Raiding the larder of ideas.

What one family eats, plans to eat, dreams of eating. Plus, other food and kitchen-related stuff from the home of steak-and-potatoes, pie and fresh green beans from the garden.

Monday, August 26, 2013

Quick Oatmeal Molasses Bread

As I played with this, I realized how much it reminds me of Mom's Anadama bread recipe, but slightly quicker and simpler, and with the addition of dried fruit such as raisins or dried cranberries, it's more like a luncheon bread than a hearty sandwich loaf. Nevertheless, it's tasty as all getout. Plus, it's less than an hour from raw ingredients to ready-to-eat. It's kind of hard to beat that!



Quick Oatmeal Molasses Bread 

Ingredients:

2 cups nonfat buttermilk
1/2 cup quick oats (not instant oatmeal)
1/4 cup unsulphured molasses
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup raisins or dried cranberries (optional)*

 Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°.

Heavily grease and flour two standard 8x4 loaf pans

Combine first 4 ingredients in a medium bowl. Set aside.

Sift or lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flours, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture.

Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until moist; stir in raisins. Stir with a wooden spoon until dough pulls together in a shaggy mass. Let rest 2 minutes.

Butter or oil your hands well and gently knead in bowl or on lightly floured surface (dough will be so sticky you will almost mistake it for thick batter); shape dough in loaf and place in loaf pan. Repeat procedure with remaining dough.

Make 3 diagonal cuts 1/4-inch deep across top of each loaf using a VERY sharp and lightly oiled knife.

Bake at 400° for 20 minutes. Leaving loaves in oven, reduce temperature to 375°; bake an additional 15 minutes.  Remove from oven, place on cooling rack, brush lightly with butter. Let stand at least 15 minutes before slicing.



*I made this without raisins, and on a cornmeal-coated cookie sheet instead of greased loaf pans, so I had to adjust the amount of flour to use, in order for the loaf to even remotely hold its shape. I probably could have added more, plus another 1/4 cup of oats or so, as well. Either way, the dough is still very sticky, and I will consider lining the bottoms of my loaf pans with parchment, next time I make this.

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