January 6, 2014 - 10:28am
steel cut oats vs oatmeal (flakes) in soaker
I have been making the struan (the recipe version posted by Floydm here from BBA). It uses oatmeal soaked for a short while or overnight. Steel cut oats take so much longer to cook and soften than oatmeal but can you still use them in place of oatmeal in a soaker? Will they soften enough in an ON soak? I wanted to use steel cut oats for their chewy, nubby texture but don't want hard uncooked pieces in the final bread. Do steel cut oats have to be cooked before addition to bread?
If you have used steel cut oats in your breads please let me how you use it and how it works for you?
Thank you so much!
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Presoak in boiling water, or cook for a period, if you want to ensure they are soft as you desire. Then include in soaker.
Thanks! just going to do it!
Well I did it this way: Poured a measured amount of very hot, almost boiling water over the steel oats, cover and let cool to RT then added remaining soaker ingredients (other whole grains). After ON soaking the steel cut oat bits were perfectly soft and chewy. In the final bread they just disappeared as do oatmeal flakes and the flavor was very similar. However leaving them (the steel cut oats) in very hot water for that hour or so released something, I am guessing starches, which made the dough oh so, so, sticky and a bear to work with. So for the end result I got its still best to use oatmeal flakes. And as far as my experience is till now, to get the chewy bits in bread maybe use soaked coarse bulghur or cooked short grain brown rice. I have to find a better way to add steel cut oats to my whole grain breads. I love the stuff.
Thank you mrfrost