February 10, 2015 - 1:30am
Need help with a Oatmeal loaf please
Hi there I'm just trying to do a basic white loaf with oats in it, hoping for some helpful hints :)
The recipe I have is
60g ground Oats
60g Wholemeal
230g High Grade White Flour
2 x Tsp Yeast
Tsp Salt
Tbsp Milk Powder
Tbsp Honey
260ml Water
It comes out ok but a bit too spongy, I'm after a more solid texture. Can anyone give me some advice on that?
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Hello
Your formula, to me, looks to be pretty much in balance. This is what it looks like % wise. Personally. I would up the salt to 2% though.
To make a more interesting bread, I would suggest cooking the oats into a porridge the evening before, 1 part oats to 4 parts water. Also I would make a poolish with the Wholemeal, also the evening before.
Leaving out the milk powder, could also bring you closer to the results you request.
Knowing how you plan to bake this would also be helpful: in a loaf pan, without pan on a stone, in a dutchoven??? If you would like , I could make an interactive formula for you, using these suggestions.
cheers daniel
Joyofgluten how does the milk powder affect the final outcome from a texture point of view? That table you produced looks good, I think reducing the yeast would be a good idea. And slightly increasing the salt.
esp. with oats. If you want less spongy, try it with AP flour. :)
I find the instant yeast high, could drop that down to 1.6% - 2%.
Could also try a shake of cinnamon sugar on top of the loaf. You can get a nuttier flavour if you roast the oats in a tbs of butter and cool before adding. A shake of nutmeg is also a tiny tweak. Raisins?
yes that's way too much yeast, even with fresh yeast, it's on the high side.
Thanks for the info, yes I think I will try the reduced yeast. And maybe mix some Standard Flour in with the High Grade. Does that make the end result more dense?
Reducing the yeast will change the nature of this bread and in a very good way.
Having the milk powder (or liquid milk) and the honey will cause your loaf to colour up much faster and you therefor may have to pull it out of the oven before it can be fully baked out.
I'm not a fan of placing dry oats in a dough, they are much better in a soaker or better yet cooked into a porridge.
The honey and milk powder will lead to a finer and slightly softer crumb poring.
Again , it would be helpful to know how you wish to bake this loaf...in a tin, free form on a flat pan, free form on a pizza stone or in a dutch oven? Will you be hand mixing or using a kitchen aid or such? From which country does your flour originate?
If you have yet to bake with pre-ferments and soakers, have no fear, they are easy ways to make your bread much more interesting. Say the word and I'll put a simple formula together for you.
cheers
Thanks Joyofgluten yes reducing the yeast is definitely my next move.
I haven't tried any pre-ferments or soakers but if you think soaking the oats first is a good move I'll try that.
I'm just baking the loaf in the breadmakers supplied tin, it also does the kneading etc, I'm in New Zealand and try to only use local ingreadients with flour etc.
Thanks
"a bit too spongy" I may be wrong, but that could just be the nature of the bread machine beast.
You could do any number of changes but the factor that would bring you much closer to enjoying truly good home made bread, would be to pack the bread machine in it's box and explore some alternatives.
Home bread making can be as simple or complicated as you wish to make it. There are low knead or even no-knead methods that are easy- beezy. The time and physical effort required can be kept to a minimum, it's just a matter of establishing a proceedure that fits into your schedule. There are plenty of folks here that could help you out.
cheers
daniel
Thanks Daniel, I'm sure as I progress I'm going to do more hand made breads but at the moment I'm just trying to obtain the best possible result from the breadmaker. Once I have that sorted I know I can always pop out a no fuss breadmaker recipe when time is short and can then focus on playing around with some artisan type recipes.
Daniel in regards to the pre soaking of the oats, can you give me some advice on that. With the oats I've been putting them through a grinder first to have them as fine as possible, is that a good idea? If you can let me know a soaking strategy that would be awesome.
I don't think that grinding the oats into flour is a good idea. Instead of being little units to soak up water and distribute it during the bake as steam, the rolled oats become part of the dough matrix and affect the crumb differently.
I'm with Mini 100% there. Rolled oat flakes, large or small, are so easy to use in a soaker or cook into a porridge and as Mini stated , "the rolled oats become part of the dough matrix and affect the crumb differently.
Also whole unrolled oats, are very hard, it takes a quality grinder to turn them into decent flour, for bread machine usage, i'd say hands off.
I've eaten, or rather tried to eat, bread machine loaves on three occasions, all at bed & breakfasts. I've never had access to a machine or the urge to use one, so I don't feel that i should be the one giving soaking or formula instuctions to do so.
It could also well be that the high yeast content in your recipe is necessary to fit the cycles of your machine.
In posting for help with a bread, it would be good right from the start to mention the bread machine, then you would have a better chance of receiving the appropiate advice.
cheers and good luck with your oat loaf
Thanks Joyofgluten for the advice, for me I'm making the bread more so I can control the ingredients rather than risking the unknown of commercial stock. As I said I will no doubt get into some more artisan type handmade bread when time and my skills allow but I'm for now I'm attempting to create the best possible basic loaf that a bread machine will deliver. I have tried some of this advice given on the forum and it's actually made quite an improvement. With some more tweaking I'm sure I'll be able to get quite a decent result which will be perfect for my families day to day use, vastly superior to the supermarket loaf anyway!
And if you take a look and note that I posted this question in the "BREAD MACHINE RECIPES" forum, I'm sure that would have made it obvious to any reader that my dilemma was related to that area.
Regards
James
Hi, I am late to this party but I would like to share the recipe I use for Honey Oatmeal Bread in the machine. It comes from CD kitchen originally. I realize that these are volume measurement instead of weights but using the scoop and flatten with a knife method works great. Here are the ingredients. It makes 1.5 lb loaf.
I wanted to say that this recipe might have the texture you are looking for.