I’ve heard from a number of people who say they are finding bread hard to come by these days. Bread is such an easy staple to make if you have three things – water, flour, yeast (or a sourdough starter). I haven’t had trouble finding yeast or flour in stores, so I hope you can find them too.
Making bread can be very soothing and it can be used in so many ways – avocado toast, grilled cheese, open-faced sandwiches, and my go to snack lately, toasted lightly with peanut butter and raisins #comfortfood.
I make a loaf every other day. Sometimes I make a no-knead style of bread, stirring up all of the ingredients in a bowl the night before heading off to bed, and then baking it the next morning, but with so much time at home now, I usually make this Honey Oat Bread.
Honey Oat Bread
It is best made with bread flour, but if you only have all purpose, use that. If you don’t have whole wheat flour or oats, I’m going to recommend this recipe for a white country loaf.
Baking bread in a Dutch oven or a large oven-proof pot with a lid will give you a nice crusty loaf with a tender interior. If you don’t have anything that will work in this capacity, use a cookie sheet or pizza stone.
Most importantly, enjoy the process. It is pretty difficult to completely mess-up when baking bread, so relax into it.
- 2 cups white bread flour (all-purpose will also work)
- ½ cup whole wheat flour
- ½ cup instant or quick cooking rolled oats
- 1 tablespoon honey
- ¾ cup warm water
- 1 package dried yeast
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Place the flours, oats, salt and yeast in a large bowl.
- Toss the ingredients to combine.
- Place the honey in the warm water and mix until dissolved.
- Pour water into dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon until the mixture looks shaggy.
- Knead the dough for 3-4 minutes and then place back into the bowl.
- Cover the bowl with a lid or some foil and set in a warm place to rise for about 2 hours.
- After the first rising, knead the dough a few times, shape into a ball or oval and place on a teacloth that has been heavily dusted with flour, place the dough in the center (make sure the area under the dough has a heavy layer of flour on it). Sprinkle more flour over the dough and fold the towel over to cover it.
- Allow the dough to rise for 1 ½ hours.
- About 30 minutes before baking, preheat the oven, with the Dutch oven or pot inside the oven, to 400 degrees.
- After the second rising, place the bread into the Dutch oven or large pot and cover with a lid and place in oven.
- Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees, then reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake for another 10 minutes.
- Remove the lid and bake for 7-10 minutes more before removing from oven.**See notes for baking without a Dutch oven or pot.
A great trick from Julia Child was to quickly throw a ½ cup cold water into the oven floor right after you have placed the bread into the oven. It will help add some moisture to the oven if you are not baking in a covered pot.
Be well and stay healthy.
