Honey Oat Bread

Hey all, it's Jess!  Last week, since it was insanely cold and I was still on winter break, I decided to bake my favorite bread.  I found this recipe for Honey Oat Bread on Pinterest last spring and it became our family favorite. It's great for sandwiches, toast, or really anything!  Plus, it's not complicated, so even if you're new to bread making, you can easily handle it.  The only challenge is having enough time to let it rise.  You'll want to budget about 3-4 hours from start to finish.

Start off by gathering your ingredients...

You might notice that I always use half whole wheat flour and half regular as a change to the original recipe.  I think it gives a great hearty flavor and ups the fiber content.

I also started buying a larger container of yeast when I started baking bread more often.  It's much more economical than those little packets.  It will also keep in your fridge for a while.  I find if I have yeast, then I always have the ingredients for bread or homemade pizza crust.  Pro tip--2 1/4 teaspoons is the equivalent of one of those packets.

You'll want to heat the milk in the microwave, then stir in the the butter, honey and water.  In your mixer bowl, mix the flour, oats, salt and yeast.  Another baker tip--if you spray your measuring cup with cooking spray before adding the honey, then the honey won't stick.

Check the temperature of your milk mixture before adding it to the flour.  If it's too hot, it will kill your yeast.  The first few times I used a thermometer (101 or 102 degrees, but not much hotter), but now I just use my finger.  You want it a little warmer than body temperature, but not much, so it should feel warm but not hot.  You'll probably need to let it cool off a little before adding it.  Once it's the right temperature, turn on your mixer and stream in the milk mix.  The dough will start to come together.  Once it looks mixed in, turn up the speed to medium and then knead in your mixer for ten minutes.

Take the dough out and roll the dough into a smooth ball.  Take a little vegetable oil and grease the inside of your mixer bowl and put the dough back in.  Some people do this in a separate bowl, but I don't like doing dishes.  You'll need to let it rest to rise for about an hour.  In the summer, I do this on my kitchen counter.  Thanks to 8 degree temperatures outside and a drafty kitchen, I used a couple of work-arounds this time.  I turned on my oven to 200 degrees, let it preheat and then turned it off.  Then I let the bread rise in there.  Worked out just great!  After an hour, it doubled in size.

Roll out the dough into a rectangle.  The recipe suggests 12 x 9, but I don't have ruler in my kitchen.  I usually just make it the width of my loaf pan (which you also need to butter) and about twice the length.  Then take one end and roll it up like a cinnamon roll or cake roll.

Now it's time for rise number two!  Put it into your loaf pan and back into whatever rising environment worked for you last time around.

After another hour, preheat your oven to 350 (or 325 if you have a convection like me).  Here's where I changed it up from the actual recipe.  The first time I made this bread, I was in a hurry/distracted by my preschooler so I didn't do the whole "add a pan of water to add steam in the oven before baking" thing.  The bread turned out fine, so I've omitted it each time I've made it.  Try if if you want but I think it's not necessary.

Before adding it to the oven, I melt two tablespoons of butter (my addition) and honey.  I brush that on top of the bread and sprinkle on some oats.  Sometimes I also sprinkle on some sea salt.  I also always place my pan on a baking sheet to avoid any mess in the oven.

Bake for 40-50 minutes (mine takes 42 on convection).  When you pull it out, you want to check that it's golden brown on top.  You can also check the temperature to make sure it's at least 190 degrees.  This is also something you'll learn to do visually after you've made bread for a while.  You can also tap the bottom of the loaf (once it's out of the pan of course) which should sound hollow.  Now that I've made this several times, I can tell by the sound, too.

I let it cool for 5-10 minutes in the pan before I remove it to cool completely on a wire rack.  It's going to be tempting to cut it, but it will be too hard to cut if you don't want until it's cool.

There you have it!  The best bread and super easy for a beginning bread baker!  The only thing I haven't tried is doubling this recipe because we always go through it so quickly.  Give it a try and let me know what you think in the comments.  Happy baking!