Homemade Oatmeal Bread

Another round of snow today…about 3″ this time…and I decided it was time to bake bread! Since we hope to go see the Grandkids near Pittsburgh this weekend, why not make some of the bread into sticky buns! Since I wanted to make both that meant a BIG batch. Therefore…time for the BIG mixer!

Now, many of you know that each Christmas Bert bakes hundreds of chocolate chip cookies for gifts. If you stop by as they are coming out of the oven you might even get to try a few. Bert has been doing this marathon baking since before we got married, so over 50 years! For many of those years he did it all by hand with a giant wooden spoon and lots of muscle!

Several years ago, he finally decided to invest in a huge commercial mixer that he moves into the kitchen when it’s time to bake. Luckily, I get to use the mixer when I’m making a big batch of bread. Most of the time I mix bread in my KitchenAid mixer (I think it’s a 7 quart bowl). The big mixer has a 12 quart bowl. It is so slick to mix up a big batch of bread dough.

The first thing I need to do is check that I have enough ingredients. I usually use my Oatmeal Bread recipe. We like it and it feels more nutritious with the oatmeal in it. Since I cannot have eggs or dairy, by baking my own bread I have control over the ingredients. You can use any bread recipe you like to make sticky buns…probably even frozen commercial dough!

Here is my recipe. You can make a 3-loaf batch or a 6-loaf batch. Not a lot of detailed instructions about mixing up the bread, but it’s what I use. If you don’t know how to bake bread at all, there are many cookbooks (like Joy of Cooking) and YouTube videos that will walk you through the process.

Just a Note: If you want to know approximately how many loaves of bread a recipe will make, add up the amount of liquid and estimate that each 1 cup of liquid will make 1 loaf of bread. To reduce the volume of the dough for a smaller batch, first reduce the amount of water (in the 3-loaf recipe, for example): Use 1 cup of boiling water on the rolled oats, 1/2 cup water on the yeast, and just 1/2 cup of water with the oil and honey. If you do that you will not need as much flour and yeast. You will have to experiment to see what works with your mixer. You can also skip the mixer completely for a small batch and just mix and knead it by hand. I did that all the time when I first started making bread (way back in the 1970’s!)

Here are the basic ingredients:

I use a loose dry yeast and measure it out with a measuring spoon. If you want to use packaged yeast, each package is a little less than a Tablespoon of yeast. I keep my yeast in the refrigerator in a glass canning jar, while the extra is kept in the freezer. Here are two example packages of the yeast I buy:

Instructions to mix up the dough:

Step 1: First, I put the rolled oats, sugar and salt into the mixer bowl. Then I pour the boiling water on it, stir it around and let it sit for about 10 minutes so it isn’t so hot (don’t want to kill the yeast!)

Step 2: After 10 minutes or so, I use a small bowl to start the yeast…yeast plus 1 cup of warm water and a tablespoon of sugar. Let it sit until dissolved and bubbly (about 5 minutes).

Step 3: Add cool or room temperature water to the mixer bowl. (That helps to cool down the rolled oats is it’s still too hot).

Add oil to the mixer bowl. Using the same measuring cup (now greased with oil) to measure out the honey…no sticking!

Add the yeast mixture to the mixer bowl.

Step 4: Begin adding flour about 1-2 cups at a time until most of the flour is added. Let the mixer run for 8-10 minutes to knead the dough. Add a little flour at a time if the dough is still sticky.

Step 5: Dump the dough on to a floured table/board and work into a nice smooth ball.

Step 6: Place the ball of dough into a large oiled bowl to rise. Cover with a cloth.

Step 7: When the dough has doubled in size (about an hour), leave the dough in the bowl and put your fist into the middle of the dough to deflate the big bubbles, fold in the sides and turn the ball of dough over so the smooth side is up. Cover the bowl and let rise another hour.

Step 8: Shape the dough…into loaves of bread or rolls or sticky buns.

Shaping Sticky Buns

Here’s how I shape sticky buns:

First, I prepare the pans by greasing them generously with butter-flavored Crisco. You can use butter or margarine.

Then I sprinkle about 1/2 cup of brown sugar over the bottom of the pan. I sprinkle that with ground cinnamon.

Then I take a chunk of dough and pat it out to a rectangle.

This gets sprinkled with brown sugar and cinnamon also.

Next, roll up the rectangle of dough into a log.

Slice the log into 1″ rounds and place cut side down into the prepared pan.

If you have a little roll leftover, just pinch the end shut and put it in a greased pan like a little loaf of cinnamon bread. Bake along with the buns at the same time.

Let the pans rest for about 20 minutes while you preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake about 25-30 minutes.

To Remove Sticky Buns From the Pans:

Flip the pans of buns directly onto a foil covered board or table top. Use a table knife to lift the pan off the buns. (Advice…fill each pan with soapy water immediately and let them soak while you clean up…the “sticky” topping is a real pain to clean up if you let it harden and cool in the pan!)

Loaves of bread will bake about 40 minutes in a 350-degree oven.

So that’s what I do on a snowy day! Wow, the whole house smells good today! Wish I could share it with you!

If you’d like to comment on this post leave a comment or send me an email at marykisner@comcast.net.