Old-Fashioned Winter Oatmeal Bread

1/2 cup warm water
1 1/2 tbsp active dry yeast
pinch of sugar
2 cups warm milk
1/2 cup honey 4 tbsp melted butter
1 tsp salt 
2 cups rolled oats
5 to 5 1/2 cup unbleached flour or bread flour
extra oats for sprinkling

1) Proof the yeast with first 3 ingredients for few mins
2) Mix milk, honey, melted butter, salt, oats and 1.5 c flour. Beat together and st in yeast mixture. Add in remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time until a soft dough is formed.
3) Knead for 7 to 10 mins
4) Let it rise for 1/2 hour or more (Here if using AP flour, I let it rise for until 1.5 times the original size or else there is not enough gluten for the second rise)
5) Gently deflate the dough and shape into 2 round loaves rolling it around rolled oats.
6) Bake in 375degrees for 40 to 45 mins.

(Note from recipe: oat grains has no gluten. To avoid a flat loaf, do not add more than 1 c of oats to 3 c of flour. Some baker presoak rolled oats in some liquid for 1 hour to reduce moisture absoprtion during rising or you can grind the oats to a coarse flour. Granola cereal can be used in place of oats.)

My personal experience is I presoak the oats and it works fine though innitially it was really shaggy. Also the rise is better when I use bread flour but when I use AP flour I have to reduce the liquid by at 2 to 4 tablesp of either the warm water and /or milk


by Cherry