Monday, January 9, 2012

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Sandwich Bread (with flaxseed)

I am not good at following recipes - have you noticed? I look at most recipes as "suggestions" and I never follow them. I'm not always in the mood to dirty my measuring spoons and cups, or sometimes I'm out of an ingredient (or never had it in my house EVER) and sometimes a recipe looks interesting but is too complicated... you get the point.

So I was inspired by a recipe I noticed on King Arthur Flour to try making my own whole wheat oatmeal sandwich bread (that was our favorite bread from Whole Foods, back in the old days when we could get Whole Foods breads - some areas are kosher).

So here's what I did (recipe updated somewhat November 2016)

1/2 c. ground flaxseed
3 c. oat flour (I actually ground up whole oats in my coffee grinder...)
12 c. whole wheat flour or whole spelt flour
1/3 c. vital wheat gluten(optional)
1 T. salt

combine these in an extra large bowl (an old friend recommended using a dishpan instead of a bowl when making large batches or bread, and that's what I do! It's the perfect size.), make a well in the center, and add:

2 Tablespoons instant yeast
4 cups lukewarm water
1/4 cup oil (I used grapeseed, that's what was in my kitchen today, King Arthur Flour recommends safflower oil, but I've already changed the recipe so much...)
1/4 cup honey or sugar

Mix well and add water or flour as needed (flour from different places/different seasons/different varieties absorbs different amounts of water. be flexible when baking bread!).

Knead for at least 10 min. then lightly coat with oil and cover with a damp towel, set it in a warm spot to rise (my kitchen is cold, so I boil a shallow pot of water and set it on the counter. Then set the bowl on top of it to rise in a nice warm, humid spot.).


That's my dough, nicely risen - more than doubled in bulk - in a dishpan.
Yes, I have a dedicated bread baking dishpan...

After it has doubled in bulk (2 hours or so), punch down, take challah, shape your loaves as desired (I make some in loaf pans, and generally use this quantity of dough to make 4 loaves. These would also work as pull-apart rolls, though), and set it in a warm spot to rise again (same trick as before with the pot). Let it rise about 30-40 min more, then bake at 350 F for about 40 min.

Enjoy!

This post was shared with the Hearth and Soul Blog Hop on Jan. 10, 2012

10 comments:

  1. sounds delicious! can't wait to try it out at home! (I can't believe you didn't put pictures of the bread just as it comes out of the oven!... :-) )

    what is vital wheat gluten? where do i get it in Israel? could i substitute it for weat germ or something similar?

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  2. It hasn't come out of the oven yet! :-) maybe I'll add a picture soon.

    Vital Wheat gluten is hard to explain. It looks like flour but is JUST wheat gluten. It is used to improve the texture of whole grain breads. I am still trying to search out a source for it in Israel, as I am down to my last package of "imported" gluten. There are some rumors of it being available at the health food store near machane yehuda in yerushalayim and also at the baking supply store there. someone said it is available at shum pilpel v'shemen zayit in Modiin near rami levy. (it is sold as "gluten" instead of "vital wheat gluten") now i need to find a source for it near me!!

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  3. I really like the sound of this delicious and nutritious bread. I find oatmeal gives things such a wonderful flavour. Thank you for sharing this post with the Hearth and Soul hop.

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  4. Thanks April! Let me know how yours comes out when you try it! :-)

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  5. How do I know if my yeast is "fresh" or not? I just have the vacuum pack bag from the makolet...

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  6. Fresh yeast is the kind that has to stay refrigerated, and is kind of fragile. It is usually not vacuum packed. It is sold either as cubes or in little plastic packages. If I'm guessing correctly, your vacuum packed bag is probably dried yeast. In which case you would need to substitute. I don't know the substitution rule exactly. This is a large recipe - I'd go with 2-3 Tablespoons of dried yeast. Adjust as you like!

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  7. Hi Ester - sounds yummy. would like to try it. Do you think the glute is critical if I use, say, the 70% flour (from Niatzat Haduvdevan) instead of whole wheat? This question is based on no knowledge - just a lack of desire to start searching for a hard to find ingredient.

    Also - for those interested - this is a good site for measurement equivilents for different types of yeast:
    http://www.theartisan.net/convert_yeast_two.htm

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  8. You could probably leave it out, if you are using some white flour... but you can get gluten at any baking supply store, or even delivered to your house from bakers.co.il or iherb.com or vitacost.com (I can give you coupon codes for those last 2 if you want)

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