Whole-Wheat Oatmeal Bread

I’m having a bit of bad luck in the bread baking department. I usually make a pretty basic whole-wheat loaf using active dry yeast. Whilst shopping, My Official Treat Taster stumbled across some fresh yeast and from my nonsensical gibbering and bouncing on the spot, he correctly guessed that I was excited and threw it in the trolley. I wish he hadn't.

When we got home, I took out my go-to bread recipe and worked out the substitute ratio for going from dry to fresh yeast and set to work. The dough just didn’t look right when I was kneading it in the mixer. It wasn’t soft and elastic, it just…was. It’s hard to describe, but it lacked any character and life about it. Is that a strange way to describe dough?

I carried on and was surprised to see the dough rise, so I put it in the oven and crossed my fingers. After about 10 minutes, I looked through the glass and was disappointed to see two incredibly flat bricks. I baked them for the whole time, hoping that some miracle would occur and they would come out as happy, springy loaves full of life. Nope. I had baked myself two perfectly golden brown bricks.

I bashed them about a bit and ended up with a heck of a lot of breadcrumbs, before realizing that I had wasted several hours and we were still without bread, so I set out to make some more. I followed by go-to recipe – this time with the usual dry yeast – and left it to rise. When I came back after an hour the dough looked the same, if not actually lower and denser than when I had first placed it in the bowl.

Not a good start. I eventually got the dough to rise and placed it in the oven to bake. I checked through the glass again after 10 minutes, only to see two very deflated loaves with flat tops. I wasn’t impressed. There may have been some tears and some shouting, but after 7 hours of bread-making and having nothing to show except about 40 cups of breadcrumbs, it’s fair to say I wasn’t a happy bunny.

So this Whole-Wheat Oatmeal Bread I made a few weeks ago is the last successful loaf I have produced in a while. Fortunately, it was perfect. Plenty of flavor from the whole-wheat flour and brown sugar, combined with a wonderful chewy texture from the oats.

I adapted it from Liz’s Honey Oatmeal Bread – you can find the original recipe on her blog: That Skinny Chick Can Bake. Even if you’re not into bread baking, you should go and visit her blog to drool at all her amazing-sounding and even better-looking recipes.

Whole-Wheat Oatmeal Bread

Adapted from Liz’s Honey Oatmeal Bread from That Skinny Chick Can Bake

Ingredients

4 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast

¼ cup brown sugar

4 tablespoons butter

2 ¼ cups warm water

1 teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

4 cups whole-wheat flour

1 egg

1 ½ cups oats

Recipe

1. Melt the butter and add it to the sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Pour in the warm water then sprinkle the yeast on top and stir to combine. Leave to bloom for about 10 minutes.

2. Mix together 2 cups of whole-wheat flour, 1 cup of all-purpose flour and salt. With the dough hook attached on a low speed, combine the flour mixture with the yeast mixture until all the liquid has been absorbed. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes.

3. Add the egg and 2 more cups of whole-wheat flour and beat on medium for another 2 minutes. Add the oats and half a cup of all-purpose flour. Beat for 5 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic.

4. Place the dough in a large greased bowl. Cover and leave to rise for about an hour or until doubled in size.

5. Punch the dough down, cover and leave to rise until doubled in size again.

6. Punch the dough down for a final time and divide into 2. Fill 2 greased bread tins with the dough, pushing it to the very edges of the tin. Cover and leave to rise for a final time until the tops poke above the tins.

7. Preheat the oven to 350°F/175°C and bake for 35-40 minutes. Remove the loaves from the tins and leave to cool on a wire rack. 



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