Baking bread is not my strong suit. I don’t usually have the patience to accomplish it and often fall back on the no-knead type breads, which are quite delicious. I’ve even had some abject failures when attempting bread recipes (read: the products were only worth of our porcine companions…). However, the other day I wanted to have bread ready by dinner time which meant I didn’t have time for an eight hour or more rise. I turned to my trusty KAF baking book and found this recipe. Eleanor, my chief side-kick, helped make this bread which turned out to be a home run. Slightly sweet, light, moist. Perfect for toast or tasty with just a little butter on top.

Vermont Oatmeal Maple-Honey Bread, adapted from KAF All-Purpose Baking Cookbook

  • 2 ¼ -2 ½ cups boiling water
  • 1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
  • ½ cup pure Vermont maple sugar
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 4 tablespoons butter, refrigerator temp
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon yeast
  • 1 ½ cups white whole wheat flour
  • 4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

In the bowl of a large kitchen mixer, combine the water, oats, maple sugar, honey, butter, salt and cinnamon. Let cool to lukewarm. 

Add the yeast and flours, stir to form a rough dough. Knead (by hand for about 10 min, by machine for about 7 min) until the dough is smooth and satiny. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover the bowl with lightly greased plastic wrap, and let the dough rise for about 1 hour, doubling in bulk. 

Divide the dough in half and shape each half into a loaf. Place the loaves in two greased 8 ½ x 4 ½ inch bread pans. Cover the pans with lightly greased plastic wrap or a proof cover and allow the loaves to rise until they’ve crowned about 1 inch over the rim of the pan, about an hour. 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake the loaves for 35-40 min until golden brown.