No Knead Honey Oat Bread

Bake-a-thon 2014: Day 6
Bake of the day: No Knead Honey Oat Bread

I like baking bread and usually use either my stand mixer or breadmaker to knead the bread. But I recently started making no-knead breads. As the name suggests there is no kneading required to make these breads. No-knead bread was how people made bread thousands of years ago -- before they discovered that by pulling, beating, stretching, stirring or otherwise 'kneading' wheat doughs they could speed up the gluten-developing process. A renewed interest in this technique started after a no-knead bread recipe was published in 2006 in The New York Times.

This no-knead Honey Oat bread is from The Vegetarian Times magazine all the way back from 2010. All the ingredients are mixed together and the dough just sits on a counter and gradually kneads itself. Apart from being easy to make, these no-knead breads have an added buns benefit from the unhurried rise boosts bread flour and aroma. Less Work. More Flavor. Who doesn't like that :-)

I already have a Whole wheat Oatmeal Bread that I really like a lot. It is a soft and delicious bread. But this no-knead version is equally soft, sweet and yummy -- that too for the fraction of the effort. We had it for breakfast with some jam and nutella and I made a grilled cheese sandwich for my son's lunchbox too. I also used it to make the Fruit & Nut Stuffing for Thanksgiving.

Ingredients:

Unbleached Bread Flour - 2cups (or use All purpose flour)
Whole wheat flour - 1½cups, divided (or use 3½cups of bleached flour)
Quick cooking Oats - 1cup, divided
Salt - 1¾tsp

Instant Yeast - 1tsp (can also use rapid rise or bread machine yeast)
Honey - 6tbsp
Vegetable/ Canola Oil - ¼cup + more for brushing dough and oiling pan

Method:

• Spread ¾cup of oats on a microwave safe plate. Microwave on high power 1½~2 minutes, stopping to stir every 30 seconds, or until the oats are fragrant and lightly toasted. Cool.
• In a bowl, mix 1½cups of water with 1cup of ice cubes.
• Combine bread flour, 1¼cups of whole wheat flour, salt, yeast and toasted oats in a large mixing bowl.
• Measure 1½cups ice water into a measuring cup, add honey and oil and mix well to combine.
• Vigorously stir in honey mixture into the flour mixture. Dough should be slightly stiff, add in just enough additional flour to stiffen dough slightly, if necessary.
• Brush top of dough with oil.
• Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for 8~12 hours.
• Vigorously stir dough, scraping down bowl sides. Stir in remaining ¼cup of whole wheat flour. Stir in more flour if dough is at all soft, to have stiff but still stirrable dough.
• Oil a 9"x5" loaf pan, transfer dough to pan, and smooth the surface with a spatula or well oiled finger tips. Press remaining ¼cup oats on top of loaf. Cover with lightly greased plastic wrap.
• Let dough rise 1¼~2½ hours at room temperature.
• Preheat the oven to 375°F. Remove plastic wrap and bake loaf for 30~35 minutes or until the top is well browned. Cover with foil and bake for another 25~30 minutes more or until an instant read thermometer inserted into the center of the bread registers at least 190°F.
• Cool in pan for 5 minutes before removing it onto a wire rack. Cool completely before slicing.

Linking this to this year's Bake-a-thon event.

Bake-a-thon 2014

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