I eat a ton of eggs for breakfast. Despite being a baker I have always generally tried to load my breakfast plate up with proteins over carbs – and coffee. There is always coffee.
This bread might just change all of that.
It’s hearty and filling yet still so soft and chewy. Add a little peanut butter and cinnamon or even just a smear of butter and you’ll never believe you made this and didn’t get it from some fancy bakery.
Making it really is not much different than any other basic bread. The only major step added is cooking the oatmeal.
Although I found this dough a tad stickier than I am used to working with it still comes together beautifully.
I like to start my dough in my stand mixer with the dough hook but finish it off by hand so that I can really feel if I’ve got the right amount of flour.
You can tell you’ve got the right amount of flour when you can press your palm into the dough for a few seconds and there is very little residue left on your hand.
By adding the salt and butter to the oatmeal instead of the yeast mixture directly really helps the bread rise a bit quicker than if it was weighed down by all of those ingredients individually.
This recipe makes two loaves so I decided to make one round and one traditional loaf because why not? I like options.
Round loaves make me feel fancy.
But traditional loaves fit better in a toaster. See my dilemma? A girl needs options.
Oatmeal Molasses Bread
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cup water (divided)
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 pkg active dry yeast
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/3 cup molasses
- 3 1/2 to 41/2 cup all purpose flour
Instructions
- Combine oatmeal, butter, salt, and 1 1/2 cup water in a saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally. It will be very thick. Set aside to cool to just above room temperature.
- Combine yeast, sugar, and 1/4 warm water in the bottom of a mixing bowl. Let sit until foamy – about 5 minutes.
- Add molasses, 1 cup flour, and remaining water to yeast mixture and mix until well blended.
- Start to add remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time until dough starts to form a ball and pull away from the sides of the bowl.
- At this point I like to take it out of the bowl and knead by hand until I get the right consistency. Add flour slowly until dough is soft and doesn’t leave much residue on your hands.
- Place dough in a greased bowl. Cover with a kitchen towel or greased plastic wrap – see note. Let double in size, about an hour.
- Punch down dough and divide into 2 equal portions. Cover with towel or plastic wrap and let rest 15 minutes. Then form into loaves (in loaf pans or free standing), cover, and let rise again until double in size.
- Bake at 375 for 40-50 minutes.
Notes
*Slightly adapted from Joy of Cooking
