For some reason I have always been afraid to make bread. I am afraid of the yeast, how do I know if the water is warm enough, did it rise enough, etc… I once bought yeast, and literally moved it with be through 3 different houses and never used it! I finally threw it out about a year ago. I’m sure it had expired in 1995 or something! I don’t have a bread machine, but I do have a Kitchen-Aid mixer with the dough hook. I have read countless recipes for bread, but besides pumpkin bread, or banana bread, or any other sweet bread, I have never attempted a regular kind of bread. I have had thoughts of making my kids sandwiches for their school lunches on bread that I made, how cool would that be, (would I win some kind of awesome Mom award?) I found this recipe at www.cookingbread.com. And even for someone like me, who is a novice at making bread, it turned out fantastic and now I don’t have to be afraid anymore. Plus the ingredients are so inexpensive, you could make breads like these all the time for a fraction of the price in grocery stores. This recipe makes 2 loaves of bread. You can freeze any leftovers if you like, but if you are like my family, that won’t be necessary!
Ingredients
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1/3 cup butter (soft)
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 2 package yeast
- 1 egg
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 2-3 cups white flour
Method
In a saucepan, heat 1 cup of water to boiling. Add in oats, butter, honey and salt. Set a side to cool to 110F. Heat remaining water to 110 F. and sprinkle yeast, allow to activate. In a large bowl combine the yeast mixture, egg , the whole wheat flour and the cooked rolled oats. Mix together till smooth. Using your hand knead in the remaining flour. Just enough to make a stiff batter. Spread batter evenly into two greased 8 1/2 X 4 1/4 inch loaf pans. Cover and let rise till double about 35 – 40 minutes. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 40-45 minutes. Remove from pans and brush with butter.
That’s it, that wasn’t so hard, was it? Have any of you attempted to make your own breads??
I’ve made banana bread from scratch a million times, and beer bread once. My mom always makes a homemade, stuffed bread for Christmas each year. But she cheats and gets those loaves of dough in the freezer section, that you just thaw and let rise. My grandmother has a bread maker and used to make hundreds of different recipes. You could always smell a yeasty, fresh baked bread smell when you walked into their house, growing up.
That’s how I want it to be, having the yumminess of bread wafting through my house all the time. We’ll see if I ever try it again!
Wow, you have a really cool oven!
Yeah, I wish! I would make pizzas and breads all day!