Oatmeal Batter Bread

 

Oatmeal Batter Bread.  There is nothing I love more than a recipe for an old fashioned batter bread. The recipe I am sharing with you today is for an Oatmeal Batter Bread.

It is one I adapted from a cookbook entitled, "Better Homes and Gardens: 365 Comfort Foods", and I will tell you up front, this is a real winner of a recipe! I really trust BH & G recipes and recipe books.

 

I have always quite simply adored oatmeal bread. It is wholesome and old fashioned and toasts really well. 

I have also  always had a fondness for batter breads.  They are so much easier to make than regular breads. You can make them simply with a mixer and a bowl.  They also tend to be a lot quicker to make than regular bread.

 

With an old fashioned batter bread, the mixer does all of the hard work of kneading. This helps to create a bread that is both light in weight and in texture. Perfect for eating out of hand or toasted.

Because these breads are not kneaded by hand, however,  it is important to beat the initial batter with a mixer until it comes away from the sides of the bowl and appears stringy. You really want to do your best job in helping the gluten to develop!

 

I have never been really great at kneading bread by hand. I lack the upper body strength to do a proper job of it.  That's where these heavy duty stand mixers really work well.  They pack plenty of oomph!

The remainder of the dry ingredients for this recipe are mixed in by hand with a wooden spoon. It can be a real workout making sure that it all gets incorporated, but do persevere!  

Trust me when I say, it is well worth the effort!

 

Since batter breads use less flour than regular breads, they form a batter rather than a dough, It is more times than not a rather sticky batter! That's okay however. It is all a part of their charm.

And part of what makes them super quick and super easy to make.

 

One thing I really  missed when I was living in the UK was the Oatmeal Bread from back home.  I adore Oatmeal Bread.  Slightly sweet, and tasting of molasses and oats, it is one of my favorite yeast breads.

When I saw this recipe for Oatmeal Batter Bread I just had to try it!  Batter breads are the one kind of bread that I can make that have always turned out for me!

 

I have always been a lot better at baking doorstops rather than bread, lol.  Truly, hard and not that edible.  My ex husband was a bread baking expert.  He used to crank out about a dozen loaves for our hungry family every week.

Great big beautiful fluffy loaves of white bread.  Double loaves, and by that I mean loaves that were two big balls joined in the center. I love the center bits. The fluff. Those were my favorite pieces.  I think one whole loaf always got inhaled as soon as it came out of the oven.

 

Everyone had to have a slice or two.  Warm, with butter melting into it.  It was heavenly bliss. I will give my ex credit for being able to make great bread! Always have done.

One reason I really love batter breads is that making them doesn't take me a lot of faffing about to have success with them! I do a Brown Batter Bread that is pretty amazing. We like to eat it with baked beans.

 

I also make some White Batter Rolls that are pretty darned good. I truly love them. 

I have to tell you, however,  this Oatmeal Batter Bread bats a homerun right out of the ball park!  It is amazing! Just look at the beautiful texture of it.

 

It only requires one rising.  You simply mix it up and then pop it into the baking tin. It rises right in the loaf tin, so it is also very quick to make.  

I had this stirred together and rising in the loaf tin before anyone even got up this morning. I can't think of anything better than waking up to the smell of bread baking, can you?

Of course the child in me cannot help but enjoy a slice of fresh homemade bread with just butter and jam on it. 

It truly is pure bliss to me and I know I will suffer the rest of the day for this small indulgence. I am incorrigible I know!

 

Diabetics and jam don't go together very well. 

I will confess . . . I do not care much for the taste of artificial sweeteners in diabetic jams. Plus they are overpriced for what they are and have no lasting power.

 

I would rather have a little bit of the real thing, once in a while.

This is worth every minute of discomfort it might cause me later on, and is a rare, rare treat.

  

Oh boy  . . . but you just cannot beat a slice of good homemade bread, buttered and spread with a smattering of lovely sweet jam.

Today it was raspberry. Double indemnity, what with me having diverticulitis as well. Strawberry would have been a wiser choice, but oh well. The heart wants what it wants and all we had was raspberry! 

Oatmeal Batter Bread

Yield: Makes one medium loaf

Author: Marie Rayner

Prep time: 1 H & 15 MCook time: 40 MinTotal time: 1 H & 55 M

This amazingly tasty bread needs only one rising and bakes up beautifully light. Its also incredibly low in fat

Ingredients

• 1 cup (240ml) warm milk (whole or 2 %) 
• 1/4 cup (60ml) honey or molasses 
• 1 packet of active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
• 1 3/4 cup (245g) bread flour 
• 1 large free range egg, lightly beaten
• 1 TBS vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup (105g) whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup (50g) old fashioned oats, plus more to sprinkle

Instructions

1. Combine the warm milk, molasses and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer. Stir to dissolve the yeast. Let the mixture rest for five minutes.
2. Spray an 8 by 4 by 2 inch loaf tin with cooking oil spray.
3. Add the bread flour, egg, oil and salt to the yeast mixture. Beat on low for a minute to combine, scraping down the bowl as needed. Increase the speed to high and beat for 3 minutes. The dough will be very sticky.
4. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the oats and whole wheat flour and work it in until well incorporated. Spoon into the loaf tin and spread it out evenly. Sprinkle more oats on top. Cover lightly with a sheet of buttered cling film and leave to rise for an hour until double in size.
5. Preheat the oven to 180*D/350*F/ gas mark 4. Bake the loaf for 15 minutes. Loosely tent with aluminum foil and bake for a further 20 to 25 minutes until done. The loaf should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.
6. This bread will keep for up to three days at room temperature, or you can freeze it for up to a month.

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