I’ve been wanting to bake some whole grain bread, and while searching the web for recipes to try, I came across this recipe for Oatmeal Toasting Bread. And, clicking on a link in that post, I found a delicious-looking variation that I knew I had to try.

You can click the links above to see the originals, if you want, since I cut a few corners in my version. My notes in the recipe below are, as always, in italics.

Makes 3 loaves
Ingredients:
4 1/2 cups very hot water – I use hot water out of my tea-kettle on the stove.
2 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup oat bran – I didn’t have any so I just chopped enough oats up nice and fine with my slap-chop thing to make 1/2 cup.
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 T yeast (slightly more if using active dry yeast)
6 to 7 cups bread flour (divided)

Combine oats, oat bran, brown sugar and butter in a very large bowl. Keep in mind you need enough space for 3 loaves worth of dough. Add hot water and stir until combined. Let it sit until it reaches about 80F. My thermometer was being borrowed so when I thought if was cool enough, I went ahead with the next step. The original recipe says about 30 minutes.

Combine yeast with 2 cups of flour. I also added a little gluten at this point. Stir into oat mixture. Continue stirring in flour, one cup at a time, until a soft dough forms. Transfer dough to a well-floured surface and knead for about 8 minutes.

This is where it says to let it rest and knead it and add salt and let it rise and then divide it and then let it rise, but I was in a hurry so I skipped ahead and went to the dividing part. I also left out all the salt. I’m sure it would have been even better had I been patient and followed the directions.

Divide and shape into three loaves. This is also where I added in the twist.

I took two of the three divisions and pressed them out, with my fingers, into rectangles. I didn’t measure out the things in the Cinnamon-Spice version. I just brushed each of the rectangles with melted butter mixed with a few drops of vanilla and generously sprinkled on a cinnamon-sugar mixture that I always keep in the cupboard, a tiny bit of nutmeg and cloves, some brown sugar and chopped pecans. Then roll them up and put them in pans.


The other section of dough I rolled into a nice ball and sprinkled some oats on the top, except, I forgot to brush some water or something on to make them stick. I only have two large loaf pans so I just left this one on my pizza stone.

Cover them all and let them rise for an hour and a half.

Bake at 375F for 35minutes or until golden brown and sound hollow when tapped. Remove from pans and let cool on rack.

I only baked the two cinnamon loaves after an hour and a half, because the pizza stone wouldn’t fit in my oven alongside the loaf pans. After those two loaves were done we went down to Grammy’s for dinner and I didn’t bake the last loaf until we got home, so it had spread out quite a bit, but was fine.

The cinnamon bread was delicious, especially toasted or drizzled with some of that homemade maple syrup. Actually, Matt and I were both thinking it would make a very nice French toast and we may have that for breakfast tomorrow.

Filed under: Recipes by Rachel
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