Luckily, I had a 7 ½” loaf pan because I use it for my husband’s favorite lemon nut quick bread. This is a nice sandwich-style loaf and it also makes excellent toast.
2 1/3 Cups Flour, All-purpose
1 Cup Quick Cooking Oats
1 Package Instant Yeast
1 Teaspoon Sugar
1 Teaspoon Salt
1/4 Teaspoon Baking Soda
3 Tablespoons Honey
1 Cup Plain Nonfat Yogurt
1/2 Cup Water -- 120°-125°
1 Tablespoon Honey -- For top of loaf
Combine flour, oats, salt, baking soda, yeast and sugar in mixer bowl.
Heat yogurt and water to 120-125°. Add 3 tbsp. of honey. Add to flour mixture gradually while beating on low speed with a paddle attachment for 2 minutes..
Change to dough hook and knead 4 minutes or until elastic.
Cover and let rest in a warm place 10 minutes.
Punch down and turn out on lightly floured surface. Knead lightly 4 or 5 times. Roll into a 12 x 5" rectangle. Roll up dough, starting on short side and shape into a loaf; pinch ends.
Preheat oven to 400°. Place in greased 7 1/2 x 3" loaf pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place until 1" above the pan (about 25 minutes). Bake at 400° for 15 minutes, reduce heat to 350° and bake 20 minutes. (An instant read thermometer should read 195-200° when inserted into the end of the loaf.) Remove from pan immediately and brush with 1 tablespoon honey. Cool on a wire rack.
You can bake this in a 8 x 4" pan, it will make a flatter loaf and bake in a little shorter time.
"Southern Living Homestyle Cooking"
"1 Loaf – about 12 slices"
Per Serving: 149 Calories; 1g Fat (4.2% calories from fat); 5g Protein; 31g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; trace Cholesterol; 220mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 1/2 Grain(Starch); 0 Non-Fat Milk; 0 Fat; 1/2 Other Carbohydrates.
I am currently making a double batch of this bread, and it's been interesting! The dough is now currently on its pre-bake rise in the 7 1/2 x 3 pans
ReplyDeleteIs the dough quite sticky? Because after I finished the 4-minute machine knead, the dough was neither smooth nor elastic. Should I have added more flour at that point? If so, by what increments? How long would I let each addition knead to correct the stickiness?
Also, I proofed the (active dry) yeast separately in the 1 cup water with the 2 teaspoons of sugar. Since I proofed the yeast, would I still have needed to heat the yogurt? I did heat it in the microwave and stirred it before taking the temp. Should I have heated the yogurt in a small pot on the stove instead?
So when I dumped out the bread onto the lightly floured surface, I realized that the dough was still very wet and I would need to knead in quite a bit of flour. I must have thrown in about 1/3-1/2 cup. Using my bench scraper, I managed to get the dough into the pans, but there was no "rolling up and tucking in the ends" action. It was really a "scrape and dump" job. I ended up with a LOT of dough on both my hands.
ANYHOW--I am not an experienced bread baker by a long shot, and I was wondering, Sue, if you or Myrna had any ideas where I went wrong. I am POSITIVE I doubled the ingredients correctly. The yeast proofed like gangbusters. Was it really just a lack of extra flour at the mixing stage that caused me so much trouble? I used King Arthur AP. And Quaker Quick Cook oats.
Thanks in advance for any insight you can provide!
Sue
Lets start with the active dry yeast...you proofed it correctly...and I would have heated the yogurt to at least room temperature so it wouldn't chill your dough...I usually use the microwave too. I not sure why you didn't have enough flour or oats in your dough, sometimes if you let it rest a few minutes it absorbs a lot of the liquid as the oats hydrate.
DeleteIf you use active dry yeast, you need to let it rise longer on the first rise, usually until nearly doubled, the rise in the pans usually takes longer too.
PS I just now read your mixer bread tips page--should've read that BEFORE I started! :^) Could using the wrong yeast have been the cause of all my troubles--even the stickier, wetter dough? Or was that the result from a different mistake?
ReplyDeleteSue
I don't think using the wrong yeast caused your wet dough...if it had risen longer the first time it might have absorbed some of the flour and gotten less sticky. Adding some flour to get the consistency you need was the right thing to do.
DeleteI usually convert these recipes to weights for the flour and oats, weighing ingredients eliminates mistakes in amounts of ingredients, and in how they are measured too. Sorry I didn't happen to do that for this recipe.
Sue, thank you so much for your replies! I think that not allowing enough time for the first rise and giving the oats time to absorb the liquids was where I went wrong. But all the info was there at hand--it was totally my fault for not reading everything before starting. I do like to bake by weight, too--but since I use the correct "spoon and level" technique for the flour/oats, I don't think using cups .vs. oz was the problem, either.
ReplyDeleteBut after all that, the finished product was--AMAZING! My loaves looked so beautiful and perfect! I've never had such a nice "head" (the rise over the top of the pan) on any of my loaves before this batch. And the bread was DIVINE! Such a crunchy, crispy crust (I brushed it with melted butter, not honey), with a firm but moist interior. The flavor was just amazing. It cut beautifully while hot (my husband/2 teens can't keep their hands off fresh bread) and toasted up nicely when completely cold. I fully intend to bake another batch tomorrow--it's just that delicious.
So despite all the problems, I managed to turn out 2 of my nicest-looking, best-tasting loaves ever! Go figure!
Thanks so much for posting this recipe--it's surely a keeper. And thank you so much for your help! This is really just the best, most informative website!
Sue
Yessss....a winner! Glad you were successful...wouldn't think you'd want to change much!
DeleteSure nice to have great homemade bread.
I made this and used regular oats by mistake. The dough was a runny, sticky mess but it turned out ok and was good. Not to be thwarted, I am trying it again today with quick oats. I can’t wait to see how it turns out!
ReplyDelete