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

Tuesday night, Sept 13, 2011

I haven't been posting so much because I still haven't really stocked my pantry very well! And I'm slightly overwhelmed... but I still need to get back to meal planning. No one has been happy with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches lately (we've been resorting to that FAR too often)!

So tonight I'm trying to get back to some bit of meal planning. Please bear in mind that my pantry is kind of bare (purposely, really, since I have to figure out how to keep the ants out of it. I was not happy to discover them there...)!

Here goes!

Lentil based sloppy joes (no real recipe, I just improvised this time. I used lots of onion, garlic, red pepper, tomatoes, and red lentils, tomato juice (had some in the fridge to use up), spices, water)

Pitot and Baguettes (some members of the family prefer one over the other, so we're serving both)

Steamed corn
 
Oatmeal Bread (really cake like) - the kids didn't finish off the pot of oatmeal this morning so I turned it into a treat for tonight!

Inspired Leftovers?

What do you do when you make too much of something you KNOW will not get eaten as leftovers?

Today, I made a pot of oatmeal for breakfast, but one of the children refused to eat oatmeal this morning, so there was a nice-sized serving left. Needless to say, nobody really eats it after it's been stored and reheated. I've tried turning leftover oatmeal into cookies, but the results were far from impressive. I racked my brain, and finally decided to make a quick bread out of it.

Here's what went into it:

1 - 1.5 c. cooked oatmeal (mine was cooked with milk, plus extra dry milk powder for a nutritional boost and a shake of salt)
1 egg
1/3 c. oil
3/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. whole wheat flour (sifted, as is the custom here in Israel, despite my custom of keeping all flour in the freezer)
1 tsp. baking powder
chopped walnuts
1/4 t. cinnamon.

Combine all ingredients, wet first. Mix well, but don't overmix. Pour into loaf pan(s) and bake at 350 F for about an hour.

My children loved it as a treat this evening. And I made enough that they can have it again tomorrow!

Sunday Night, March 27, 2011

Oops! The day flew by; we were doing some major clean up and organization projects! At least I can look at the playroom and know that it is organized and we threw out LOTS of junk that had accumulated. I promised myself that I will not allow the children to buy any more toys from the shekel store again! It's just destined for the garbage, so let them keep it, and let me keep my hard-earned shekels!

Anyhow, quick supper plan for tonight:
Breakfast for supper! (Can you tell this is just for me and the kids? Hubby is coming home late...)

Oatmeal - I said I had to use up the oats I have on hand!
Toast with peanut butter and jelly
Yogurt, Cheese, etc
Carrot Sticks, Cucumber sticks