Wholemeal Oat Bread

If given a choice of carbs between rice, noodles or bread to eat, I would most definitely choose bread! To some people bread is like poor man's food, something you'd only eat when there's nothing better to eat, but I think otherwise. I like bread and nothing beats freshly baked bread simply eaten with butter, especially if the bread is homemade hot out from my own oven.  And nothing gives me more pleasure watching it turn from a pale puffy dough to a tall golden brown pillow and smelling the sweet yeasty aroma wafting throughout the house. Just lovely.  

This is one of my favorite bread recipe adapted & tweaked from

the recipe 'Multi-Grain Wholemeal Bread' from the cookbook "Baking Code" by Alex Goh. It yields very soft bread due to the use of the Overnight Sponge Dough which has to be prepared first ahead of time. 

You will need:

410g Bread Flour

100g Wholemeal Flour

50g Toasted Rolled Oats

25g Brown Sugar

10g Salt

15g Milk Powder

2 tsp Molasses/Honey
380g Cold Water

100g Overnight Sponge Dough (recipe follows)

45g Butter

Method:

To make bread
1) Mix together all ingredients except butter into a dough. Then add the butter and knead till smooth & elastic.
2) Cover with cling film and set aside to proof for 50 minutes or until it doubles in size.
3) Divide the dough into 6 portions and  allow to rest for 10 minutes.
4) Flatten the dough and then roll up like swiss roll. Place 3 portions of the shaped dough into each greased loaf tins (24x13.5x7cm). Leave to proof for 50 minutes or until doubled in size covered with damp towel.
5) Bake preheated oven at 200 ° C for 35 minutes or until cooked.

To make Overnight Sponge Dough
Ingredients:
100g bread flour
60g water (room temperature)
1/4 tsp instant yeast

Method:
Mix the instant yeast with water in a bowl. Then combine the flour with the yeast/water mixture. Allow to proof for 30 minutes. Then cover with cling film and keep in the refrigerator overnight or up to 48 hours.