
Crispy crust, nice holes in the crumb, delicious cinnamon flavour.
I haven’t been baking bread containing oats for a some time now, and so decided that I’d try this out again. I checked out the recipes on the internet for which there are several, and decided on one. However, as I went along, I found there were errors in the recipe and decided to modify it half-way through to salvage the situation. One major problem was the amount of water that was used. I was not satisfied with the resulting loaf. So after some days, I searched the internet once more and found a recipe at the King Arthur Flour’s web site. I modified the recipe, this time before starting, and below is the final recipe that resulted.
Ingredients:
260 gm. King Arthur Organic A.P flour.
1/2 cup steel-cut oats lightly pan roasted
100 gm. organic unbleached wheat flour
35 gm brown sugar

Organic Rolled Oats
2 teaspoons sea salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups filtered water
Extra flour for shaping.

Rolled oats roasted till golden brown.
Method:
The day before, around noon, I pan-roasted the organic steel cut oats on a non-stick pan to lightly brown the oats. I then mixed the All Purpose flour, the wheat flour, the roasted oats, 2 teaspoons sea salt together in a large glass bowl. Add in the cinnamon powder, sugar, and dry yeast. Finally after thoroughly mixing the dry ingredients, I added in the filtered water and continued to mix everything till a dough ball forms. Leave this to proof for about 16 to 20 hours, folding the dough thrice in the first four hours. The long fermentation is to develop a better flavour in the bread.

The dough formed into a sticky ball.

The dough rises rather quickly. This is after 4 hours.

The folded dough. Proofing for 45 minutes.

Garnishing the surface with oats.
Next day, transfer the risen dough to a heavily floured surface to gently fold the dough several times from the edges to the centre. Try to do this quickly and gently without disturbing the dough much. Let this then proof for 45 minutes. During this time, heat up the dutch oven inside your oven to 240˚C . No need to heat the dutch oven cover at the same time. When the dutch oven is hot, transfer the dough on the baking paper into the dutch oven, place on the cover and return the dutch oven into the main oven. Bake for 30 minutes at 240˚C, then remove the dutch oven cover and bake further for 15 minutes or so till the loaf is dark brown.

Transfer the prepared dough on the baking sheet into the dutch oven.

Hot out of the oven.
My comments:
The dough has a slightly sourish taste, in keeping with the long fermentation period. My overnight proofing time was 20 hours. The bread will keep better as well with long fermentation times because of the acid build up. You could bake the bread after 6 hours fermentation as the rise is fairly rapid.
Roasting the oats produces a nice toasted flavour to the bread.
The amount of salt can vary between 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons depending on your taste.
Adding a tablespoon of butter would make the crumb softer.
Before sprinkling the oat garnishing on the loaf, spray mist with water so the oat flakes will adhere better.
“Avoid those who don’t like bread and children. “– Swiss Proverb.
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