Oatmeal Wheat Bread (pp 671-672)

Some cliches exist for a reason, this is one of them: there's nothing better than a loaf of bread out of the oven. It 'smells up the place real good', it tastes great, and it's still warm.

Meez:

You'll need 2C whole milk, 1C old-fashioned rolled oats (I thought these would be harder to find, they weren't), warm water to activate your 2Tb yeast, 1/2C honey, 1/2 stick melted butter, 2C whole wheat flour (called for stone-ground, I just used regular, King Arthur to be specific), 2C unbleached AP flour, 1 t salt, and 1 lg egg beaten w/1 t water to make a wash.

Procedure:

Heat up the milk, add the oatmeal to hydrate. Stir your warm water and yeast together, add 1 t honey. Let stand 'til foamy.  stir together yeast mix with butter and the rest of the honey, add to oatmeal. In a large bowl, mix the whole wheat flour, 1 1/2 c AP flour, and the salt. Add in the oatmeal-honey-yeast mix, stirring until you've got a basic dough. Turn out onto a floured surface and work the dough, adding more flour until it is only slightly sticky. Shape this into a ball and put it in an oiled bowl to rise and double at room temp for 1 1/2 - 2 hours. I put mine in the fridge overnight. Butter 2 loaf pans. Split the dough in half and shape them both into basic loaf shapes. Put them in the pans, seam side down. Cover with a towel (the book says no to terry cloth but that's what I use in the kitchen and no problems there) and let rise for about an hour or until doubled. Preheat the oven to 375. LIGHTLY brush the tops of the loaves with the egg wash. Don't overdo it or it'll run down the sides and you'll have some sticking issues (one of my loaves got shredded due to this). Sprinke lightly with some oats.

Doughy goodness

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Depan them and let them cool on a rack.

Loafy goodness

So, how was it?

This was a good, solid loaf. It also toasted up nicely.

What did you learn?

The egg-wash thing, don't overdo it. Egg proteins are basically like glue. They'll grab on and stick to the pan.

Recommend it?

Indeed. This is a good loaf to try. I'd make it again.

Buttery-Toasted Oatmeal with Sticky Apple Topping (p. 647)

I've always loved steel-cut oatmeal. It's so much creamier than the instant kind. The trade-off is time, but if you want your breakfast to be a little more lavish, try steel-cut rather than rolled. You will be surprised.

Meez:

Steel cut oatmeal, apples, brown sugar, butter, salt, half-and-half

Procedure:

Heat 2 1/2TB butter in a heavy saucepan until it stops bubbling. Add your cup of steel cut oats and stir until it browns a little more (difficult to tell) and gives off a nutty aroma (not so difficult). Add 4 1/2 cups boiling water (electric kettle or hotpot is great for this) and 1/4 tsp salt to the oats and stir occasionally for about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a skillet melt half a stick of butter and add 2 apples (they call for Gala or Fuji but I used some of my remaining Golden Delicious) that have been peeled, cored, and sliced 1/8 inch thick.

Oatmeal and apples on the heat

Stir occasionally until they brown a little. Then add 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/8 tsp salt. Stir gently (because the apples will be tender at this point) until the sugar has melted. Stir in half-and-half and let it thicken up. I used whole milk instead, initially it looked like it curdled (possibly from the malic acid in the apples) but it thickened out after a bit and looked good.
Put your oatmeal in a bowl and put the apple topping over it.

Final dish

So, how was it?
It was really good. I'd probably do it again another weekend for breakfast. It's thick, hearty, and sweet.

What did you learn?
I learned to keep half-and-half (or at least heavy cream) on hand more often.

Recommend it?

Absolutely, it's great for a delicious breakfast that'll power you through the day.