Whole Wheat Oatmeal Sandwich Bread (with flaxseed)

I am not good at following recipes - have you noticed? I look at most recipes as "suggestions" and I never follow them. I'm not always in the mood to dirty my measuring spoons and cups, or sometimes I'm out of an ingredient (or never had it in my house EVER) and sometimes a recipe looks interesting but is too complicated... you get the point.

So I was inspired by a recipe I noticed on King Arthur Flour to try making my own whole wheat oatmeal sandwich bread (that was our favorite bread from Whole Foods, back in the old days when we could get Whole Foods breads - some areas are kosher).

So here's what I did (recipe updated somewhat November 2016)

1/2 c. ground flaxseed
3 c. oat flour (I actually ground up whole oats in my coffee grinder...)
12 c. whole wheat flour or whole spelt flour
1/3 c. vital wheat gluten(optional)
1 T. salt

combine these in an extra large bowl (an old friend recommended using a dishpan instead of a bowl when making large batches or bread, and that's what I do! It's the perfect size.), make a well in the center, and add:

2 Tablespoons instant yeast
4 cups lukewarm water
1/4 cup oil (I used grapeseed, that's what was in my kitchen today, King Arthur Flour recommends safflower oil, but I've already changed the recipe so much...)
1/4 cup honey or sugar

Mix well and add water or flour as needed (flour from different places/different seasons/different varieties absorbs different amounts of water. be flexible when baking bread!).

Knead for at least 10 min. then lightly coat with oil and cover with a damp towel, set it in a warm spot to rise (my kitchen is cold, so I boil a shallow pot of water and set it on the counter. Then set the bowl on top of it to rise in a nice warm, humid spot.).

That's my dough, nicely risen - more than doubled in bulk - in a dishpan.

Yes, I have a dedicated bread baking dishpan...

After it has doubled in bulk (2 hours or so), punch down, take challah, shape your loaves as desired (I make some in loaf pans, and generally use this quantity of dough to make 4 loaves. These would also work as pull-apart rolls, though), and set it in a warm spot to rise again (same trick as before with the pot). Let it rise about 30-40 min more, then bake at 350 F for about 40 min.

Enjoy!

This post was shared with the Hearth and Soul Blog Hop on Jan. 10, 2012