Honey Oat Bread

The most recent food related challenge - master making a loaf of bread. I bought a loaf pan and made sure I had all the necessary ingredients. The recipe I followed comes from the KitchenAid stand mixer recipe book. And let me just say, I have no clue how people made fresh, homemade bread before stand mixers. Seriously, they make it so much easier.  But back to the bread, the end result is a sweet and savory bread topped with rolled oats. Besides the stand mixer, all you need is some time and patience while waiting for the dough to rise and then of course waiting for the bread to cool before slicing into it! I'm hoping this will be good for sandwiches, toast or french toast!


Ingredients:

• water (1.5 cups)
• honey (1/2 cup)
• butter (1/3 cup)
• all-purpose flour (6 cups)
• quick cooking oats (1 cup)
• salt (2 teaspoons)
• active dry yeast (2 packages)
• eggs (2)
• egg white (1)

Makes 2 loafs

Directions:
In a small saucepan, warm water, honey and butter over low heat until the mixture is very warm.

Place 5 cups of flour, oats, salt and yeast in the the stand mixer bowl.

Attach bowl and dough hook to mixer, turn to speed 2 and mix about 15 seconds. Gradually add warm water mixture and mix for 1 minute. Add eggs (but not the egg white) and mix for another minute.

Add remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, and mix for 4 minutes or until dough clings to the hook and sides of the bowl are clean.

Grease a bowl and lid. Place the dough into the bowl, cover with the lid and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour. The dough will double in size.

Punch dough down and divide in half. Shape each half into a loaf by first rolling it out, then folding it into a loaf.

Place in greased load pans. Cover and let rise in warm place for about 1 hour.

Beat egg white and 1 tablespoon of water together with a fork. (I messed up and didn't use the egg white here, instead I spread a little olive oil across the top of the loaves.)

Brush tops of loaves with the mixture and then sprinkle with a little oatmeal.

Bake at 375 for 35-40 minutes. Remove from pans immediately and cool on wire racks.

Slice and serve!

According to the blogs, the way to keep homemade bread for longer than the 2-3 days it normally lasts, you're supposed to slice the bread and individually wrap several slices at a time in saran wrap and then place in freezer bags and put in the freezer. Then take it out whenever you need it and toast away!