[Recipe] Oatmeal Loaf

Oatmeal Loaf

I happen to have a lot of oatmeal in my pantry and I thought I'd use that to make some oatmeal bread. I have always enjoyed baking. The process of kneading and letting the dough rise seems almost therapeutic for me (and who doesn't like the aroma of freshly baked bread). I have broken my hand mixer in the middle of kneading this batch and I didn't mind kneading by hand. I used my breadmaker for the actual baking since I have gotten great results with it in the past. I have actually lost the paddle of my breadmaker so that's why I couldn't use it for the mixing and kneading of the dough. I didn't realize that the paddle got stuck in a loaf that I baked. I baked the bread to take along on a long road trip with friends and threw the leftover loaf at our destination (in Penang, Malaysia) hundred of kilometers from where I used to live when I still lived and worked in Malaysia. I only realized what happened several months after the trip when I wanted to bake. I still decided to keep the machine intending to buy a replacement paddle but I didn't really mind since I can always use the hand mixer (now that I have broken that hand mixer is making me think whether I should just buy a new breadmaker). This is also the first time I used the "fermentation" function of my rice cooker (it's the kind that has all these other functions - I have used it to bake a cake and have been pleased with the result) and it worked perfectly doubling the dough in about 50 minutes. The loaf turned out to be nice tasting with a fluffy interior. It had a mildly sweet aftertaste but you can always adjust the amount of sugar in the recipe.

Ingredients:
3 Cups Bread flour
1 Cup Oatmeal
1 Cup freshly boiled water
1/3 Cup lukewarm water
1/3 Cup Coconut sap sugar
100 grams unsalted butter
2 teaspoon instant yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vegetable oil (for coating during dough rising)

Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, soak the oatmeal in freshly boiled water and mix thoroughly until it becomes a paste-like consistency. Set aside to cool. On a smaller bowl, add the yeast and coconut sugar to the lukewarm water and mix well until dissolved. Pour this mixture into the cooled oatmeal mixture and add the salt and butter. Gradually mix in the flour until you form a dough that can be kneaded (add a bit more flour if the dough is too wet - slightly sticky is fine just put some flour on your hands and on the surface you are kneading on if you are doing it by hand). Knead for about 12 minutes by hand (or about 8 minutes in a mixer). Shape it into a ball and apply a coat of vegetable oil so the dough wouldn't dry up. Place in a lightly oil coated bowl with a damp cloth on top and let it rise for about 45 minutes or double in size. I have made use of my rice cooker with a "fermentation" function and it worked great. Otherwise, place the covered bowl in a warm place.

After rising to double in size, punch down on the dough and shape to whatever form you like. I used a dough cutter to divide the dough into roughly 4 equal portions and shape those in a ball and placed them in a loaf pan. A second rise or proofing is recommended for bread with more volume especially if you overwork the dough during the shaping part. Proofing will ensure a fluffier loaf (in my case it also gives it time to fill the square loaf pan since I just make 4 balls and placed them in each corner). Bake for 45 to 50 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 177 degrees Celsius. I used my breadmaker for baking only to make the bread on the photo using the medium color crust and the 2 lbs dough setting.