Whole-wheat Bran Oat Bread

I have to thank Kelli for the wonderful idea of making the bread in the bread maker using the dough cycle and then put the dough in a pan and bake in the oven. Just take a look at this beauty.

I've had my bread machine for a while now and although I liked the breads I made in it, I hated the large cube format of the finished product. I know the booklet shows how you can program the machine for dough and then take out and make small buns, pizza, and other free form breads. I was always afraid that once I took it out, it would get cold and not rise at all. But I've seen in Kelli's blog, loaf after beautiful-looking loaf and lost my fear. After all, it seemed simple enough. Thanks Kelli!

The recipe is from the book Favorite Bead Machine Recipes, by Norman A. Garrett, page 112, and I made the 1 1/2 pound loaf. Besides the bread flour, it also includes oat flour, oat bran and whole-wheat flour. For the oat flour I used large-flake oatmeal that I ground in batches in a small coffee grinder that I use to grind flax

Whole-Wheat, Bran and Oat Bread

2 teaspoons active dry yeast (I used rapid-rise)
3 tablespoons brown sugar (I used regular sugar--that's all had)
1 1/2 tablespoons gluten powder
1 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour
1/3 cup oat bran
3/4 cup oat flour
3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
2 scant teaspoons salt
3 1/2 tablespoons butter
1 1/4 cups warm water (I used room-temperature)

Put all ingredients in the bread maker and program for dough cycle (about 1 hour and 30 minutes). Grease the pan you are going to use to bake the bread.

Once the machine beeps, take out the dough, press down to deflate a little and with your hands quickly make a rectangle with the larger side about the length of the bread pan. Roll the dough and put into the pan, seam-side down.

Now you are supposed to put in a warm place and let rise for about 30 minutes. I put mine inside the oven with the pilot light on. After about 30 minutes I switched the oven on and let the temperature go up to 400F. The bread cooked in about 25 minutes.

I have not tasted it yet. Will update this entry tomorrow.

Update on July 5, 2005: The bread is indeed very tasty. I prefer it toasted with a little bit of butter and the strawberry jam I just made.