Maple Oat Bread
March 1, 2012 in Breads and Muffins, Featured
This loaf will melt in your mouth.
I mean it. It is so provocatively sweet, so deliciously soft, that you’ll have trouble not eating the whole loaf. It’s made with real maple syrup (yeah – that’s the expensive kind [and the only kind you should ever buy!!!]), and a good serving of oats that’ll make you think you’re eating breakfast all over again.
It actually goes surprisingly well with sandwiches. It enhances the sweetness of the jam in a PB&J, and it’ll give turkey sandwiches (if you eat the stuff) that sweet maple-roasted flavor.
I can’t imagine how amazing these would be on some french toast – vegan or not vegan. I’m going to try to make some before my boyfriend eats the whole loaf (if you haven’t noticed, he has a tendency to do that).
Maple Oat Bread
8 + 3/4 oz all-purpose flour
3 oz whole wheat flour
1 + 3/4 oz oats
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 heaping tsp salt
2 tsp instant yeast
7 oz water
2 oz (4 Tbsp) butter, melted
2 + 3/4 oz maple syrup
~1 tsp butter, save for later
If you are using instant yeast, heat the water in the microwave until luke warm and add the yeast. Let sit until it gets a bit bubbly and frothy, about 5 minutes.
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix together to form a shaggy dough. Knead 7-8 minutes, or until a fairly smooth dough forms. The dough should be tacky,but not sticky. If the dough is super sticky, add a bit more flour. Form the dough into a ball and place in an oiled bowl (I use the same one I used for mixing!)
Let rise in the bowl for 90 minutes, or until doubled in size. To shape, turn the dough out onto the counter. Pat it into a rectangle about 6×12″. Roll the dough into a log, sealing the seams every few inches. Place the final seam on the under side of the dough and touch the edges under. Place the log in an oiled 8.5″x4.5″ loaf pan. Let proof about 75-90 minutes, or until it crests 1″ over the rim of the pan.
20 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 350F.
Bake for 35 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and registers an internal temp of 190 degrees. Remove from the loaf pan and brush some melted butter on the top of the loaf. Let cool on a cooling rack for at least 1 hour, preferably two. Enjoy!
This loaf looks so fluffy. It looks so delicious. I love your blog xxx Lysa
Thanks Lysa!
The Maple loaf bread its just beautiful.
I just baked up 3 loaves using pretty much the same recipe. I adapted my recipe to sourdough and the flavor is awesome.
I like baking with oats and barley flakes to make high fiber breads. Upon baking high fiber breads you can eat more bread and not worry so much about weight gain.
I’m now milling my oats & barley flakes into flour it actually lightened the loaves even more. I got the idea from the King Arthur site after reading about high fiber grains. I simply couldn’t afford to buy their high fiber barley flakes so I thought I’ll mill my own.
I found it very interesting because after I milled the flakes I noticed the consistency of the flour was really different and I could see that it just might lighten my breads. Sure enough it did.
“Boy! Milled flakes are expensive. If you don’t have a mill you can also grind the flakes in a food processor. I coarsely chopped my flakes in a food processor then run them through my mill. The mill will produce a much finer grind.
Sourdough—The flavor is awesome. With the addition of sourdough the loaves will rise higher with a light airy crumb. I use old starter to make my loaves.
I also use Montana Natural soft white wheat unbleached all purpose flour and milled soft white pastry flour, milled rye flour and buckwheat flour. I use a lot of soft white wheat over whole wheat it has sweet nutty taste.
Healthy Oils—I use an oil blend of coconut, olive, and toasted sesame oil in baking all my breads. Oils help lighten breads, the oils provide more elasticity to the gluten strands so they can rise higher. Thus you can produce light fluffy loaves.
Anyway I just wanted to say your loaves are awesome.
Herman
Thanks, Herman! I’ve never even thought of milling my own flour before, but that’s a great idea. When you said you use old starter, do you mean that it just hasn’t been fed for a few days, so it’s just for the flavor? Do you still use the commercial yeast for leavening? I’ve been wanting to try using coconut oil in some of my loaves but I haven’t gotten around to buying any! It’ll be on my grocery list this week.
Herman,
I would love to know how you adapted this recipe for sourdough starter. My starter is just about ready to bake with and I would love to try it out on this recipe. Thanks!!!
Raquel- I can’t wait to try this!!!
Lauren,
In case Herman doesn’t get back to us, I’m going to just guess at how he did it. Since he says he used old starter, I’d assume that he just added it for flavor, not for the actual rise. He did say it helped give the loaves a bit more oomph though, so that’s good! I would start by adding just a bit (maybe 1/4 cup) of your starter to the recipe. Just calculate how much flour and how much water is in the amount you use and subtract that from the original measurements. For example, if your starter is a 100% starter, and you use 2 oz, then subtract one ounce of flour and one ounce of water.
Also, no need to feed your starter before use – just use it straight out of the fridge.
If you try this, please let me know how it goes! I’d love to see how it turns out. If not, just go ahead a bake up a loaf of this without the sourdough. It’ll still be lovely :)
Hello Raquel & Lauren:
It’s just me Herman!
Starter—You can use fresh starter or old starter that you have forgotten about especially when its been pushed way back in the fridge and hidden behind another container. The starter is just for flavoring your dough, but it’s still considered sourdough bread
The recipe I used and adapted is by (The Laurel’s Kitchen Bread Book By Laurel Robertson. You can fine the recipe on page 80. It’s not a sourdough recipe its a Yeasted Basic Whole Wheat Bread recipe
Basic Whole Wheat Bread—This is the recipe I adapted from Laurel’s Cookbook. The original recipe makes 2 loaves of bread I adapted the recipe so I could make 3 loaves and the loaves are large I’m using
9 x 5 inch loaf pans.
The adapted recipe now contains Montana Natural White Unbleached All Purpose flour, which is 100% whole wheat, plus milled soft white wheat flour, plus milled flakes of oats & barley, and milled rye berries. It truly is a Signature recipe I used Laurel’s recipe over 7 years and have adapted it and combined it with the latest artisan baking methods.
So when you read through the recipe you’re going to wonder where it went.
Then I developed another new variation using the same basic bread recipe it produces a finer smoother crumb that’s soft and silky almost like Wonder Bread but the flavor is awesome, and makes the best French Toast because its so light. Again you’re going to use a blender stick. Kids really love this bread and its made from 100% white whole wheat.
Instant Yeast—”Yes! I do use additional yeast in the recipe along with the sourdough starter. I let it set about 5 minute in water just as you do to wake up the yeast. Even though you’re using yeast in the recipe it’s still considered an artisan sourdough bread.
Basic Slurry Stick Method—to ensure that I get light high rising loaves. I make a slurry: I pour the yeast water into a deep 2 quart mixing bowl, pour in whole-fat dairy milk and my sourdough starter. Then I blend in about 1/4 cup flour by hand. Next I get my trusty blender stick and whisk the slurry for about 1 minute until I have a mass of foaming bubbles. Next I quickly stir in small portions of flour by hand using a silicone spatula to make a thickened pancake batter. At this point I’ll blend in my healthy oil blend and salt. Then pour the thickened batter into a dough hook machine continue adding flour and kneading the dough till the dough feels tacky, but not sticky. Knead the dough no more than 6 minutes or continue adding flour and knead the dough by hand about 10 minutes.
The Blender Stick—creates scads of minute gas bubbles in the slurry. The gas bubbles will lighten your breads and help produce a light airy crumb. I also found that my dough has more elasticity. That means you can let your loaves proof for a longer period of time. Their is less danger in over proofing your loaves.
Basic Slurry Stick Method—it can be used in any bread recipe to produce light airy breads.
What is a blender stick? They are used to puree soups and veggies into smooth creamy soups. You can buy them just about anywhere. Check Walmart and Target. For the cheapest price on (Blender Sticks) check your local Grocery Outlet Stores.
The picture of your bread—I notice on the side its pulled away it looks like it split all along one side of the loaf. Bake up a perfect loaf with no side splits just by making a slurry and using a blender stick. It’ll provide the loaf with a lot more elasticity so when it springs in the oven it won’t split or burst along the whole length of loaf.
Super Oil Blend—Toasted sesame oil, olive oil, and coconut oil
I use equal parts from each of these oils. These oils will also help produce more elasticity in the dough.
Sourdough Starter—I use about 1 cup per loaf, remember you’re using it to flavor the dough 1/4 cup wouldn’t provide the loaf with enough flavor enzymes, and you can use it straight from the fridge.
Honey—I use honey instead of maple syrup because it’s cheaper. Honey and wheat make an awesome trio.
Super Foods—so when I bake breads I make use of super foods to enrich my breads. In addition to the grains used in my recipe I also add coarsely ground flax seeds that are lightly toasted, wheat germ toasted, ground Chia seeds and nutritional yeast which is an optional ingredient. Other optional ingredients may consist of toasted sunflower seeds & pumpkin seeds, and toasted coconut granules, chopped apples or pears and more the list goes on. When I add all these ingredients to my breads its hard to believe that you can produce a light loaf of bread.
High Altitude Baking—I live at the elevation of 5,000 ft. my dough rises super fast so I add salt to the dough right at the beginning to slow down rising time. But if you live at sea level you will knead in the salt after most of the flour has been added.
As for the starter I can’t tell you how I figured out the amount but I can sit down and calculate exactly how much I need to the max using a formula. But I don’t need to do that I just have a natural ability in knowing exactly how much I need to use it saves scads of time. When I do adapt a new recipe I just weigh my starter on a digital scale in ounces and grams. My starters are all at 100% hydration. All my recipes are calculated into grams. When I’m adapting and revising I’m trying to include the volume and ounces so when I share some of my recipes you can picture how many cups of flour are in the recipe and the same for liquids. Some people just want to know how many cups of flour are in the recipe. But the measures in volume are not accurate their close. I wouldn’t use them.
Raquel & Lauren if you want to try my version of an Basic White Whole Wheat Bread for Learning with(Sourdough) I’ll be happy to share my recipe with you. My recipe also contains oats & barley flakes and then some. I can send you a basic outline and few variations and from this point you can create your own variations. It truly is a basic recipe that you can continue to develop and adapt.
I presenting you a lot of info…here. I just hope I got it right if you catch any mistakes let me know.
Herman
I’m making this bread tonight! Yay!
Yay! It’s one of my favorites!