Oatmeal Bread

This is a hearty and moist oatmeal loaf made with old-fashioned oats, whole wheat flour, white bread flour, and honey. Oats not only add an earthy flavor, but they also hold onto lots of moisture, ensuring this bread stays tender. The loaf gets even more flavor from the nutty whole wheat flour and sweet honey.

Homemade oatmeal bread makes school or work lunches extra special. It makes superb sandwiches and stays soft for several days. Even then, it’s excellent for toast. The recipe makes two loaves, and it freezes well; it’s a great make ahead recipe. It’s the ideal Sunday baking project so you can enjoy homemade bread throughout the week.

What Are the Best Oats to Use?

The best oats for this bread are old-fashioned rolled oats. Old-fashioned rolled oats are whole oats that have been steamed, pressed in steel rollers, and flaked. They're the most common oats for oatmeal and baked goods. Old-fashioned oats have a nice balance of flavor, texture, and water absorption. Quick-cooking or instant oats are duller in flavor and tend to get gummy. They also hold less water, which would make this dough too sticky.

Types of Flour to Use

In addition to oats, this bread uses whole wheat flour and white bread flour for added flavor and structure.

Whole wheat flour is made by grinding the entire wheat kernel, including the bran and germ. The bran is the fibrous outer layer of the wheat kernel. The germ is the sprouting section of the kernel that's rich in healthy fats. Whole wheat flour adds a nutty flavor and extra nutrients to bread recipes, but the tough bran can shred through the gluten structure, so it’s often blended with white flour.

White bread flour has been processed to strip the bran and germ, leaving just the starchy part of the wheat kernel. Certain types of wheat are selected for bread flour to give it a higher protein content than all-purpose flour. These proteins are what create the gluten structure necessary for bread.

How to Bake Bread Using Yeast

Most bread relies on yeast fermentation to aerate, or leaven, the dough. Yeast is a living organism that consumes the sugars present in the dough and excretes carbon dioxide and alcohol. The carbon dioxide collects in air bubbles throughout the dough. As these bubbles fill with more air, they inflate and cause the dough to rise. The fermentation process aids in gluten development when the air bubbles stretch the dough. It also adds flavor by breaking down large molecules into simpler, more flavorful ones.

This recipe uses instant yeast to leaven the dough. I like to use instant yeast because it doesn’t need to be bloomed before mixing. Blooming the yeast is the process of dissolving the yeast in liquid with a bit of sugar and letting it sit until it bubbles, “proving” that it works. If it still hasn’t begun to bubble and foam after about 15 minutes, then the yeast is probably dead. This process is necessary when using active dry yeast in lower hydration bread recipes or when you’re unsure of the yeast’s freshness.

Ingredient Swaps and Substitutions

This oatmeal bread recipe is easy to adapt and very forgiving. If you get started and realize that you don't have the right type of flour or the correct yeast, chances are you can still go ahead with baking.

• If you don’t have any bread flour, all-purpose flour will work in a pinch. Just reduce the milk in the recipe to 1/2 cup (120ml).
• If you only have active dry yeast, you can use that instead of instant yeast, just add about 15 to 20 minutes to the rising times. Unless you’re unsure about the freshness of your yeast, you don’t even need to dissolve or prove it first in this recipe.
• You can substitute the honey for an equal volume of your favorite sweetener: maple syrup, brown sugar, molasses, agave syrup, it’s your choice.
• If you’re vegan or lactose intolerant, you can substitute your favorite plant-based milk or water for the whole milk.

Serving Suggestions

I love to make this bread over the weekend and use it up during the week for lunches. This bread makes excellent sandwiches, from simple peanut butter and banana to flavorful stacks piled high with deli slices. The oats make this bread incredibly soft and moist, but after several days you may find that slices are better destined for toast or grilled sandwiches.

Make-Ahead and Storage

Oatmeal bread keeps well and will last for 4 to 5 days when stored well wrapped at room temperature.

You can also freeze oatmeal bread for up to 3 months. Slice the bread before freezing or leave it whole. Wrap it in a couple of layers of plastic wrap and a layer of foil, or place it in a freezer bag, then freeze. Defrost the loaf at room temperature, still wrapped.

Since this recipe makes two loaves, I like to keep one loaf at room temperature and freeze the other for later.

More Yeast Bread Recipes to Try

• Homemade Rye Bread
• Chocolate Babka
• Homemade Potato Bread
• Whole Wheat Bread
• Brioche Hamburger Buns