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Saturday, May 22, 2010

King Arthur Oatmeal Bread



There has been a bit of a crisis in my house, no fresh bread. Or perhaps my mother being in the hospital has been the real crisis.

My mom is 88 and like most 88 year olds she has multiple health issues. She lives up the street from me in an independent senior citizen community. She ended up in the hospital for a few nights and then went on to a skilled nursing facility for two weeks. I moved her back to her apartment, with home health aids, on Tuesday.

So, this weekend it is time to address some of the deficits in my home. Things are growing the refrigerator; it is not my starters. The white tile floor is not white.

In my forever house, I will have poured concrete flooring, with swirls of color. It will be very accepting of dirt.

The backyard is overgrown, good news, that is outside, not my domain.

Because we are fluent in the rhythm of laundry, it isn't an issue. Except no one has changed the sheets on the beds for some time. And maybe there is a pile of ironing hidden away from sight.

But the crisis remains, there is no bread. And my family no longer likes the bread from the grocers. I have not baked one of the three breads for the Mellow Bakers Challenge, the miche pointe-a-calliere. The recipe takes at least 22 hours. I don't really have the time to commit to a demanding loaf of bread.

I had clipped the Oatmeal Bread recipe from the King Arthur bread flour bag some time ago and put it in my to do pile. I really enjoy oatmeal bread. I checked out the recipe to see if it was a fussy, demanding bread. "In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine all of the ingredient..." Perfect for the overwhelmed weekend baker.

I really enjoy King Arthur's blog. I would love to visit their store. I am taking my girlscouts to Boston this summer. I've considered proposing a side trip to Vermont to look at flours. We are from Texas, we have different acceptable driving distances for side trips from much of the US. If we divided up everything I bought among everyone's luggage I am sure it wouldn't be too heavy. Unfortunately, we are a democratic troop, I think that I would get voted down.

I assembled the ingredients. Actually, I assembled too many ingredients, pick one sweetener, brown sugar or honey.



I moistened the yeast on the milk, which is not on the recipe that I clipped from the bag, but is on the linked recipe. Then I dumped everything into the bowl, combined and kneaded by machine for 5 mins. It was allowed to ferment for one hour.



After an hour, I shaped it and put it in my large loaf pan. After another hour I baked it. Just what the house needed, an absolutely delicious aroma and fresh bread.

5 comments:

  1. Happy to hear your mom is back home and the family is happy again with hot fresh bread.
    I love all the fussy with bread BUT there are always the times we need those mindless easy breads. I'd say your family is so wise, store bought is so useless ;0)

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  2. I was thinking about making that Mediterranean country bread, but I would have had to have started it yesterday. Another one of my sons is coming home, maybe he could tend to the breads.

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  3. Yes, we do have Fiestas. They are incredible!
    Pensys is on line you know IF there's anything else that grabs your fancy.

    Honestly the little hot lip breads as some of us are calling them mostly fall together easily. I was really surprised!

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  4. So sorry to hear about your mother and the accompanying stress Anne Marie. I hope everything is smoothing itself out for you.

    And yes, I understand bread crisis. I have one piece left in the bag and must spent today making some sort of bread too. Oatmeal bread sounds like just the ticket. I haven't made it in awhile.

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  5. KAF website is one of my favorite go-tos for simple bread recipes. I love reading the feedback for recipes I'm looking for.

    Sorry to hear about your mom; I hope she's better now.

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