Sitting on the cooling rack the loaf of Oatmeal Bread baked for an hour at 300 F is the best looking Oatmeal loaf yet. It was baked using the bread machine to make the dough before proofing and baking in the kitchen oven. The recipe is here again, with the ingredients listed in the order they are added to the pan of the bread machine. This recipe makes a loaf that is a little over 2 pounds (this one weighed 950 grams when it came out of the oven.)

• Honey 69 grams
• Water 358 grams
• Quick Oats 85 grams
• Bread Flour 467 grams
• Sugar 23 grams
• Salt 7 grams
• Bread Machine Yeast 5 grams

The dough is nearly to the top of the bread machine pan at the end of the dough cycle. If the recipe above was used with the normal cycle that produces the baked loaf chances are good that the loaf would overflow the pan in the bread machine. I had it happen once and Continue reading →

Every time I bake bread something happens that reminds me I’m really pretty new at this bread making thing and I learn a lesson. The dough for this loaf was prepared using the bread machine. I noticed when the 90 minute cycle was up that it had risen a bit more than the last time and that the pan felt warmer than I expected. I didn’t think much about it, punched the dough down to degas it and formed the loaf. Then I set it in the microwave with the boiling water for warmth and humidity and set the timer for 45 minutes.

The last loaves were proofed just the way I wanted them at 45 minutes. This one surprised me. At 45 minutes when I came to put it in the oven it was about to run over the edge of the pan.

I baked it for 45 minutes at 350 F and was surprised to see that there was no real spring from the heat of the oven. The photos show before and after baking. I put the after back into the microwave to show how the loaf is the same height after baking as before. I’m guessing that the lack of spring may have something to do with Continue reading →

This batch of bread was baked at 350 F. The loaf in the top of the picture was baked 40 minutes, the one on the bottom was baked 45 minutes. The 40 minute loaf is identified by the slash I made in the top before I put them into the oven.
It is visible in the photo toward the left end of the top loaf in the photo.

When you are testing the effect of variables it’s a good idea to only change one thing at a time. That way you can have an idea what the difference in your results was caused by. Here I changed two things. I should have known better, but I was out of the Gold Medal Brand bread flour that I used in parts 1 and 2 of the Oatmeal Bread posts, so I used flour from a 25 pound bag of Bakers & Chefs Bread Flour I bought at Sam’s Club. I also used my stand mixer to mix and knead the dough since I was making two loaves at once and the bread machine only makes enough dough in a batch for one loaf. Continue reading →

Oops – when you take notes on your baking you should pay attention to them. In part 1 I baked the bread at 400 F for 45 minutes. It came out tasty, but the crust was to dark and too hard. Going back to check on things I noticed that I had baked a loaf 40 minutes at 350 F and had written that I should try 45 minutes to see if it would come out a bit better than the loaf at 40 minutes. So, the only thing to do is to repeat the exercise doing what I should have done the first time.

Here is a loaf made the same way as part 1, but baked at 350 F for 45 minutes, not 400 F like the loaf in part 1. One thing I did learn – you can mess up some baking bread and still end up with an edible product.

The final result baked at 350 F looks good (and tastes good) without the dark crust of the loaf baked at 400 F.

In the comparison pictures below the loaf baked at 350 F is on the left and the one baked at 400 F is on the right.

Continue reading →