It may take awhile, but this Honey-Oatmeal Sandwich Bread was worth the wait!

Jeff pointed out to me the other day that we were out of homemade bread and had been for over a week! We've been so busy between the trips out to Minneapolis and dealing with trying to sell the house that I guess I had just not noticed. Since I finally had some extra time this morning, I flipped through the yeast bread section of my go-to book lately, the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking cookbook, and spotted this Honey-Oatmeal Sandwich Bread recipe.

This is definitely not a quick recipe as there are several steps and lots of downtime. The recipe calls for old-fashioned rolled oats to be mixed with boiling water, butter, salt and sweet honey - this mixture needs to then be left to cool down so the oats have a chance to soften and the temperature of the mixture is cool enough that it won't kill the yeast. The bread uses a combination of flours - whole wheat flour for a nutritious nutty flavor and some all-purpose flour to keep the loaf from being too heavy or dense. This recipe also calls for dry milk to be added with the flour - the extra protein from the dry milk adds structure and allows for a higher-rising bread without changing the ratio of liquid to dry. You may notice that once you combine the liquid and dry ingredients, the recipe calls for a 45 minute rest. This allows the whole grain flour to absorb the liquids and makes the kneading process a little easier - you don't have to do this step, but I highly recommend it so you don't add too much excess flour while working with the dough.

This golden bread was soft, sliced easily and made for a great piece of toast with a thin layer of sweet butter or jam. While the honey adds moisture, it does not make this loaf too sweet... so this bread would also be a delicious choice for a savory sandwich. Even though we've only tested it out as a piece of toast, I've already got plans to make us a couple fluffernutters with it for a snack later!

Recipes
Honey-Oatmeal Sandwich Bread