Oatmeal Molasses Bread
Since Tasty Tuesday was hijacked by my 100th post giveaway, I decided to make Thursday tasty by sharing my latest adventure with bread yeast. For the record, the score is now Erin 2, Yeast 1. This latest battle was a tie.
I decided to tackle the oatmeal molasses bread recipe that my mom makes exceptionally well. Since the project requires a total of 3.5 hours of rising (never mind kneading, mixing and baking), I started mid afternoon on Sunday and pulled the hot loaves out of the oven around 9 p.m. I was losing daylight by the minute.
It was touch and go at times, but the end result was worth it. A little flat, but definitely worth it.
I was so serious about winning this battle with yeast (I am trying to conquer it, after all) that I bought a thermometer to gauge the temperature of the water. Want to see how it all happened? Check out the recipe and instructions…
Oatmeal Molasses Bread (printable version)
makes 2 loaves, or one large loaf
(from The Joy of Cooking)
INGREDIENTS:
water
1 cup rolled oats
1 TBS butter
3/4 tsp salt
1 package active dry yeast
1/3 cup molasses
4 cups all-purpose flour
INSTRUCTIONS:
Mix 1.5 cups of water with oatmeal, butter and salt in a medium saucepan.
Cook the mixture over medium-low heat until the oatmeal is soft, smooth and free of lumps. (The recipe said this would take 20 minutes, but mine took less than 10.) This mixture needs to get down below 115 degrees, so check the temperature and give it a stir to help cool it down.
While the mixture is cooling, combine the yeast and 1/4 cup of warm water (105 – 115 degrees) in a large mixing bowl or the bowl of your KitchenAid mixer. Let this stand until the yeast is dissolved, about 5 minutes.
Then, add the oatmeal mixture to the yeast, along with 1/2 cup of room temperature water and the molasses.
Stir all of this until well blended.
Gradually stir in the flour until the dough is moist, but not too sticky (this was terribly hard for me to judge and my dough ended up quite sticky).
Knead the dough for 10 to 15 minutes, either by hand or on a low-medium setting on your mixer. Then, transfer the dough to an oil coated bowl. Turn the dough a time or two to coat it with oil.
Cover the dough with plastic wrap and leave it in a warm place (75 to 80 degrees) to rise for 1.5 hours.
Once it is doubled in volume, punch down the dough and knead briefly.
Divide the dough in half and roll each piece into a loose loaf shape on an unfloured work surface (I needed to use a little flour, since my dough was so sticky!). Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes.
Then form the dough into free standing loaves, or place them in oiled bread pans. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place for another 1.5 hours until doubled in volume.
(I think I should have let it rise some more…)
Bake at 375 degrees for about 40 minutes or until the bottoms of the loaves sound hollow when tapped. Let cool for at least 30 minutes before serving.
Okay, if you’ve made it through that whole post, then you deserve to know why this round was a tie. In the end, the bread came out a little bit flat. It definitely needs to rise more before baking. I think my rising temperature is a serious issue. Our house is never, ever warmer than 68 degrees, so I tried to create warmth by putting the oven on the “keep warm” setting and setting the bowl on top. But, I don’t think the warmth is consistent enough. I need a better warm environment for the rising dough, or just have more patience and let it rise longer than normal. Does anyone have any suggestions??
But, flat or not, the bread tasted great. I’m still enjoying it days later (and even Chris liked it!). It has a sweet molasses taste to it, which could be ramped up or turned down depending on your taste. A bit less molasses would reveal a more oatmeal flavor. I would also consider baking this as one big loaf to make more sandwich-sized slices.
So, what do you think? Does this look too difficult or would you give it a try? As long as you have some patience, and other projects to fill the time, it’s not so bad, I swear!
Want to hear more about my adventures with yeast? See the start and my first battle!
This looks good… but it is a lot of work, isn’t it?
I let my loaf last weekend rise over a warm stove (I was making a roast chicken for dinner), and it did okay, but was a little flat, too. Maybe we just have to wait for summer to get optimal loaf rising?
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Doesn’t anyone use an electrical breadmaker or is that “cheating”? It does look reeeally nice Erin but way too much work for me unless I’ve got a Saturday to myself on which to try it out. I am assuming molasses is what we call treacle but not sure??
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Bread just aint my thing. But, yours looks yummy. And, I love the apron. So cute! Where’d you find it?
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Erin Reply:
February 11th, 2010 at 10:07 pm
Hi Kim,
The apron was a gift from my mom and, of course, she made it!
xo,
- e
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Try putting the bread inside the oven with the light on. You can also heat up the inside of the oven just a tad before putting the bread in, but turning on the heat for just a bit.
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Have made this recipe a number of times and have arrived at the following:
1. use steel cut oats (not rolled) as this takes 20 minutes to cook
2. dough always seems sticky even after adding more flour. Think it’s the nature of the beast.
3. tried rising in warm oven (worked better) but make sure yeast is really fresh. still kind of flat.
4. have been making 2 small loaves verses 1 large. tried 1 larger loaf and a dozen rolls. still not quite a full loaf. will make only one loaf with next batch. Suppose you could double recipe and make two loafs also. good luck….love your nursery!!
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Ok Erin, I’m gonna throw my two cents in. I haven’t made this bread in years and not sure that it was ever that exceptional lol. I may have already told you this, but if I remember right the recipe always was a little off. As in not enough dough for two loaves, but too much for one. So I don’t think it’s you or the yeast! If it didn’t rise enough you’d have heavy dense bread, and yours looks perfect in that respect. I think my solution was to double the recipe and make 3 loaves, which was never too much in our house!
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