One year after Txfarmer showcased her lovely bake of Laurel's Oatmeal bread,  I decided to bake one myself. It is a 100% wholewheat, enriched direct dough, leavened with commercial yeast. Having excess rolled wholegrain oats at home, i decided to give the recipe a try.

The dough was very thirsty. I ended up adding 240g of water to the dough. Intensive kneading for this dough is a must, otherwise the bread will be dense, due to all the oatmeal.

I used finely milled wheat flour for this recipe.

The crust is crunchy, and the crumb moist and tender. The intrinsic qualities of this straight dough bread shows most when toasted.

If i want a wholesome toast for a meal, this is the bread to go to.

I baked in pans this weekend.  No, there’s nothing wrong with my baking stone.  I just have freezers full of baguettes, miches and other hearth breads.   Also, I was (and am always) craving scones (using Breadsong’s technique).  My wife was urging me to make another whole grain-y sandwich bread.  And I wanted a good accompaniment for Pollo Cacciatore.  So, it was scones, Hamelman’s Oatmeal Bread and Reinhart’s BBA Focaccia.

Lemony-Cranberry Flaky Scones

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Breadsong wrote about flaky scones a couple months ago (http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/21414/flaky-scones-flavor-variations).  I had done a couple variations before (http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/21496/people-who-live-glass-houses-shouldn039t-stow-scones).  This time, I wanted to try a tart and fruity variation.  I looked at some lemon scone recipes to see different approaches to getting lemon flavor in scones.  Some use lemon zest, some use lemon juice, and some use lemon extract.  I used all three. 

I also added some dried cranberries, soaked in water overnight. I squeezed out the excess water in a sieve, but the dough was still too moist.  So I added some flour in the mix.  Next time I’ll reduce the other liquids.  The scones came out with the same wonderful texture as before, moist on the inside and crispy on the outside.  But they didn’t rise up quite as much.  And they could have had a stronger lemon flavor.  So next time I’ll use more lemon zest, or maybe candied lemon peel.

I followed Breadsong’s technique.  Here’s the formula I recommend, with the adjustments I mentioned above:

1 cups (5 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour

½ Tbsp baking powder 

1/4 tsp kosher salt

scant 1/4 cup golden brown sugar

2 ½ Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes 

1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries (soaked overnight in water, excess water squeezed out)

1 teaspoon lemon zest

Just less than 1 cup heavy cream (185 grams)

 2  Teaspoons lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

Half-and-half (for brushing)

But even though they could be improved, these scones were dang good.

Hamelman’s Oatmeal Bread

Having enjoyed making –and eating-- AW’s whole wheat bread last week, I decided to try another partially whole grain sandwich bread.   I chose the Oatmeal Bread from Hamelman’s Bread: with 25% whole wheat flour and 75% KAF Sir Lancelot.  Believe it or not, I made this bread exactly per the formula, with no variations.  Believe it?  Well, ok…I did substitute molasses for 1/3 of the honey, just because we love the dark, rich flavor.

The dough was fermented for one hour after mixing and kneading, stretched and folded, then refrigerated.  It almost tripled by morning.   Seriously gassy! 

 It proofed about 2 ½ hours since it had to get to the temperature the yeasties like.   The home-baking formula for this bread in Bread made enough for two loaves in 9 x 5 pans and six 3-ounce rolls.  The bread has a wonderful tenderness and a wholesome oatey-wheaty flavor.  It was excellent for a dinner of turkey and cole slaw sandwiches. This is a real good sandwich bread and I’ll bake it again.

BBA Focaccia

Monday night we are having dinner at home with a friend of a friend, who is a writer for the New York Times, and a serious foodie.  In fact, she wrote a wonderful book about the history of Chinese food in the U.S., called The Fortune Cookie Chronicles.  I’ll be serving Pollo Cacciatore, my variation on an excellent recipe Brother David shared.  I think one needs Focaccia to sop up the delicious gravy.

Since we are traveling back to SF from our North Coast getaway on Monday, and since the Pollo Cacciatore is best re-heated the second day, I made both the chicken and a Rosemary-Garlic Focaccia Sunday.   Well, more accurately, the Focaccia dough was mixed, fermented, folded, shaped and slathered with garlic-rosemary oil Saturday evening, and retarded in the fridge overnight.

I looked at a lot of Focaccia recipes and the BBA formula seemed like a good place to start.  I figure, if I’ve got the book, I might as well use it.  This dough is a monster—sloppy and hard (but fun) to manage.  After the third fold and a one-hour rest, it was like a big jiggly pillow.  It easily expanded to fill the 17 x 12 sheet pan.  When it had warmed a couple hours the next morning, it had serious eruptions.

I’ve never seen bread bubbles quite so large.  Like volcanos.

The crumb is airy and tender and the flavor is outstanding with a strong, but not overpowering rosemary and garlic flavor.

We also made fresh pasta today to eat tomorrow with Pollo Cacciatore and re-heated Focaccia.  Gonna be good.

All in all, a good cooking and baking weekend.  We also got some good hikes in, and enjoyed the varied animal and bird life of the North Coast.  Including a rare sighting of a Flicker right on our meadow.

Happy Presidents’ Day to you all.

Glenn

My husband and I eat a lot of stone-ground (oat groats or Irish oats) for breakfast. I try to make the right amount but sometimes I have leftovers. The dogs eat some of it but it's not their favorite leftover. Yes, gasp, my fancy high bred show and performance doberman plus the spoiled rotten chihuahua get table scraps!! But only what I would eat, which is pretty darn healthy I hope.They have a preference for fresh fruits and veggies, and of course grilled meats. BTW, my dogs are not fat, in fact the vet always compliments their weight and asks how I actually keep the little guy thin.

Anyway, I'd love to substitute all this cooked oatmeal for the rolled oats in various recipes, especially Hamelman's Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal bread. How do I go about figuring the water/oatmeal weights when I didn't cook it up for the bread? I've used it for the bread before but it was weighed and measured for the bread, then cooked so that it wouldn't be hard.

This might be too complicated to bother with. I might just freeze it and use for muffins like I've been doing but hubby enjoys Hamelmans CRO bread so I'd love to figure out how to do this. He's always asking for this bread and I'd probably bake it more often if I had leftovers that needed using.

I could weigh out the oatmeal I cook for breakfast but right now what I cook is 4 cups water to 1.5 cups oatgroats.

As for dog treats, did you know that dogs (or at least mine goofy mutts) think that sourdough starter is the best treat going? Yet another great use for discarded starter. I'm thinking about taking it to agility class to use for our "high value" treat. Plus, it's good for their intestines with all those great bacteria.

Hope this is enough of a challenge for you bread geeks and math majors out there!

Recently I baked Oatmeal Cinnamon Rasin bread form Hammelman's "Bread".   There are a few good write ups on this bread on this site, just do a search... I adapted the formula somewhat so I'll give you the details.  First of all, the home version makes 3 loaves and that was too much for me so I resized everything to make two 1.5 pound loaves, and while converting I converted everything to grams as I find using grams is more precise.  Also, instead of using just rasins I had a mix of dried canberries, currants, cherries and pomegranates that I substituted for half of the rasins.  Here is what I came up with for a formula:

Formula:

• 456 grams bread flour
• 152 grams whole wheat flour
• 100 grams rolled oats
• 380 grams water
• 66 grams milk
• 45 grams honey
• 45 grams oil
• 13 grams salt
• 7 grams yeast
• 10 grams cinnamon
• 100 grams rasins
• 100 grams dried cranberry blend

Mixing:

Soak oats in the warm water used for the formula for 20-30 minutes

Soak rasin mix in enough water to cover (this is advised to avoid burning the rasins while cooking)

Mix all ingredients except the rasins together and mix for 3-4 minutes once ingredients come together 

Drain rasin mix and add to dough, mixing an additional minute.  I did not pat the rasin mix dry and the consistency of the dough went from being very stiff to one that was sticky and loose.

Bulk ferment:

I placed in a covered container and let rise for a total of approximately 2.5 hours.  During that time I performed 2 stretch and folds since the dough was feeling rather sticky and I wanted to build up the strength.  Hammelman says that this dough can be bulk fermented overnight, which may be a good option for those looking for a warm breakfast loaf. 

Shaping and final ferment:

I divided into two loaves and shaped as you would a sandwich loaf, rolled the top of the loaves on a wet towel and then pressing them in some dry rolled oats for decoration then placed them in a standard 1.5 pound loaf pan.  I covered and let rise until the dough started to top the pan, 1.5 to 2 hours (I wasn't really watching the clock).

Baking:

I baked at 450 F for the first 15 minutes and then lowered the heat to 425 until the internal temperature reached about 200 F.  I did not steam the oven.  Total bake time was about 40 minutes...sorry I'm not much of a clock watcher.

Results:

This bread has a great well balanced flavor, it is not overpoweringly sweet nor does it have a really strong cinnamon taste, the flavor of the wheat is still there.  For me what probably made this bread one that I would make again is the mix of dried fruits I substituted for half of the rasins.  I've never been a huge fan of rasin breads but the varying flavors of all the other fruits really give this bread a unique flavor.  I imagine you could substitute many different variations of dried fruits, I just happened to look in the cupboard and added these on a whim.  This bread is great toasted, give it a try if you are looking for a good breakfast bread.

I just made Hamelman's oatmeal bread from "Bread" last night, and it turned out great! I love the format and depth of the book, but I was left with a question after my first bake from it. The "Home Baker" measurements mentions it makes "2 large loaves" and just over 4lbs of dough. Since it was my first time with the recipe, I halved it and ended up with just over 2Lbs of dough. The instructions below the recipe mention that 14oz of dough is the appropriate amount for a a normal small loaf pan 8.5" x 4.5" and 18oz for a larger 9.5"x4.5" pan, so I divided the dough in half, formed two loaves and panned them up for proofing in my two smaller loaf pans. The shaped loaves seemed very small for this volume, and after proofing they were still three quarters of an inch or more below the top of the pan. They would have made very dainty sandwiches had I baked them that way! I ended up placing the small proved loves side by side, seams together, in one large loaf pan and proceeded with baking, and got a normal sized large loaf.

It seems the text above the formula was accurate, and was contradicted by the instructional text below. My small loaf pans would probably have been more appropriate for 18oz of dough instead of the 13-ish oz loaves. Has anyone made smaller loaves with this recipe and happen to remember the pre-baked dough weight they used? Has anyone else had instructions-formula contradiction issues in the book? I love it, and will definitely keep baking from it, I am just curious what to expect!

Re: the bread

The bread itself came out beautifully despite the odd last-minute handling, and is very tender. It is a fantastic sandwich/toast loaf. The next time I make it, I might try substituting the oatmeal with Quaker's multigrain rolled grain cereal and see how it fares.

The oatmeal bread that was exhibited on The Fresh Loaf a few days ago inspired me.  I made my first attempt at this bread:

Bread Ready for Baking

Bread Out of Oven

Another View

Bread Sliced

Crumb Detail

Please leave comments and suggestions

Bix

Yesterday, I had two unpleasant surprises.

First, when I opened up what I thought was a second full canister of hard red spring wheat, I saw just a few scattered grains on white plastic. Argh!