Snow. In Illinois, snow is useless and thus, everyone complains. But you know what? I am the girl who walks around campus with a big grin on her face. I love snow (even in February.) Further evidence that I belong in the mountains. My perfect day consist of waking up early to bake fresh bread, coffee, snowboarding, lunch, more snowboarding, dinner, wine, and reading by the fireplace.
The unfortunate part? Illinois is flat with homemade snow and shallow bases. We wake up to 4 inches of fresh powder and groan (what a waste of snow!) So, I have learned to enjoy snow for snow.
However, I can still have my fresh bread. I love how after a short time in the oven, this earthy smell of wheat begins to waft through your house…
I think I spaced off thinking about bread. I really am a carb girl at heart.
- 1½ cup warm water
- 1 package yeast
- ½ cup honey
- 3 tablespoon canola oil
- 2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup oatmeal
- 1½ cup whole wheat
- ½ cup white flour
- Start by place water, yeast, and honey in the bowl of stand mixer. Stir with a wooden spoon to dissolve yeast and honey, let sit for 5-10 minutes or until mixtures begins to foam. (If this does not happen your yeast was either old or your water was too cold or hot.)
- Once yest is ready, add oil, salt, oatmeal, and 1 cup of the whole wheat flour. Begin to knead with dough hook, adding the rest of the whole wheat flour and white flour as needed until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl (dough should still be kind of soft, just not sticky.) Continue to knead for 10 minutes.
- Once done kneading, spray lightly with oil and set in a warm spot and spritz with water. (I usually turn my oven on to 200? and then turn off to use as proofer) Let dough rise until doubled in size- usually about an hour.
- Turn dough out and shape into a loaf and place in a lightly sprayed 9×5 loaf pan. Again, place in warm spot and let rise until dough in size-this is usually about 45 minutes.
- Heat oven to 375˚, spray loaf lightly with water, sprinkle oatmeal on top, and spray with water again. Bake for 45 minutes or until bread is golden on top and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Let cool and slice.
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