisp and hollow when tapped, not sticky.

Allow to cool on a wire rack before slicing. Makes 2 loaves.