Every recipe blog has their favorite bread recipes up because there is nothing that makes a house smell as amazing like bread baking in the oven. And right now, anything that helps bring a bubble of calm, is a good thing.
This recipe is outstanding even when we are not in the middle of a global social distancing mandate. The thing is, though, that the magic begins the night before so you have to plan ahead a bit. You'll mix together a bit of flour, water and yeast with the oats and this will combine into a yeasty bubbly poolish that will amp up the flavor like you can't imagine.
Also, I used white whole wheat flour because it is my favorite, but regular whole wheat flour is amazing, too.
Whole Wheat Oatmeal Bread
Makes 2 loaves
Ingredients Poolish 2 cups water 1 cup old-fashioned oats 1/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar 1 tsp active dry yeast 2 cup flour Bread 1 tsp yeast 1 tsp sugar 2 T veggie or olive oil 1 tablespoon kosher salt or 2 1/2 teaspoons table salt 1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour 4 cups all-purpose flour
Directions
In a large mixing bowl, combine the water, oats, brown sugar, yeast and 2 cups flour until a soft and shaggy dough forms. Cover and refrigerate overnight or at least 8 hours.
2 hours before you are ready to make the bread, pull the poolish from the fridge to start to warm up. If you forget, it's okay; it will just take a bit longer for the initial rise.
To make the bread dough, in a large mixing bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer, combine 1 cup warm water, 1 tsp yeast and 1 tsp sugar. Let sit until foamy. Once foamy, add 2 T oil, and the dough from the fridge. Mix until combined. Add 2 1/2 tsp salt.
Add the flours, stirring to form a rough dough. Knead the dough until smooth and satiny.
Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover the bowl with lightly greased plastic wrap, and a kitchen towel and allow the dough to rise for 1 hour or until mostly doubled. (It might be a little longer than that if you use the poolish before it has warmed up.)
Once risen, lightly punch down the down, and divide the dough in half, and shape each half into a loaf. Place the loaves in two greased 9″ x 5″ bread pans. Cover the pans with lightly greased plastic wrap and allow the loaves to rise until they have risen around 1″ over the rim of the pan, about 60 to 90 minutes. Around the 50 minute mark, turn on your oven to 350 so it will be ready to go when the loaves are ready.
Bake the loaves for 35 to 40 minutes, or until lovely brown on top. Remove them from the oven when they’re golden brown, and the interior registers 190°F on a digital thermometer.
Turn the loaves out of their pans onto a rack to cool. Enjoy!
Store at room temperature, well-wrapped, for several days; freeze for longer storage.