Dinner on the Porch: Maple Oatmeal Sandwich Bread

Toasted Maple Oatmeal Sandwich Bread with fig jam

I think I’ve gotten a little bread crazed of late. Although this is another sandwich bread recipe, I’ve actually been baking all sorts of bread deliciousness - from crusty artisan bread to homemade buttermilk dinner rolls… I really cannot overstate the goodness and comfort of homemade bread. Because you cannot get any fresher bread than the bread that comes from your own oven. I’ve made this particular bread on Sunday for the last three weeks (make that four weeks since I had to make another loaf to photograph for the blog) and now I cannot bring myself to buy a loaf of sandwich bread at the store. Yes, this bread is that good and that easy. And the maple smell that will waft through your house as it’s baking will make you a believer too…

This bread is fantastically delicious toasted, with butter as it’s only adornment. However, I have been known to enjoy it with peanut butter, or goat cheese that’s been softened and then topped with fig jam. It elevates a simple ham and cheese to greatness. And I can only imagine how ridiculous bread pudding would be made with a loaf of this bread. How about some French toast…well, let’s not even go there…

Finding this recipe was more a stroke of luck than anything else – lucky, because I didn’t throw the recipe away before giving it a try! In addition to the 40 plus cookbooks I have, I also keep a notebook for other recipes that are shared with me or those that I have torn from a magazine and promised myself I’ll try at some point. In the notebook I've used tabs to divide the recipes into categories and every now and then I sit down and flip through what I've saved and discard the recipes that have been hanging around for too long that I have never attempted to make. This bread recipe was one that was heading for the discard pile because I’m pretty sure it’s been in that notebook for close to three years…just waiting. So with my current obsession for homemade bread in full force and the fact that it has maple syrup in it…well, I couldn’t let the opportunity to try a new sandwich bread recipe pass me by. This bread is worth making for your family on a weekly basis...I think I've officially decided to stop buying sandwich bread at the store because of this recipe. I hope you'll give it a try.

Maple Oatmeal Sandwich Bread
from Bon Appetit Magazine

** If you don’t have maple syrup or maple extract on hand, omit both of those ingredients and sub in ¼ cup of honey – this substitution also makes a great bread**

You will need:

A stand mixer

9x5 bread pan

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of water (heated to 105-115 degrees)
1 egg
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

¼ cup maple syrup (grade B) - I have used regular Grade A, the maple flavor is a little lighter

1/2 teaspoon maple extract

2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup old fashioned oats (I use Quaker Oats – not the Instant)

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons active yeast

In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a dough hook, add all of the ingredients in the order they are listed. Mix on low until the ingredients begin to come together and then knead on medium for 8 minutes.

Remove the dough from the dough hook and leave dough in the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and then a towel. Allow to rise at warm room temperature about 2 hours or until doubled in size.

Butter the 9x5 bread pan all the way up the sides and set aside. Turn dough out on a floured surface and knead for 1-2 minutes. Shape the dough, with any seam side down, into an 8 x 3 inch loaf – so that the ends almost touch the inside ends of the bread pan. Place loaf in buttered bread pan and cover with plastic wrap that has been buttered to prevent it sticking to the bread.

Allow bread to rise for approximately 45 minutes or until it has risen 1 1/2 inches above the top lip of the pan.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place a rack in the bottom third of the oven. Bake for 30 minutes, until the top is golden brown and the temperature is 180 degrees.