Oatmeal Honey Bread

The Artisan Bread Machine by Judith Fertig has been on my wishlist ages ago, I finally ordered the book and have been waiting anxiously for it to arrive since then. I was so excited when I received my book a few days ago and the very next day, made this simple bread. I love making bread, though sometimes reading the long instructions from some books really tires me out, makes my mind works overtime just by reading and understanding the long and tedious (which I'm sure are necessary!) instructions :)  So I always look for bread machine cookbooks, though I do have some great books like Amy's Bread and Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A Day, I have never attempted any recipes from those books, well, not yet! Maybe soon! 

I was very happy with the contents of this new book, lots of great recipes, and tips. There's even a chapter on how to make your own sourdough from scratch, I'm looking forward to that one. Much as I love my bread machine, I have always prefer to mix the dough in the machine and finish off the baking in the oven. That's what I did with this Oatmeal Honey Bread.

This is a lovely loaf of oatmeal bread. The only changes that I did was to omit the milk powder, just because I do not have any in my pantry! The next time when I make this, I'll double up the salt, as I think that it will be much tastier, I'm not saying that it is bland, but I think a little bit more of salt would make  it nicer. I only made a 1pound loaf, though the recipes given are for 1lb, 1-1/2 lb and 2lb loaves. 

It has a nice soft texture. I wrap the bread  in plastic wrap and store it in an airtight container, and it was still soft the next day. I enjoyed it spread with some butter and homemade apricot jam and since this is only a small loaf, we finished it all at breakfast. Overall rating : Good loaf of bread! One that I will make again!

I'm sharing this with
Cookbook Sundays hosted by Couscous & Consciousness
Full Plate Thursday hosted by Miz Helen's Country Cottage
Bake with Bizzy hosted by Bizzy Bakes
BYOB-Bake Your Own Bread hosted by Girlichef

Oatmeal Honey Bread
(adapted from "The Artisan Bread Machine" by Judith Fertig)
Makes 1lb (500gm), 1 loaf
1 tbsp instant skim milk powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1/4 cup lukewarm milk
2 tbsp liquid honey
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1-3/4 cups bread flour
2/3 cup large-flake (old-fashioned) or quick-cooking rolled oats
1 tsp instant or bread machine yeast

1. Add milk powder, salt, water, milk, honey and oil to the bread pan. Spoon flour and oats on top of liquid. Add yeast.
2. Select the Basic/White Cycle and Light Crust setting and press Start.

Tips :

Ideally, the water and milk should be between 86F and 95F (30C and 35C), the temperature range in which yeast is most active. Warm them in the microwave or in a saucepan on the stove, and check the temperature with an instant-read thermometer.

When making the smallest loaf allowed by your machine, check the dough a few minutes after kneading starts to make sure the ingredients are incorporated. You may need to help the machine along by using a rubber spatula to scrape the corners of the pan.

If your dough does not form a ball during the first few minutes of kneading, do one of two things; if the dough looks dry and crumbly, add 1 tbsp (15ml) water at 1-minute intervals until the dough forms a ball; if the dough looks wet, add 1 tbsp (15ml) bread flour at 1-minute intervals until the dough forms a ball.

Kitchen Flavours notes :

~ omitted the milk powder

~ mixed the dough using the bread machine on the Basic Dough cycle. The first rise in the bread machine, at the end of the cycle (1 hour 35 minutes) the machine would have "punch down" the dough and it is ready to be taken out and proceed manually.

~ put the dough on a lightly floured work surface, and rolled out dough to almost the length of the baking pan, about 1" thickness. Roll it up from the longer side like a swissroll, make a nice round at both ends and place the dough in the greased baking pan (for 1 pound loaf, pan size is 8-1/2"x4-1/2"), seam side down. Sprinkle with some flour if desired. Cover with an oiled cling film and left to rise till double in size, about 40 minutes. 

~ Remove cling film and bake in a preheated oven at 160C (I use a dark pan) for 35 minutes. Immediately remove bread from pan and cool on a wire rack.
~ note : will double-up the salt next time.