The choice for the Bread of the Month (BOM) for September is from one of my favorite cookbooks, Bernard Clayton’s Complete Book of Breads. I was thrilled when I learned that we would be making this Maple Oatmeal Bread for the Artisan Bread Bakers this month. I love oatmeal bread. This loaf is very fluffy and has a delicious and light sweetness due to the maple syrup.
Did you know that maple syrup was discovered by the Native Americans who lived among the maple forests in North America? However, it was the pioneer, or early American housewife that turned it into the commodity it is today. Sugar was scarce in those times, but maple syrup was plentiful so it was used in breads, biscuits, and pies and poured over pancakes.
— Bernard Clayton, New Complete Book of Breads
Maple Oatmeal Bread
Makes: Two Loaves
Recipe from Bernard Clayton’s Complete Book of Breads
This loaf, created by the baker at Staffords in the Field Inn in New Hampshire, is reminiscent of those times. The recipe was adapted from a century-old recipe. I don’t know about you but I enjoy tasting history.
Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups boiling water
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1 package dry yeast
- 3/4 cup maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 5 cups bread flour or all-purpose flour, approximately (I used about 7 1/2 cups total)
Directions:
Put the oats into a bowl. Pour the boiling water over the oats and set aside to soak for an hour.
Sprinkle the yeast over the cooled oatmeal and stir to mix. Add the maple syrup, salt, cooking oil, and 3 cups of the flour. Blend all of the ingredients. It will have the consistency of a heavy batter. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside to rise for about an hour. Add more flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough is the correct consistency.
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Knead for 10 minutes. Add more flour if the dough is sticky. Mine was really sticky so I added more flour. Divide the dough into two pieces.
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Shape into loaves and place in greased loaf pans.
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I used one glass pan and one nonstick pan to see if they baked it differently. Cover and let rise another 45 minutes or until the dough reaches the edge of the pan. I used wax paper so it wouldn’t stick to the loaves.
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Bake at 350 for 30 – 40 minutes. The recipe says to bake for 40 to 50 minutes but it didn’t take that long for my bread to bake. Remove the loaves and place on metal rack to cool before serving.
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Notes: This bread makes great toast and can be kept frozen for an indefinite period at 0 degrees. I think I’ll freeze this loaf to enjoy later and eat the other loaf now.
BOM (Bread of the Month) is a virtual bread-baking party hosted by Phyl Of Cabbages & King Cakes. Visit the Facebook page to learn more about the Artisan Bread Baking group.
Thanks for visiting The Bread Experience Bread-Baking Blog. I hope you enjoyed your visit and will join me again next time.
Happy Baking!
Cathy
Do you know if you could substitute agave nectar for the maple syrup? Thanks!
Hi Michelle, I haven’t tried it with agave nectar but it probably would work. It would just have a different flavor. Worth a try for sure.
Made this bread today for the family. Scaled the ingredients down to a single loaf and substituted the Maple for Honey and used all Whole Wheat flour.
Turned out fabulously. I was aiming for a not overly sweet loaf just a light sweet flavour. The honey and oats go well together and the family loved it!
My diet on the other hand!!! 🙂
So glad it turned out well! Sounds delish!
I just made this and honest to gosh, it’s the first time bread has ever come out as fluffy as shop bread.
Helen, thanks for visiting the Bread Experience. This bread is a keeper for sure. Happy Baking!
I have made this bread twice now and it seems that the 2 1/2 cups boiling water is excessive as I have to use at least 7 cups flour. Does anyone else think the amount is a misprint? I’m using Clayton’s book.
I don’t know if it’s a misprint or not. I used about 7 1/2 cups of flour as well. This amount of flour made nice size loaves. Maybe he should’ve said 5 – 7 cups of flour. You can certainly reduce the amount of water used to soak the oats if you want to make smaller loaves.
What size loaf pans did you use?
Hi Vanessa, the glass pan is 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inches. The nonstick is a little bit smaller. I would go with an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch pan.
Making this recipe for the second time. First time was a wet humid day, 7 cups of flour. Today is a dry sunny 12 degrees, 5 cups of flour.
My Mom told me humidity played a big part in how much flour you need. Wow 2 cups difference b/w one day and another.
I use honey as I love the flavour. This time I’m try only a few tbl honey and a tbl molasses, as the sweeter version didn’t quite work with chicken sandwiches.
Thanks for sharing your experience. Yes, humidity does play a big part. Amazing the difference. Happy Baking!
Looking forward to making this beautiful looking bread. Was wondering if I could substitute all purpose flour with sprouted oat flour?
Thank you kindly
Hi Mary, you could substitute sprouted oat flour for some of the all-purpose flour but I wouldn’t use more than a cup. Oat flour doesn’t have gluten so you need the gluten flour to help the loaf hold it’s shape.
Was looking for Oatmeal based bread… Just made one loaf… So easy and amazing. I used my bread maker on dough setting to prepare the dough and baked it as per normal in a bread pan in oven. Thank you.
Hi Berney, thanks for sharing your experience. So glad you enjoyed it. It’s good to know that using a bread machine to prepare the dough works well with this bread.