Honey Oatmeal Bread

How it all Started

Dilemma A: My friend David was planning his retirement June 27th. He is a wonderful friend and you buy wonderful friends thoughtful gifts to mark their retirement. Retirement is a big deal. I agonized more about retirement than anything else in my life. Get married? Of course! Have kids? Absolutely! Retire? Yikes, not sure I'm ready yet...who will I be if I'm not a teacher? What will I do with my time? How will this affect me financially? Sorry, off topic... Back to David....What do you buy for a guy who pretty well has everything? He has a boat for gosh sakes. You know, a crossing-the-ocean kind of boat. The guy doesn't need more stuff...

Dilemma B: I love bread. I love reading my bread cook book, gazing at the photos of bread. I love making bread. I love the yeast getting all frothy in the warm water. I love watching the bread rise, the feel of the living dough in my hands.The smell of the bread baking, the first cut of the loaf revealing the gorgeous texture of the bread.  But eating bread = gaining weight, ergo bread making is problematic. You can't make bread and then not eat it. That's just wrong...

Solution: Make bread as a David retirement gift. Perhaps a loaf every month or so? Perhaps a different kind of bread each month! For a year? Surely no one will get fat from just one bread per month?

June 27th

David came for supper at our place to mark his retirement. I could talk about the supper but really the only important part is the bread. My absolute favourite-honey oatmeal. Gorgeous, yummy, fluffy, delicious... Well perhaps I could mention the pie-rhubarb custard. Actually 2 rhubarb custard pies-one for the four of us to eat and one boat-sized pie. You know, a smallish individual one for David to snack on his boat the next day. David left with a silly smile on his face, hugging his boat-sized pie and honey oatmeal loaf! 


When I was rolling out the pastry for the rhubarb custard pie, I suddenly was inspired to fancify the top with a sailboat and cut out "Sail Away" on the boat-sized pie!

Bread Making Disclaimer / Admission of Guilt 

When you're raised as a Catholic, it's hard to shed that guilt thing. So even though I'm only a Catholic Atheist now-that's the morals of a Catholic without the actual faith part- I have to make a confession. I have a fancy KitchenAid stand mixer to make bread. I've made bread by hand, but this baby makes the whole thing super easy. And sorry, but bread machines are so 80's! I loved mine when I first got it, but not so much any more.

Bread #1

Honey Oatmeal Bread

1 ½ cups water

½ cup honey

1/3 cup butter

5 ½ - 6 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 cup quick cooking oats 

2 teaspoons salt

2 packages active dry yeast

2 eggs

1 egg white

1 tablespoon water

Oatmeal for top of bread-I like the large flakes for this.

1. Take the eggs out before starting so they're not too cold when you use them.
2. I use a 4 cup measure and start with the 1/2 cup of honey. Then I add the water to the 2 cup level and then the butter to make the liquid rise to 2 1/3 cups. Heat in microwave with a thermometer or on low heat to very warm-120°F to 130°F. 
3. Place oats, then 5 cups flour, salt, and yeast in mixer bowl. Attach bowl and dough hook to mixer. Mix on speed 2 for 15 seconds. Continue on speed 2 and gradually add warm mixture to flour mixture. Add eggs and mix about 1 minutes longer. (I set the microwave timer for all mixing times.)
4. Continuing on speed 2, add remaining flour ½ cup at at time, and mix about 2 minutes, or until dough starts to clean sides of bowl. Knead on speed 2 for about 2 minutes longer.
5. Place dough in greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover. Let rise in warm place, free from draft, about 1 hour or until doubled in bulk.
6. Punch dough down and divide in half. Shape each half into a loaf. (I'll explain how to do this some other time.)
7. Place in greased 8 ½ x 4½ x 2½ inch baking pan. Cover. Let rise in warm place, free from draft, about 1 hour, or until doubled in bulk.
8. Beat egg white and water together with a fork. Brush tops of loaves with mixture. Sprinkle with oatmeal. Bake at 375°F for 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from pans and cool on wire racks.

Yield: 2 loaves

Is there anything as beautiful as homemade bread just out of the oven? Keeps for at least a week-if it lasts that long...