Honey Oat Bread.

I have been talking a lot on my facebook page about this amazing bread recipe I found.  Finally I am getting around to posting the recipe so that you too can take part in some delicious bread eating!

I was at the Amish market recently and thought I would buy a different kind of flour.  (Usually I do the 1-cup whole wheat to 2-cups white).  I settled on oat flour.  After I got home and started searching for recipes I found out that maybe oat flour wasn't such a good choice.  Oat flour is heavy and contains little to no natural leavening agent.  I had a difficult time finding something that could take the place of my old stand-by bread recipe.  I needed something that would taste good from the time I took it out of the oven to later in the week when it was being toasted for breakfast...

In the end it was King Arthur Flour that came through for me.

Honey Oat Bread

(Adapted from King Arthur Flour)

1 cup water
1/3 cup milk
1/2 stick butter (softened)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons honey
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup oat flour (could also ground your own oats)
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast
1 tablespoon wheat gluten
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 cups bread flour

...and now comes the point where I make a confession.  Once I have the ingredients gathered I place in the bread machine - liquid on the bottle and yeast placed into a hole of flour...then I turn the bread machine to the dough setting and walk away for an hour and a half.  When I return I remove the dough from the machine, work it into a log, place in a loaf pan, cover with a towel, and walk away again.  I return in 45-60 minutes to place the bread in a pre-heated 350 degree oven to bake for 35-40 minutes.

I realize it's kind of like cheating, but at the same time it's not cheating at all.  And it beats store-bought bread by a million!!  

This bread is tender, moist, and has a hint of sweetness to it.  It tastes phenomenal straight from the oven slathered with butter (it really does) and it tastes just as a great toasted a few days later.  Best.bread.of.the.moment. 

Go ahead and challenge yourself to make this!  If you don't have a bread machine you can go to King Arthur for totally from scratch directions.