Toasted Oats Sandwich Bread

This granary style loaf is super soft and perfect for sandwiches. The flavor is faintly whole wheat, and slightly sweet. This might be the perfect way to introduce whole wheat to white bread lovers.

Time for truth in advertising...  this should probably be called Oatmeal Bread... or Toasted Oats Bread. That sounds more glamorous, right?

The Bread Baking Babes made a granary style loaf with malted wheat flakes, an ingredient I did not have in my pantry ("Hard to believe, right?" says the champion ingredient collector). I still wanted to bake along, and Tanna, of My Kitchen in Half Cups, who is Kitchen of the Month, gave us permission to play around with the ingredient list.

Malted wheat flakes are supposed to give your bread a sweet nutty flavor, so to try and approximate the flavor and texture, I toasted some rolled oats and substituted them for the wheat flakes. They pretty much disappeared into the bread, unlike the malted wheat flakes. It probably has something to do with how they absorb water.

To toast rolled oats, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and spread the oats in a thin layer on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, stirring the oats periodically.

Making this bread was really easy, and the dough rose very high in the oven,  just about 6 inches tall!

There actually is a is a granary style flour which you can order on Amazon from Great Britain. Tanna actually bought some! You can read more about it on Tanna's post.  This recipe is adapted from her post, which she found on King Arthur Flour.

Granary Style Loaf or Oatmeal Bread Recipe

Ingredients

Soaker

1 Cup rolled oats, toasted

2 Tbsp barley malt syrup

2 Cups (8 1/2 ounces) white whole wheat flour

2 Cups warm water

Final Dough

All of the soaker 

1 scant Tbsp instant yeast

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

2 tsp salt

3 cups (about 13 1/2 ounces all purpose or bread flour

Instructions

1. Mix the soaker ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer, and cover with plastic wrap. Let sit for about 20 minutes.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl, holding back one cup of the flour. With the dough hook, begin kneading the dough until you have a shaggy mass. Slowly add more flour until the dough is tacky, but not too sticky. 
3. Knead on the second speed for 10 minutes.
4. Place the dough into an oiled bowl, and let rise until doubled, about 60 to 90 minutes. It will start slow, and then gain momentum.
5. Divide the dough in half and shape into sandwich loaves. Place them into two 8 1/2 inch by 4 inch loaf pans. 
6. Cover with plastic wrap and let them rise until about 3/4 the way to doubled, 45 to 60 minutes. Mine rose very quickly. 
7. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and bake the loaves for 35 to 40 minutes until the interior reaches about 190 degrees F.