Oatmeal Raisin Bread

I was recently given a copy of Bread Illustrated and gave their recipe for an Oatmeal Raisin bread a go. This came out beautiful and tasted great. I made some modifications and adjusted to my taste by using cinnamon and sprout flour. I also found that the recipe calls for a bit too much yeast considering the proof time and reduced it. My adjusted recipe is included below. 300g Bread Flour 75g Sprouted Flour 225g Whole Milk 100g Rolled Oats100g Raisins 40g Light Brown Sugar4g Instant Dry Yeast 6g Salt 3g Powdered Cinnamon 45g Unsalted Butter Prepare the oats! Bring 75g of oats along with 150ml of water to a simmer for a few minutes. Just long enough for the water to the fully absorbed by the oats. Remove from the heat and let cool to at least 70F/20C. Prepare the wet ingredients! Fully melt the butter in a sauce pan. Remove from heat and add milk and brown sugar. Whisk these up until all the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is an even brown color. The mixture should be at least room temperature before use ideally around 70F/20C. Prepare the dry ingredients! In your mixing bowl combine the bread flour, sprouted flour, salt, yeast, and cinnamon. Mix for a few seconds to incorporate everything. Mix the dough! With the mixer on low speed slowly add the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients. Mix these on medium speed for 5 minutes until thoroughly combined. I found I had to scrape the bowl a few times to get everything fully incorporated. The dough should have strong elasticity and be a bit on the dry side. Combine the oats you prepared earlier and the raisins with the dough. Mix for a few minutes to full incorporate. The dough will transform during this step into a much more tacky and sticky mixture. Allow this to run for at least 3 minutes on low speed. Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and briefly knead it by hand to ensure everything is fully mixed. A dusting of flower here will help with the tackiness of the dough. Transfer to a greased bowl, wrapping with cling film, and allow to proof for 45-60 minutes. You are looking for the dough to double in size - if you notice that has happened sooner, move onto the next step. You want to avoid over proofing. Patiently wait for the yeast to feast.

While proofing you can prepare your bread pan with a generous greasing of butter. You guys know I love my USA Stoneware Pan, but any bread pan will work well here. At this time you can also dump the remaining rolled oats onto a baking sheet. Spread them out into a thin even layer as we will be rolling the dough in this pan later. Retrieve your fat dough baby! Squish the proofed dough toss it out onto a flour dusted counter. Create a rectangle shape and fold the dough from one edge over to the other and press firmly to seal. I haven't put together a shaping tutorial but I will soon to demonstrate some of the basic dough shaping techniques. Once your dough is firmly shaped and roughly the size of your bread pan, gently mist the dough with water. If you don't have a spread bottle available, you can wet your hand it gently rub it along the side of the dough. After a good misting, place the dough on the baking sheet you prepared earlier with the rolled oats and start rolling your dough. As you roll the dough you may want to continue to mist it with water on all sides to make sure you get good adhesion on the side of the dough. If you do not, during your second proof you will notice most of the oatmeal fall off. I made this mistake the first time and ended up with a bald dome on my loaf. Still delicious, but much less attractive. Place your oat covered dough into the bread pan and allow it to rest for 30 minutes. The dough should come up and over the edge of the bread pan by about 2-3cm. Do NOT over proof your dough at this stage. It will result in a loose crumb with air bubbles in the top half of your dough. Preheat your oven to 350F/175C. Give the top later of the dough a final misting with water before tossing into the oven for 50-60 minutes. Rotate the dough at least once during the bake time to keep things even. Look for an internal dough temperature of at least 205F/96C. Once the bread is at the target temperature remove and allow to cool on a rack. The sprouted flower will retain a large amount of moisture at the end of the bake, so please let the bread cool completely for a few hours before enjoying. Or don't and eat it while its fresh and hot - that is your baker's privilege. If you have never used sprouted flour before, I included a link to the King Arthur's Sprouted Flour, which is what I used in the recipe. I have tried a number of flour brands and King Arthur has been the most consistent brand I have come across. They are on the pricier side, so feel free to substitute for your preferred flour where necessary.

If you don't have sprouted flour, you can easily substitute more bread flour in its place or another hearty flour like whole wheat. Thanks for taking the time to read over my recipe adaptation. I went through a number of attempts and think I found a great mix for a bread that is a fantastic breakfast treat. It also makes for some killer French Toast! The original recipe can be found in Bread Illustrated. I highly recommend the book. It has a great number of recipes that are tailored for home bakers and I haven't been let down by a single recipe.