Oatmeal Molasses Bread

Moxie Sister and her family are coming from the mothermountains to visit this weekend. YAY! Everyone is vegetarian, and I like having homemade bread on hand for the ravenous Moxie Munchkins. This is one of my favorite workhorse yeast breads –- great for everything from peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches to toast. I modified the recipe a bit, including using more types of flour, which makes it easier to tolerate for those of us with mild gluten issues. If you want to bake the original, it shows up as "Rabbit Hill Inn Molasses-Oatmeal Bread" in the excellent Dairy Hollow House Soup & Bread: A Country Inn Cookbook by the extravagantly-named Crescent Dragonwagon. (No, I’m not making that up.)

ingredients

• 2 c boiling water, plus a cup or so extra
• 1 c old-fashioned oatmeal
• 1 ½ tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp active dry yeast (I like the bulk kind in the brown glass jar you keep in the fridge, but make sure you bring it to room temperature before you use it)
• ½ c lukewarm water
• ½ c darkest molasses
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 ½ c whole wheat flour
• 1 ½ c unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 c spelt flour
• 1 c dark rye flour

instructions

1. In a large bowl (I like using the KitchenAid mixer bowl), pour the 2 cups of boiling water over the oatmeal and butter. Cover and let stand 30 minutes.


2. Pour the lukewarm water into a small glass bowl, add a generous pinch of sugar and stir. Sprinkle yeast over the sugar-water mixture and let stand until dissolved, about 5-10 minutes. Make sure all the yeast gets wet; if some is still dry after a few minutes, give it a quick stir. A brief sidebar: I find watching yeast activate interesting and soothing. Sometimes it sinks to the bottom and slowly bubbles up from the middle like a sluggish volcano, sometimes it forms a foam like the head on a lovely pint of Guinness, sometimes it turns murky and barely seethes. This is a good recipe for watching yeast, but you’ll want to measure out the other ingredients ahead of time.


3. Add the yeast, molasses, and salt to the bowl of oatmeal and stir well. Crucial tip #1: you've heard the phrase "slower than molasses in January?" Take that extra cup of boiling water and put a metal 1 cup measure to soak until it's good and hot. Take out the metal cup, shake off the excess water, and immediately pour in the molasses. Let stand for 1 minute, then pour into the oatmeal mixture. The hot metal ensures almost all the molasses will drizzle out effortlessly, and the remainder only needs a quick finger-swipe to finish off.


4. Add enough flour so you can knead the dough –- or use the bitchin’ KitchenAid dough hook. If you’re old school, lightly flour a surface and keep at it until dough is elastic, about 8-10 minutes. Crucial tip #2: do not knead this bread dough on a cold counter (e.g., marble, granite) or it will take forever to rise. If you’re new school, the dough hook method will take you half the amount of time. In either case, you’re likely to need extra all-purpose flour at hand because the wheat flour will keep things sticky.


5. Butter a glass or ceramic bowl, pat the dough into a ball, drop it into the bowl and flip it so the oiled side is on top. Cover with a clean, smooth dishtowel and let rise until double, 1 ½ - 2 hours.


6. Butter two 9” x 5” bread pans. I like the dark metal kind because it cuts baking time and creates a more crisp bottom crust. Punch down the dough, divide in half, and roll the dough into loaves, still avoiding any cold countertops. Place into the pans, cover again, and let rise until double, about 45 minutes.


7. Thirty minutes into the second rise, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bake the bread until crusty, about 35 minutes. Tap the top of each loaf lightly; a hollow sound indicates they are done. Turn the loaves out of the pans onto a wire rack and let cool until you can't stand it anymore and have to cut yourself a slice. Slather with real butter.
   
   Makes 2 loaves.