Old-Fashioned Whole Wheat Oatmeal Flax Bread

picklewart.blogspot.com

I mentioned a home-made bread I was making on FB the other day and have had a few messages and emails asking for the recipe, so here goes... it originally came from a breadmaker recipe from back when I owned one of those evil things... I swear I think I gained a pound a week when I had one!

Old-Fashioned Whole Wheat Oatmeal Flax Bread

1 2/3 C warm water
1/4 C molasses (although I usually substitute: 1/4 C pancake syrup and 2 tsp maple extract)
*one of these days I'm gonna make it with the molasses though!!
2 Tb margarine or softened butter
4 C Whole Wheat Flour
2/3 C Oats
1/2 C Flax seed (you can skip this if you don't have it)
2 Tb dry milk (although you could use a whole milk or canned milk and just use a touch less water if you needed to I believe)
1 1/4 tsp salt (I usually skip this)
2 tsp yeast

I prefer to mix the yeast, syrup or molasses, and warm water first. Then add the other ingredients. I use my dough hook on my stand mixer to do the beastly act of kneading ;-), but if you knead by hand, I would recommend kneading a good 10 minutes to let the gluten set up.. making for a much better loaf of bread.

This is a large 2 lb loaf and will require an afternoon of rising, so be prepared to mix, form a loaf, set in a loaf pan, cover with a damp cloth, set in a warm spot, and WALK AWAY! For something like 2 or 3 hours... Then, when it's risen quite a bit, bake in a 350 degree oven for around 30 min.