Hey everyone, I’m back, and I have a ton of posts to write up. First, the weekly bread! I try to mix it up when I’m making sandwich bread for the week, and last week I decided to go for a straight up classic sandwich loaf bread. I am constantly on the crusade for the perfect sandwich loaf, and one of the stipulations is that I be able to slice it fairly thinly without it falling apart. This usually requires a good tight crumb, so whole wheat breads actually help in this respect. I’ve made King Arthur’s Oatmeal Toasting and Sandwich Bread (which happens to be the recipe on the back of the bread flour bag) before, and it was definitely tasty. I thought I had made it with a substitution of whole wheat flour for part of the recipe, but while I was making it this time I decided that I had not. I was a little concerned about the heaviness of the dough, but it turned out great.

First, all the dry goods get mixed together. I substituted one cup of the bread flour for 100% whole wheat flour. Some oatmeal bread recipes have you give the oats a whirl in a food processor to break them up into smaller pieces, but this one doesn’t and they’ve never stuck out in the finished bread.

This dough was so heavy. Seriously, it weighed a ton, and my dough hooks wanted to slice right through it, it was so dense. I was so afraid this bread would be a brick. Thankfully, I was wrong.

The kneaded dough wasn’t super smooth, but it wasn’t that sticky either.

The yeast produced a lot of air, and it was considerably less dense after the first rise.

The dough is formed into a loaf and placed into a greased loaf pan for the second rise. I think in the past I’ve just dumped it into the pan without shaping and it came out fine, but shaping it probably results in a more even top.

It didn’t take too long for the loaf to crown the pan… I let it go a bit longer than an inch above the rim, as you see, but that worked out for the best because the bread settled a bit upon baking and it turned out to be a good sized loaf.

Perfect. It wasn’t that heavy at all in the end, and it made good sandwiches. I think the crumb was tighter than when I made it previously using all bread flour, which worked in its favor for slicing. Even when I got a little thin with my slices, the bread didn’t break apart completely apart, though I definitely was better off with thicker slices. Not perfect, but pretty good!

Oatmeal Wheat Sandwich Bread (adapted from King Arthur’s Oatmeal Toasting and Sandwich Bread)

Ingredients

• 2 cups unbleached bread flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon whole-grain bread improver
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1 1/4 cups lukewarm milk

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl combine all of the dry ingredients ingredients.
2. Whisk together the wet ingredients in another bowl until they are combined. Add to dry ingredients and mix to form a shaggy dough.
3. Knead dough, by hand (10 minutes) or by machine (5 minutes) until it comes together and is fairly smooth.
4. Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover and allow it to rise for 1 hour.
5. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled surface, and shape it into a log.
6. Place the log in a lightly greased 9 x 5-inch loaf pan, cover the pan and allow the dough to rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour, till it’s crested at least 2 inches over the rim of the pan.
7. Toward the end of this rise preheat the oven to 350ºF.
8. Bake the bread for 35 to 40 minutes, until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center registers 190°F.