My Madison Bistro

My favorite breakfast tends to be buttered toast with a few mugs of steaming coffee (with cream – too many lattes over the years destroyed my appreciation of black coffee). If I’m really feeling wild, I might add some homemade strawberry jam or some peanut butter.

When I saw this recipe for an oatmeal bread, I could barely contain my excitement. I knew it would be a rather filling bread – perfect for breakfast!

I made a few slight adjustments to the recipe. I decreased the all-purpose flour because frankly, I didn’t have enough, and substituted some bread flour. I adjusted the total amount of white flour to compensate for the heavier bread flour. My brown sugar lacked moisture, so I added a bit of molasses and compensated for the extra sugar by adding a tiny pinch of salt. Even still, this bread was crazy when it came to rising – the loaf was huge!

This bread was delicious toasted with butter and/or jam, slathered in peanut butter, even served with a schmear of cream cheese as a substitute for an oatmeal bagel. In fact, the cream cheese topping was probably my favorite with this particular bread.

Upon slicing, I immediately froze half the loaf; it you bake it, you’ll understand why. Or simply look at the pictures; one slice of this bread is the equivalent of two slices of your standard bread.

Oatmeal Bread
adapted from Macrina Bakery and Cafe Cookbook via Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

Print Recipe

1 1/2 cups rolled oats, divided
1 cup boiling water
1/4 cup warm water
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups buttermilk (room temperature)
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon molasses
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons, plus a pinch, of salt
1 spray bottle filled with water

Reserve 1/4 cup oats.

Place 1 1/4 cups oats in bowl. Pour in boiling water and let stand for 10 minutes, stirring frequently.

Place 1/4 cup water in bowl of stand mixer. Sprinkle yeast on top and mix with your fingers to dissolve yeast. Add the soaked oats, buttermilk, oil, sugar, molasses, flours, and salt. Using dough hook, mix on low to combine, then increase speed to medium and mix until dough is satiny and forms a ball, about 10 minutes.

Place dough in bowl coated in oil or cooking spray. Turn the dough over to be sure it’s well-coated, and cover in plastic wrap. Allow to rise until double in size, about an hour.

Transfer dough to floured surface and flatten with hands to release air bubbles. Form dough into 12×6 inch rectangle. Fold the two short ends towards the middle, then roll the dough away from you to form a log. Let the dough rest a few minutes, seam-side down.

Oil a 9x5x4 inch loaf pan. Transfer the log, seam-side down into the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise again for about 40 minutes.

While the loaf is rising again, place the rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 375*F.

Remove plastic wrap and mist top of bread with water. Pat remaining oats onto the top of the bread, then place pan oven for about an hour, or until the crust is dark and the bread sounds hollow when tapped.

Cool in a pan on a wire rack for about 30 minutes, then run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the bread. Turn the bread out onto the rack (some oats may fall off) and cool completely before slicing.

Tags: bread, buttermilk, oats

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