Recipe: Maple Oat Sandwich Bread
This post contains affiliate links; please click here to read our affiliate disclosure. As an Amazon Affiliate we earn from qualifying purchases.
This winter we’ve been playing with bread recipes while also experimenting with maple syrup. It's only natural that we wanted to make some maple-inspired bread! The recipe we have tried in the past had a moisture problem – it was delicious but so moist that we couldn’t cut it for sandwich bread. So, we experimented with quantities ingredients and found a recipe that gets the texture and flavor right and also has a nice crumb for slicing.
Note: This recipe uses the no-knead method described in Hertzberg & Francois (2013) The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. The only active time is mixing the dough, transferring it into the rising container, and then shaping and placing into the baking pan. The whole process takes about three hours but most of that time the dough is just rising on its own.
For more information on getting started with bread making, visit the articles in our recent series:
Recipe: Maple Oat Sandwich Bread
Makes 2 one-pound loaves
Ingredients
2 cups lukewarm water
1 cup milk or whey
1 tablespoon yeast (we use Saf-Instant Yeast)
1 tablespoon salt
¼ cup real maple syrup + 1 tablespoon extra for brushing
1 cup oat flour
2 ½ cups white whole wheat flour
2 ½ cups all purpose flour
½ cup oats + ¼ cup extra for sprinkling
Directions
Mix (10 min): Place ingredients in a stand mixer in the order in which they are listed. Turn the mixer on to low speed and mix for approximately one minute.
Rise One (2 hours): Scoop dough out into a plastic container or bowl; cover with lid or plastic wrap. Allow dough to rise for 2 hours in a warm place (or until doubled in size). We have found that the mantle above our wood stove is perfect in the winter.
Place the dough in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it,or proceed to the next step to bake. You can keep this dough for about a week in the fridge and cook one loaf at a time as needed.
Rise Two (30-45 min): Grease and flour a one-pound bread pan (9x5). Sprinkle flour over the dough in the bowl/container and then scoop out about half of it. Shape with your hands into a nice ball, then stretch the ball lengthwise and plop the dough into the pan. Loosely cover the pan with a towel and place in a warm location to rise. This will take 30 – 45 minutes depending on whether the dough was cold to begin with. The dough should rise to just above the height of the bread pan.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees while the dough is rising. Place an empty roasting pan on the lower rack and set the top rack at the middle level.
Bake (50 min): Uncover the dough, brush lightly with maple syrup and sprinkle with oats. Cut a half-inch slice down the middle of the dough with a sharp knife or bread lame. Place in center of the top rack in the oven. Pour about 2 cups of water into the now-hot roasting pan. This creates a steamy environment that will help boost the oven spring of the loaf and lead to a nice crust on your bread. Bake for 50 minutes or until an instant-read thermometer placed into the center of the bread reads 200 degrees.
Cool (1 hour): Remove from the oven and cool about 5 minutes, then gently remove from the pan and cool at least one hour on a wire rack before cutting into the bread or storing it. Once cool, wrap with plastic wrap or Bee's Wrap Sustainable Food Storage to keep fresh.
Enjoy!
