Oatmeal Sandwich Bread

I've really enjoyed having toast for breakfast recently, so I decided to make Oatmeal Sandwich Bread for Bread Week 30.

This sandwich bread recipe had the benefit of being straightforward and easy to make. As with the Light Wheat Bread, it was a good cookie butter delivery vehicle.

I felt lazy when I made this bread and decided not to pull out my bread flour. I also decided to add a little whole wheat flour to make it healthier. These choices might have been a mistake. Overall, this bread was fine. It toasted well and made for a decent PB&J. Alex and I both felt that this bread was a little crumbly. The flavor of the bread was fine on its own (although honestly, we don't eat sandwich bread by itself that much, do we?). The loaf was a little denser than I expected. The light wheat bread I made recently had great oven spring, but this loaf didn't rise after I put it in the oven. I wonder if that's because I used bread flour a few weeks ago, but didn't bother with this loaf.

This bread was okay and served its purpose well, but it wasn't anything amazing. If I try it again, I'll try making it with bread flour as the recipe called for, and without substituting in any whole wheat flour to see if that gives it a better rise.

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Oatmeal Sandwich Bread

adapted from King Arthur Flour

Author: Leona Konkel

Ingredients

• 3 cups bread flour (I used 2 cups AP and 1 cup whole wheat; I don't recommend the whole wheat)
• 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
• 2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• 1 ¼ cup lukewarm milk
• 3 tablespoons honey or brown sugar (I used honey)
• 2 tablespoons oil

Instructions

1. Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer. Knead with dough hook on medium for about 5 minutes, until the dough is smooth and passes a windowpane test. Place in a greased bowl, cover, and let rise for about an hour, until doubled in size.
2. Turn dough out onto a layer of plastic wrap. Pat the dough into a rectangle, then fold letter-style (tri-fold) to form into a loaf. Place loaf, seam-side down, into a greased 9x5 inch loaf pan. Pat the dough down so that it fills the corners. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until the dough has risen 1-2 inches over the rim of the pan. (I baked mine at 1 inch and it didn't rise much, so I recommend waiting until your dough is 2 inches higher than the pan.)
3. Bake bread at 350F for 35 minutes, until golden brown. Cover loaf with foil toward the end of baking if it seems to be browning excessively. If you want to take your bread's temperature, it should be 190F in the center when it's done.