Wednesday, January 21, 2009

The easiest bread in the world
This recipe comes via Bettina, our Danish neighbour across the way. She makes this frequently and switches it into bread rolls, round loaves, rectangular ones. Anything goes. The first time I tried it was disastrous and ended with me pitching the entire yucky mess. This time, I realized that there wasn't enough yeast so I modified that and it's looking good. There's no kneading required and no double risings. The best time to make it is just before you go to bed and then get up a bit earlier than usual and bake it for breakfast.

Danish Oat Bread
2 cups lukewarm water
2 1/4 tsp yeast
1/2 tsp sugar
Mix these together and let sit until it foams, or about 5 minutes

2 tbsp canola oil
1/3 cup oats
1/2 cup seeds/nuts/berries (your choice)
1 1/4 tsp salt
2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour (you can combine flour types to your taste)
1 1/2 tbsp wheat gluten (I added this to combat our dry climate)

Stir oil, oats, seeds and salt into the yeast mixture. Slowly stir in the flour, mixing with a spoon, not a hand mixer. Dough will be sticky. Do not knead. Pour into well-greased & floured (or lined with parchment paper) baking pans, cover and let rest in fridge 8-12 hours or overnight. Bake at 450 for 10 minutes then turn down the oven and bake at 350 for about 25 minutes.

This is the dough after 8 hours in the fridge. It has doubled in size.

Update: well, again, this wasn't the most successful bread but I haven't given up. This time the bread stuck to the pan, burnt around the edges and is a modicum underdone. I've modified the recipe to include a well-greased or preferably, parchment-lined pan and reduced the heat and duration. I don't know if this new temp (350) and duration (25) minutes is better than the old (450) temperature and (45) minutes so I'll try again and let you know.


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