Honey Oat Bread

Honey Oat Bread

• To prepare the oatberries:
• 1 C Oatberries
• 4 C Filtered Water
• For the initial proofing of the yeast:
• 3 C Filtered Water
• 1 Tbsp Yeast
• 1 Tbsp Brown Sugar
• For the bread itself:
• 1/4 C Honey
• 1 C Oat Bran
• 1 C Flax Seeds (Linseeds)
• 2 tsp Salt
• 1/4 C Vital Wheat Gluten
• 1 Vanilla Bean, scraped
• Whole Wheat Flour – have a 5lb / 2kg sack on hand
• For the final forming of the loaves:
• Rolled Oats (Quick Porage Oats)
• Olive Oil

1. Boil your oatberries until they have absorbed all of the water they’re going to. Be careful, as they’ll boil over if covered. You could steam them, if you had a steamer, in which case reduce the amount of water to 2 cups and steam for 45 minutes.
2. After the oatberries have cooked, remove from heat and let cool while you’re proofing your yeast.
3. Microwave 1 cup of your water until nearly boiling, add 2 cups of cool / room-temperature water, and mix in sugar and yeast. Let this stand until yeast gets nice and bubbly (around 10 minutes or so).
4. Combine oatberries, yeast ferment, honey, flax seeds, oat bran, and vanilla bean.
5. Mix thoroughly, making sure to break up the vanilla bits
6. Add in enough flour to get a good dough going, mixing with a spatula until you are able to knead it. (You could cheat and throw it into your food mixer until it’s the consistency of bubble-gum.)
7. Knead until you feel like your arms will fall off or until the dough won’t easily absorb any more flour
8. Set aside in a reasonably warm place (we put it into the oven – not turned on, obviously) until more than doubled in size (this took us about 2 hours).
9. Gently knead for a minute or so, just to distribute the yeast again (it’s been sitting in there, eating, and is probably close to starving by now, and may have reproduced; it doesn’t have any legs, either, so you have to take it to the food).
10. Separate into 3 equal sized balls.
11. Form into loaves.
12. Oil your pans well.
13. Place loaves into pan.
14. Liberally sprinkle the rolled oats over the tops, and then … perform something of the sort of action one usually performs with an omlette, tossing the loaf pan about so that the bread rotates through the oats. Yes, this is odd. It’s the way I do it, though, and it works. You can roll your loaves through the oats and then place them into the pans, if that makes you happy, but it’ll just dirty another dish.
15. Let rise until more than doubled in size (this took about an hour, this time).
16. Bake at 300F / 150C until internal temperature tests to greater than 195F / 90C (or until you think it’s done, if you’re that good at guessing).
17. Remove to wire racks immediately and let cool thoroughly before slicing.

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