Oatmeal Bread Recipe

By JULIE - 10:51:00 AM

My husband and I have been trying to lower our gluten and wheat intake. Not because we have any allergies to gluten, but because I believe the reason so many people are having problems with gluten is because the hard wheat we use today has much more protein than our grandparents ate. I replaced 2 cups of flour in this recipe with oats and flax. The extra bonus is that I know the oats are whole grain! Why oats? Well oats can or can not have gluten depending on how it was raised (what did it cross bread with), but obviously have less gluten than wheat. So why did I use bread flour if I'm trying to lower gluten (bread flour has higher protein)? Well frankly, I have it in my pantry so I'm trying to use it up a little here and there. So you can by all means try to sub the bread flour with organic whole wheat flour, I would imagine it would turn out fine. I also used unbleached flour, because I had it in my pantry. I would have preferred to have used whole wheat flour, so you can feel free to substitute.

Oatmeal Bread Recipe
(makes 2 loafs)

Ingredients

2 3/4 cups of warm water

1 tsp honey

1 tablespoon active dry yeast (or 1 package of yeast)

1 tsp salt

1 1/3 cup of organic rolled oats (old fashioned)

2 cups of organic whole white wheat flour

1 cup of organic wheat bread flour (can substitute organic whole wheat flour)

1 cup of unbleached organic wheat flour (can substitute organic whole wheat flour)

3/4cup of flax meal

Directions

1. Add yeast an sugar into 2 3/4 cups of warm water ( 100 -115 degrees F) into a large bowl. Wait 5-10 min, it should be foamy.

2. Add salt, and 2 cups of flour. Add the flax meal and the rest of the flour, a little at a time, until the dough is too stiff to stir and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

4. Use a dough hook to knead or knead by hand. If by hand make sure to flour the surface you are working on and need for about 10-15 min. Only add the least amount of flour needed to the dough. It should be slightly sticky. Too much flour makes the bread dry and crumbly.

5. 1^st Rise: oil a large bowl and place the dough in the bowl, make sure the dough is oiled too. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and place in a warm spot and let rise until doubled in size, about 30-45 mins. You can test it by poking a finger into the dough about an inch down if the hole remains it is done. If the dough rises more than double, punch it down and let it rise again.

6. Punching Down: Punch the dough with your fist. Place the dough over to the floured surface. Knead it a few times to press out the gas bubbles, then cut the dough into two equal pieces with a knife. Oil baking sheets or bread pans and sprinkle corn meal on it and place the dough on the baking sheet with a kitchen towel over it.

7. 2^nd rise: put the loaves in a warm place to rise again. Once they are double their size again (about 45-60 min) they are ready to put into the oven

8. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (allow at least 15 min to preheat)

9. Place baking sheet or loaf pans into the oven (you might want to bake each sheet seperately to ensure even cooking) 30-40 min.

10. When the bread has baked for 30 min check for doneness. If the loaves are brown, with an oven mit on flip it onto your mit from the baking sheet. Give the loaf a tap; if it makes a hallow sound, it is done. If it makes a dull thud, bake a few minutes longer.

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