Oatmeal wheat bread

Until I made risen waffles, I really never felt comfortable with yeast. Now that I've used it successfully a handful of times, I'm basically a yeast pro and felt comfortable trying my hand at real sandwich bread. Hubris? Noooo! I don't have any of that. How dare you? :-P

I was having a bit of an insomniac night on Friday, what with my neighbors shooting off fireworks until late, getting their Independence Day celebrations off to an early start.

What do I do when I can't sleep? I watch British TV shows and bake bread. Isn't that what you all do?

Do you like how I skipped over my conspicuous absence from my blog for seven months? Yeeeeeah, sorry about that. I got busy with my new job and I jumped into dating and getting to know the city I'm living in. Generally, putting myself out there and being in the world. That sorta kept me from cooking much and feeling up to blogging about it. That's my bad. I get it. I'm a terrible blogger.

I'm here now though, and doesn't that count for something? I thought my first post back should be something that required real effort. In truth though, the two hardest parts of this recipe are the kneading and the waiting. For me, the latter is the most difficult. I like kneading. I like the work of it, sinking my hands into the dough and slapping the hell out of it. A wonderful, meditative process.

Since I am a bread-with-yeast novice, I stuck pretty close to Joy the Baker's recipe (link below). The only things I changed were the whole wheat to all-purpose flour ratio and adding a little more yeast. I wanted something a little nuttier, a little heartier.

I don't have process photos, but it's fairly simple. Just be OK with kneading and a lot of downtime. If you're worried the neighborhood kids are going to blow a Roman candle-sized hole through your door and are watching Foyle's War and Death in Paradise, then the time will pass really quickly. At least, that was my personal experience. And, just think, your patience and cramped hands will be rewarded with delicious oatmeal wheat bread with a touch of honey and brown sugar.

I made cherry preserves (my next recipe!) to truly glory in the accomplishment of making homemade bread. If you make homemade bread, treat yourself to some truly great butter or jam or nut butter or farmer's market tomatoes to go with it. You've earned it!

Blogosphere tip: I'd seen advice about not cutting into the bread until it is fairly cool, otherwise the bread'll have gummy texture and you'll hate yourself for destroying all your hard work. Just so's you know.

So, this is my first post back after a long break. I'm hoping to post at least weekly from now on. We'll see. :)


Oatmeal wheat bread

adapted very slightly from Joy the Baker

In a medium, heatproof bowl, place 1 cup old-fashioned oats, 1 tbsp honey, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 4 tbsp unsalted butter, 1 tsp cinnamon, and 1 tbsp salt (I used kosher sea salt). Pour 2 cups boiling water over this and mix together until the butter is melted and everything's thoroughly combined. Let it cool to lukewarm (you want it at least below 140F or you'll kill the yeast).

In another large mixing bowl, stir together 3 cups whole wheat flour, 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, and two packets of active dry yeast (about 1 1/2 tbsp). When the liquid mixture is no longer hot enough to kill your yeast, pour it into the dry ingredients.

Stir the liquid into the flour until you get a "shaggy" dough. Basically, it barely holds together. Turn it out onto a floured surface and knead the bread for 12-16 minutes (full disclosure, I got carried away and kneaded for about 20). The dough will be smooth. The other bloggers say it will be "shiny" or "satiny." I . . . would not describe it as such.

Place the dough into a clean, large mixing bowl that's been greased with a little cooking spray or neural-tasting oil. Loosely cover the dough with greased plastic wrap. Let it sit in a warm place for about 60 minutes, letting it double in size.

Grease two loaf pans. Take the doubled dough out of the bowl and place on a lightly floured surface. Cut the dough into two equal halves and form them into little loaf shapes, placing them in the pans. Loosely cover the loaves with greased plastic wrap and let the dough rise for 60-90 minutes, until the dough basically doubles again.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Take the plastic wrap off the loaves and place them in the oven, baking for about 30-35 minutes--I think I slightly overbaked mine after letting them bake for 35 minutes. After the 20 minute-mark, tent the load pans with aluminum foil in order to prevent the tops from burning.

Turn the baked bread out of the pans and let them fully cool before slicing them up. You could slice the bread and freeze the slices, taking them out and thawing them as needed.

Enjoy!