Sourdough Oat Bread
This sourdough oatmeal bread recipe is a wholesome and delicious way to start your day. With its light and fluffy texture, this bread is perfect for toast, sandwiches, or simply enjoying on its own.
This sourdough oatmeal bread recipe is a wholesome and delicious way to start your day. With its light and fluffy texture, this bread is perfect for toast, sandwiches, or simply enjoying on its own.
- Carbohydrate 63.0903137894638 g
- Cholesterol 6.12000000517354 mg
- Fat 3.32050125049745 g
- Fiber 2.65037502283696 g
- Protein 18.3842125130447 g
- Saturated Fat 0.586913750181326 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (141g)
- Sodium 4403.78175053707 mg
- Sugar 60.4399387666268 g
- Trans Fat 0.256945000104222 g
- Calories 360 calories
Step-by-step
- The night before, mix the first 4 ingredients in the order given. It will look like oatmeal. Cover the bowl – plastic wrap works best – and put the sponge away in a warm place overnight.
- Next morning, the sponge should be light and bubbly. Beat in the salt, sugar, soda, and oil.
- Start adding flour, by handfuls or generous sprinkles, turning the mass over and over with your hands or a wooden spoon. Keep adding flour and mixing it in till you obtain a cohesive dough, a little sticky.
- Stretch and fold, adding smaller sprinklings of flour, till the dough is smooth. That should be about 10 stretches and folds. Smooth a thin layer of flour over the dough ball, cover it again, and put it away another 2 hours, or until the dough is light again.
- Working gently, cut the dough into two. Stretch and fold each half, shaping the loaf you want.
- Allow the dough to rise another half-hour to an hour, or until the it’s light and a few blisters are visible under the skin surface of it. Start preheating the oven. Prehead oven to 485 º F, but lower the temp to 370 º F after the loaves are put in the oven.
- Decorate the surface of the loaves by giving them an egg-wash, pressing flakes of oats on top.
- Bake for 1 hour or until a golden-brown.
Adding too much flour too quickly during the initial mix creates a dense, heavy crumb that fails to rise properly. Bakers often misjudge the hydration levels because oats absorb moisture unpredictably, leading them to dump dry flour into the bowl rather than incorporating it gradually by handfuls. Achieving a cohesive yet sticky dough requires patience during the incorporation phase, stopping the addition of flour the moment the mass holds together.
Building strength in the dough relies on mechanical action rather than brute force. Performing roughly ten stretch-and-fold repetitions aligns the gluten strands without degassing the delicate sponge created overnight. Keeping the dough covered with plastic wrap prevents a dry skin from forming during the two-hour secondary fermentation period, ensuring the interior remains tender and pliable.
Temperature management during baking dictates the final crust and interior structure. Preheating the oven to 485 degrees Fahrenheit provides an initial burst of heat that encourages maximum oven spring, but dropping the temperature to 370 degrees Fahrenheit immediately after loading the loaves prevents the exterior from burning before the center bakes completely through. Monitoring the bake for a full hour guarantees the internal moisture evaporates sufficiently.
Scaling this formulation up or down requires precise math to maintain the ratio of sourdough starter to flour, particularly if fermentation timelines need adjustment. Dividing the bulk dough accurately into two equal portions ensures even heat penetration during the hour-long bake, producing matching loaves with uniform crumb development.
