Honey Oatmeal Sourdough
This oatmeal sourdough is just an extension of the One Day Sourdough recipe. The technique is the same but the recipe uses rolled oats or porridge oats. This increases the protein and fiber content of the bread and the honey adds a bit of sweetness. You could sub the honey for maple syrup or omit it if you want. The oats make the bread nutty and delicious. You will find it rises a but less and is a bit more dense but the loaf also keeps a bit better. Obviously homemade bread doesn’t contain preservatives so you may find is drys out over the course of the week. This bread stays moist and holds up a better if you want your loaf to last all week. Honestly, a loaf of bread only last 1-2 days at my house. But last time I made this recipe, we had a lot of bread to eat at the time and I noted that it was still in good shape about a week later when we finished the last of this loaf.
Ingredients:
50-60g starter
350 g water
10g salt
20g honey or maple syrup
150g rolled oats or porridge oats
350g g AP flour (I prefer organic unbleached AP flour but use what you have)
Recipe:
Using a scale, place your preferred mixing bowl on the scale and zero it out. Measure 50-60g of starter into the bowl, then the water, salt, honey, oats and AP flour.
Take the mixing bowl off the scale and feed your starter. If you want to know how I feed my starter, see my One Day Sourdough recipe.
Now mix your bread dough using whatever spoon you feel like. I usually just use a tablespoon because that is what I used to scoop out my starter. Once it gets too hard to mix with a spoon, switch to your hands and mix until it is a sticky, shaggy ball. Cover and let sit for 10-15 minutes.
After 10-15 minutes, remove the cover and knead the dough. I like to pull up the dough from the edges while rotating the bowl then I just start to flip the dough onto itself in the bowl. You want to give the dough a pretty good knead here because this is the last time we will handle it until it’s time to shape and bake. The dough should be a smooth ball. Cover and let sit for 8-10 hours. (This will depend on the temperature of your kitchen, warmer will proof faster, cooler with proof slower. You can also put the bowl in the microwave to try and regulate the temperature more.)
Later that night (or the next morning depending on when you wanted to prep the dough) when you see the dough has about doubled, remove it onto a floured surface and shape the dough by pulling the edges up like you are wrapping a present with a towel. Then either flip into a proofing basket or flip the dough, seam side down, onto a piece of parchment paper and put it back into your mixing bowl for its second proof while the oven preheats. Cover the proofing basket or mixing bowl and set aside while you preheat the oven.
Place your dutch oven in the oven while you preheat to 450 F. Once the oven is ready, it’s time to bake. If you used a proofing basket, invert your bowl onto a silt mat or parchment paper to make it easy to lower the dough into the pot or just flop it into the pot by inverting the proofing basket over the pot. This will make a bit of a flour mess. Or, if you proofed in your mixing bowl, just lift it out by the sides of the parchment and lower into the pot. Score the top of the bread in whatever pattern you like with a sharp knife or lame and place the lid on on the pot. Bake 30 minutes with lid on. Then remove the lid and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before slicing. You really do want to let this one cool so the oatmeal doesn’t make the bread gummy. (If you want to make a loaf in a loaf pan then just invert the dough after shaping into a loaf pan seam side down and bake off at 450 F for about 35 minutes. I usually allow the dough to have a second rise under a moist tea towel while the oven preheats.
Enjoy with your favorite jam or as a delicious toasty sandwich!
