i made some really delicious bread this past week. two loaves totally devoured by the end of the day. my family gets a little crazy when fresh bread is around.
the recipe was in a pile with others that hannah and me brought home from a recipe exchange we did with some family a while back. there's no note as to it's origins so i'm unable to give credit to anyone! i can't even remember which family member it came from.
well, i couldn't find my loaf pans (???) so i sent noah to our neighbor to borrow a couple. he came home with one (?) instead of two, so i improvised with a pie pan for the second loaf. it worked out just fine!
this bread is a little on the sweet side, light and moist without being gummy--you know what i mean? i really, really, liked it and will make it again. and again. it's wonderful with some sliced fruit and a cup of tea!
here is the recipe as written with my modifications in { }.
~honey oatmeal bread~
2 cups boiling water
1/2 cup honey
2 tbsp. butter
2 tsp. salt {i forgot the salt! still pretty tasty!}
1 cup rolled oats, quick or regular {i used regular}
1 pkg. active dry yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm water
5 cups all purpose flour {i used 3 c. unbleached, 2 c. whole white wheat}
in a large mixing bowl stir together boiling water, honey, butter, salt and oats. let stand for 1 hour. in a small bowl dissolve yeast in lukewarm water. add to oatmeal mixture. stir in 5 cups of flour, beat well. cover and let rise until doubled in size--about 1 1/4 hrs.
turn dough out onto a floured surface and kneed until elastic and stops sticking to hands and surface. shape into loaves. put into 2 greased 5x9x3 inch pans. let rise until doubled in size. heat oven to 350 and bake 30 minutes. tops should be well browned. remove from pans and let cool on wire racks.
the recipe said you could glaze the loaves afterwards with honey and sprinkel with oats, which i did--but won't do next time. the honey didn't soak in like i thought and just got sticky when they were put in palstic bags. i think i'll try an egg or milk wash next time and sprinkle the oats on before baking.
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a little sidnote on the styling of this photo: i didn't add the crumbs on the cutting board. these were there already from a day of cutting bread. sometimes real life provides the details all on its own ;)
