Maple-Oatmeal Loaf
Last week we were plunged into cooler temperatures here when we got hit hard by heavy rain and hail for an entire week. (This is unusual for Colorado so those of you who live in wet climates no snickers please….) Lots of flooding resulted which caused a lot of devastation around us. Luckily we live in an area that was spared too much damage. My summer garden got flattened and my trees experienced major leaf loss. A huge pile of hail blocked my front door but that was soon removed by my neighbor's son who came over wearing a pair of shorts (The temp. had been in the 90°F just prior to the storm hitting.) wielding a snow shovel. The inside of our house stayed nice and dry. My sump pump has never worked so hard in it's life. It was pumping every 15 minutes around the clock all week…
Anyway, the cooler temperatures triggered a change in my baking. Suddenly I had the urge to add oatmeal and maple syrup to my doughs….Fall goodies conjuring up childhood memories of eating a warm bowl of oatmeal before heading off to school in the rain. ( I grew up in San Francisco so my memories are full of foggy rainy days….)
A couple of years ago discovered a wonderful formula for a loaf containing both of these ingredients on MC's site FARINE. The oats are cooked/baked in a way that they turn into a maple granola of sorts that imparts maple flavor throughout the moist soft crumb. The best of two worlds.
The loaf I kept for us was gone within 2 days. The other was given to a friend who is trying to make it last as long as he can. ( He has fond memories of maple syrup having grown up in maple syrup country….) I love baking this bread; just a wonderful dough to work with at all stages of the mix so I have lined it up for several more bakes before my holiday bread baking season begins.
Happy Baking
Janet
Comments
:( Your poor garden. The heavy rain and hail sounds awful. Hope all recovers well after the devastation.
I haven't had maple syrups for ages... brings back fond memories as a Canadian. Having said that, I think I'd love your loaf.
Happy baking,
Zita
Hi Zita,
I imagine where you living now you are very familiar with lots of rain too….
My garden now gets to rest :- ) I figure that we will just have a few less leaves to rake when they begin to fall naturally around here. We really we quite lucky not to be hit harder.
From reading your latest blog I know you haven't been able to bake lately but, if you do get a chance to bake, you might like to add a bit of maple syrup on the crust when your loaf is done baking. I just brushed some on while it was still hot and it added a nice touch to the final loaf.
Thanks for your comment.
Take Care,
Janet
what a lot of winter looking weather already... those loaves look amazing... I can smell the maple syrup all the way over here in TX...
Happy Baking,
Diane
Hi Diane,
Crazy Colorado weather for sure. Today our temps. will be in the 80°s……Winter weather seems to have decided it is not wanted hereabouts for now *- )
Thanks for the compliment on the loaves!
Take Care,
Janet
from Janet.
I was in El Paso for the worst of the weather, although they were having heavy rains and flooding, too. Had a flight delay of three hours coming home, though.
I still can't believe the devastation - I figure that you were out of the worst of it - but that hail looks pretty nasty. Denver itself seemed to escape the hail - because my garden is going great guns.
Good looking bread!
Pat
Hi Pat,
Thanks for checking in. Yes, I know, a post from me is about as rare as a photograph from you :) Sometimes I just can't resist and Noah's loaf is one that just called for attention.
Our neighborhood was the epicenter for that 'drop' on that day. My son was playing a soccer game at Lakewood HS just over on 10th and Kipling. You know how close that is - NO rain at all!!!! Colfax seems to have been the southern border for this one. A neighbor said he guessed it was only a 5 mile in diameter front that did our damage.
Glad you were on the ground rather than in the air flying through these fronts. I know New Mexico got a lot of flooding too but, for some reason, did not get the news coverage we did. I hadn't heard about Texas at all….
Many gardens here shot but now I have my annual mums out. Had to buy new ones though. Your garden must be ready for harvest. What a relief your basement didn't get flooded.
Take Care,
Janet
And kind of a long one.
The week of the big storms, my 21 year old cat died peacefully in his sleep while I was in El Paso. Now the last few months of such an old cat's life can produce a mess in the house and I spent the weekend moping a bit (he was a bad old thing, but I was used to having him around) and cleaning.
This past week I was "working" from home and awoke Monday morning and went to give the teeth a brush. The water pressure didn't seem right and I wondered what was amiss. I ran down to the basement to find that the hose on the washing machine had split and the basement was flooding. Fortunately I caught it before it was too bad (about 3 in of water), due to the koi pond keeping I have lots of ways to pump out water, and finally I am totally paranoid about my basement flooding so everything was stored in sealed plastic tubs. So, a mess, but not like the mess those folks in Lyons got. Geez.
Anyway, I'm busy putting up my last batches of tomato jam and doing some other canning, because this weekend and next are it.
Flooding is relative in El Paso. There were streets closed, but no real damage. Some fatalities, though, because they just don't understand rain and traffic was bad...
You take care, too.
Pat
Sorry to hear about your loss. Our cat was 18…. She didn't go peacefully into the night. Had to have a bit of veterinary help at the end…
Your basement sounds similar to mine. Everything elevated. We have had mishaps too - rain as well as commercial water - Our water companies' pipes that run under the street in front of our house burst upon occasion. They just got replaced though so I am thinking we are 'safe' from that kind of wet for awhile….
I have strategically placed water alarms (ACE hardware :) all around anything that can leak water. A nice shrill sound when water hits them. I am usually home so these make sense. I also have the metal hoses on our washer. So far so good. One forgets those things as well as toilet valves which can rust and become impossible to turn off when there is a need….
Janet
I was thinking about water alarms because the combination of my houseguest and my house sitter (known as "I didn't see it" and "I didn't do it") are not robust in the noticing (or reacting to) things department. I was just so glad that I was home.
I just fear that I would come home to a screaming siren and one of them telling me that they had been hearing a siren from somewhere but had eventually gotten used to it...
I now have metal hoses for the washer.
Just another week in my harrowing summer.
When I left the house on Sunday, that cat was all stretched out in comfy cat pose sleeping in the sun. By Wed he was dead - can't ask for a better end. He was actually quite famous for a time in the small world of Supply Chain Planning. He had a good life.
WW bread I have evr seen! Very well crafted and maple granola sounds perfect and is my favorite to make for winter oatmeal :-) Inwas wondering how you fared in the storm. We knew it was gong to be bad for CO as we had two days of hard raij 2" at my house coming in from SW as it met the Monsoon storm that walloped you came in from SE. A very bad and unusual combination,. My wife's cousin lives on Boulder Creek in Louisville and the old house was OK but their other house down the street the sump pump quit working or never worked and the entire finished basement was under water - a real mess. So they were one for 2.
Glad your house was OK!
Hi Mr. D.
Thanks for your very kind words!
Glad to know at least one of your wife's cousin was okay in Louisville. It was an area that did get hit pretty hard with the flooding. Location has a lot to do with it who got hit and who didn't. I am grateful for engineers past and present who work hard to try to keep us all safe and dry. Sometimes things just happen. I consider us very lucky. One only has to check into the weather channel every once in awhile to see real devastation from weather…..
Take Care,
Janet
Janet, so glad to hear you were pretty much unscathed by the storm...as you know we had Hurricane Sandy on Long Island not that long ago and we were also lucky to survive with minimal damage.
That bread looks and sounds amazing. I have made several breads in the past with maple syrup but I like the sound of this one. Can you share the recipe when you get a chance?
Thanks,
Ian
Okay, sorry I just found the link to Farine's site.
Glad you found it :)
I was thinking of you and your mother when we were being hit….
I would love to hear what you think about the bread whenever you get around to giving it a try. I imagine the maple syrup in your area is superb and less expensive than what I can get out here. I ordered some from KAF but also have good stuff from Canada but have to pay due to location…hardly local. Our maples are silver leaf. No syrup thought the squirrels love chewing on all the new growth and seeds in the spring.
Take Care,
Janet
I will certainly give this one a try soon. We have some maple syrup we picked up in Vermont and we also are able to get it reasonably priced at Costco. If you have one by you I would check it out. My squirrels are in high gear going after the acorns and driving my cats and dog crazy :).
Regards,
Ian
That looks great Janet. Does the maple syrup flavor noticably come through? Who's this a natural levain taboot? I want to make a sandwich bread that lingers the flavor of maple syrup too.
Nice bake.
Josh
Hi Josh,
I can't tell you personally if the maple flavor comes through because I can't eat any of the bread that I bake….I go by aroma. I rely on others to tell me about flavor. What I was told is that there is a slight maple taste which, I am sure, can be enhanced by increasing the amount of maple syrup used in the recipe. The crusty bits of oats in the crumb contain the hints of the maple syrup since the syrup is added to them after they are baked.
Yes, it uses natural leaven along with a touch of IY. The added IY is to compensate for the high % of sugar in the dough which can slow down fermentation. This formula was formulated by a professional baker who has to work within a daily schedule of production - hence the addition of the poolish.
Thanks you for the very kind complement!
Take Care,
Janet
Amazing photos for this time of the year, pretty but disturbing.
No wonder you are thinking about comfort food. Your bread looks very comforting, indeed.
Take care,
Karin
Hi Karin,
What is even more amazing is that all the hail on the ground - several feet in some places - was pretty much gone the following day. Ground temp. was still high so it melted really quickly. I am extremely relived that we got off with minor damage.
Thanks for checking in. Trust MC to post about a talented baker and a good loaf. It was a comfort to bake - always settles my nerves :O
Take Care,
Janet