Hamelman's oatmeal bread confusion
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.