Maple Oatmeal Bread - Part One

Today I made Maple Oatmeal Bread from one of my favorite cookbooks by Beth Hensperger: Baking Bread: Old and New Traditions.

One of the keys to good bread is good ingredients. I used the ingredients above in this recipe. If you shop at Whole Foods, you'll recognize the brands and that most are organic.

The whole wheat flour in the upper right is some flour that I ground myself at a shop in Charleston, SC. It was so much fun - they had the wheat and I put it in the flour grinder and turned it into flour! I felt like the Little Red Hen!


I didn't have the wheat bran called for in the original recipe so I substituted ground flax seed. Here's what is in this bread:

• 2 T active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 1 cup warm milk
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup wheat bran (I used ground flax seed instead)
• 1/2 cup oat bran
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 4 1/2 - 5 cups unbleached bread flour

1. First you proof the yeast in 1/2 cup of the warm water mixed with 1 tsp of the maple syrup.
2. Then in the work bowl of the mixer, combine the rest of the water, the maple syrup, milk, oil, salt, brans, whole wheat flour, oats and 1 cup bread flour.
   
3. Add the yeast. Beat for about a minute.
   
4. Then add the remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time. The dough should still be moist when you are through so that the brans and the oatmeal can continue to absorb moisture as the dough rises.
5. Knead the bread and then put it in a greased bowl to rise for about 1 1/2 - 2 hours. (Continued in next post)