Getting what you knead: oatmeal bread

Ragazzi, don't say that Annalena didn't warn you that we were going to be making bread.  And indeed, we are.  Because, carini, if you cannot make a decent loaf of bread, you cannot fairly call yourself a cook. PERIOD.  There.  She said it.  You don't have to be able to turn out brioche that float, nor croissants that crackle under your teeth.  Nor do you have to make sourdough to rival your favorite from San  Francisco.   But you DO have to be able to bake bread.  And this is a good one.  No, strike that.  It's a REALLY good one.  And it's very good for you.  Also, as far as bread baking goes, it's easy, and you can take your time with it.  In fact, you must.    And so, we begin.

Some of you are big fans of oatmeal, and if you are, sometimes you will have leftover.  You should save it for this.  Or, make some extra, and then use it.  The bottom line, is that you are going to need two cups of cooked oats.  NOT the instant crap, not the microwaveable nonsense, but good, old fashioned, rolled oats.  If you are like Annalena in that you do not eat oatmeal for breakfast (actually she does, but not without enough butter, nuts and raisins to turn it into a dessert pastry), take a cup of raw oats, and pour two cups of boiling water over it.  Then, let it sit overnight.  You don't need to refrigerate it this way, because all you need to do is get them cooked, and at room temperature.

When the oats are ready, put them in a bowl with an additional half cup of water.  Add a tablespoon of yeast, and then a cup each of white flour and whole wheat flour.  Stir this all up togther, and go away for a couple of hours.   You're making sponge.  You want this to be bubbling slightly, sort of like an oatmeal version of a volcanic lava flow.

When you're there, we finish up.  You're all whole wheat now.  You add a tablespoon of salt, a quarter cup of vegetable oil, three tablespoons of honey, and then at least 2.5 cups of whole wheat flour.  Annalena does her bread in a mixer.  If you use the big stand mixer, you will work this for eight minutes.  If you are doing it by hand, then you're going to need closer to 12.  In either case, have an extra cup of flour ready, in case things are too wet and too sticky (sometimes, things ARE too wet and too sticky, and other times...).  As the bread dough sticks, add more flour, by sprinkles, or quarter cups.  You really shouldn't need to add more than an additional half cup of flour.  

Now let this rest for , oh, about another two, maybe three hours.  At the end of that time, lightly oil two 8x4 inch baking pans.  This bread really is too wet to use as a round loaf, so do use the pans, otherwise you will have oatmeal pancakes.   Divide the dough, put it in the pans, and go away, again, for about an hour and a half.  Sometime during that last wait, turn your oven to 375.

The dough will crest over the pans,  and that's what you want.  Put the pans into the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes.  You can test the bread by putting a straw down the middle, if you don't mind the hole mark in your bread.  The crumb here is moist, so some will adhere to the straw.  Or just trust your sense of color and smell.  The bread is ready when it SMELLS ready.

When you take it out of the oven, let it sit for five minutes, and then tip it out of the pan.  If you used enough oil, or other grease, it will 'plop' right out.  Then let it sit on a rack until it's cool.  Seriously, don't eat this until it has completely cooled, because there's a lot of heat and water to get out of the bread.

Yes, this took a lot of time, but ultimately, it involved somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes worth of work. That's what bread baking is like, ragazzi. It is very rewarding.  Annalena commends you to it.  Go and make your staff of life, and you may never buy bread again.