by Allyson Kenning
Few things are more satisfying than making a great loaf of homemade bread. I have a fairly large bread recipe repertoire, but there are always recipes I go back to again and again because they are just so good. The recipe I’m about to share with you is one of them. In keeping with the theme of Bread ‘n Molasses, this is a bread with molasses in it that is very hearty and tasty.
My mom taught me to bake bread long before I attended culinary school, and when I was a child and my mom had time out of her busy schedule, she’d make epic batches of bread in the neighbourhood of 10 – 12 loaves – all by hand. We didn’t have a mixer or a bread machine. I remember her kneading long, snakelike ropes of bread dough on our countertop and shaping them into loaves, and leaving them in the sun to proof. Her bread was always full of nutritious things like cracked wheat, wheat germ, or seeds, and it was always fantastic.
I don’t make epic batches like my mom did, rather just a loaf or two at a time. We have a different hand-kneading technique, but I do have a mixer and I use it! This recipe is adapted from a Canadian Living recipe from several years ago, and was originally meant to go in a bread machine. I just mix all the dry ingredients together, add the wet, and develop the dough on speed 4 of my KitchenAid until it looks ready and feels elastic-y and smooth. It’s awesome!
Molasses Oat Bread
2 cups white bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
½ cup quick cooking oats
1 ¼ tsp instant yeast
1 ¼ tsp salt
1 tbsp white sugar
¾ cup water
1 egg, lightly beaten
¼ cup molasses
2 tbsp softened butter
Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the water, egg, molasses, and butter. Mix into the dry ingredients until you get a ball of dough to form. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Or develop in the bowl of your mixer, or just put everything in a bread machine and set it to “whole wheat” mode. If using the first method, shape as desired into a free-form loaf or into a loaf pan by pounding the dough out into a rough rectangle and then rolling it up jelly-roll style, pinching the seams. Put seam side down in pan and cover with plastic wrap. Allow it to rise until double in size. Bake in a 400F oven for 25 – 30 minutes or until it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.
Slice and enjoy!
Do you have any recipes you’d like to share with us that have been handed down from generation to generation? Or a recipe in keeping with the theme of Bread ‘n Molasses? We’d like to hear all about them! Send an email to Kellie at editor@breadnmolasses.com, and she’ll forward them on to me to try out and write about!
Allyson Kenning hails from the mountain town of Rossland, British Columbia, but felt the coast calling in 2011, and she now lives in the Vancouver suburb of Surrey. She has a writing degree from the University of Victoria and a Baking and Pastry Arts diploma from the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts. For several years now she has been authoring the blog “ReTorte” – retorte.blogspot.com – under the pseudonym Wandering Coyote.
Looks like a delicious recipe!