No-Knead Oatmeal Toasting Bread
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Before heading to the beach last week for a little vacation with the family, I spent some time in the kitchen preparing a few items to pack along: granola, granola bars (which, unfortunately, were inedible) and this no-knead oatmeal toasting bread, a tried-and-true family favorite.
The goal was meal supplementation — to avoid eating every meal out — and in retrospect, I wish I’d prepared more, namely biscotti, which were sorely missed, and something chocolaty to satisfy our post-dinner sweet tooths — midweek we caved and stocked up on chocolate-almond Hershey bars from the local convenience store … never have they tasted so good.
But this bread was a savior. We ate it every morning toasted and slathered with peanut butter and nearly every afternoon, at times with lettuce, tomato and bacon wedged in between, at others with nutella and peanut butter, and at others with a thick layer of melted cheese and sliced tomato.
It is a cinch to prepare — true to the title, no kneading is involved — and the bread, chewy in texture and slightly sweet, is just straight-up delicious, a treat to have on hand on vacation or not.
My only goal tomorrow is to restock my freezer with another two loaves, and thanks to the 100ºF forecast, I’m almost certain to achieve it. Perhaps insufferable heat isn’t all that bad? Just trying to stay positive. Hope you’re all staying cool.
No-Knead Oatmeal Bread
- Total Time: 3 hours 20 minutes
- Yield: 2 loaves
Description
Adapted from Kathleen’s Bake Shop Cookbook
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup (160 g) brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 1 3/4 (175 g) cups old-fashioned oats
- 3 cups (681 g) boiling water
- 2 tablespoons (28 g) butter
- 2.25 teaspoons active dry or instant yeast
- 1/4 cup (57 g) warm water
- 3 cups (384 g) all-purpose flour
- 3 cups (384 g) whole wheat flour
Instructions
- Place brown sugar, salt and oats in a large mixing bowl. Add boiling water. Add butter. Let stand till lukewarm. Note: This is the only place where you could mess up the recipe. The mixture must cool to a lukewarm temperature so that it doesn’t kill the yeast.
- In a small bowl, sprinkle yeast over the 1/4 cup warm water. Let stand for about 5 minutes. Stir. Add this yeast mixture to the oat mixture and stir. (Note: If using instant yeast, simply whisk it into the two flours in a large bowl. Do still be sure to wait until the water-oatmeal-brown sugar mixture has cooled before adding the flours/yeast. Add the 1/4 cup water to the bowl of water-oatmeal-brown sugar.)
- Add the flours a little bit at a time. My old recipe says to add it one cup at a time, but I’m never that patient. Add it as slowly as you can tolerate, stirring to combine after each addition.
- Transfer dough to a lightly greased bowl and cover with a damp tea towel or plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm spot until doubled in bulk, about 2 hours. This is what I always do for my “warm spot”: preheat the oven to its hottest setting for 1 minute. TURN OFF THE OVEN. (Note: Only preheat the oven for 1 minute total — in other words, don’t wait for your oven to heat up to 500ºF and to sit at that temperature for 1 minute. You just want to create a slightly warm spot for your bread to rise.) Place covered bowl in the oven to rise until doubled.
- Grease two standard sized loaf pans generously with butter. When dough has risen, punch it down. I use two forks to do this. I stab the dough in the center first, then pull the dough from the sides of the bowl towards the center up onto itself. Then I take my two forks and, working from the center out, I divide it into two equal portions. Place each portion into your prepared loaf pans. Let rise until dough creeps above the rim of the loaf pan.
- Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Bake loaves for 10 min. Reduce heat to 350ºF. Bake for another 40 to 45 more minutes or until the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped — you have to (obviously) remove the loaf from the pan to test this. Turn loaves out into wire racks immediately to cool.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
We had a wonderful time on vacation. We stopped in Williamsburg on the way to Virginia Beach (obviously to give Ella and Graham a little history lesson); we stayed in awesome cabins; we bought as-fresh-as-fresh-can-be fish (rockfish and sea bass) every night from Dockside, which we grilled whole and devoured; and we spent hour upon hour at the beach.
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215 Comments on “No-Knead Oatmeal Toasting Bread”
Hi there! Wondering if you can use einkorn flour with your recipes, this one and the peasant breads? Thanks!!
You should be able to… I haven’t tried with all of my bread recipes, but I have used einkorn flour successfully. My experience is that it absorbs water more slowly, so the dough when first mixed my seem on the wet side, but it will thicken up as it rises. Give it a go!
It ocurred to me that all these (men) American artisan pioneers only want you to use 4 ingredients making bread. Seems like the ones coming to mind are men. Wasting starter by “disgarding” and award winning bread books that are hard as hell to navigate w Chad including a few recipes w some fruit and or seeds, but makes a federal case out of it. I just made the oatmeal bread w brown sugar off the internet cuz my cookbook isnt coming until tomorrow. A lot of sugar but it was fun to make and easy. I use a instant read thermom- luke warm being 120 degrees (back of instant yeast pckt). and I bulk rise in oven with a $10.00 thermastat- battery-operated and clearly displays temp & humidity so I can turn the light on or off- if it starts getting much over 80 which happens pretty fast. My bread is baking and it looks great. Im sure it will be great. Thx again
Great to read all of this, Teresa 🙂 🙂 🙂 Love your perspective. Thanks so much for writing 💕💕💕
Made this and it was so good. Loved the texture and taste.
Next time will take the time to weigh the ingredients but even at that the bread turned out amazing.
Going to try the peasant bread next.
So nice to read this Paulette! The peasant bread is easy peasy in comparison. So glad you liked this one 🙂 🙂 🙂
dough came out super dry and didn’t raise. waited until oatmeal mixture was under lukewarm and followed directions as stated. I’ve made the peasant bread recipe flawlessly several times, any idea what went wrong?
Hi Aimee! Bummer to hear this. Are you using a scale to measure? And roughly how long did you wait for the oatmeal mixture to cool? I’m worried it might have still been too hot and therefore killed the yeast. I am due to re-visit this recipe and add a video and more notes… I’m sorry for the trouble here!
I loved this recipe Ali! Thank you for once again sharing recipes that become favourites of mine. This freezes beautifully and warms up so well in my toaster oven.
So nice to hear this, Naz! Nothing like a good piece of toast. Thanks for writing 🙂 🙂 🙂
I love oatmeal bread! I used to make some with a James Beard recipe… such a long time ago. Thanks for providing this reminder, I will try your recipe for sure.
Dear Ali,
A wholesome bread in our house is always a winner. But being german my question is: why this huge amount of sugar? would this recipe also work without sugar?
Thanks!
Kind regards
Erika
Erika, I hear you! This is one of those old fashioned recipes that I haven’t tinkered with, but I almost never add sugar (or never more than a couple of teaspoons) to my breads anymore. I think the sugar here lends a moistness in addition to a subtle sweetness. Incredibly, the bread does not taste too sweet. I confess I haven’t made this one in ages.
Hello Alexandra,
I made your bread yesterday exactly as your recipe states. Now normally I “hate” both the taste and smell of whole wheat everything, however, I can’t taste the WW in this bread. I believe it is that bit of brown sugar that completely masks the fact that I am eating all that goodness. Also, the oatmeal really comes through wonderfully. I’m so pleased! I’m munching down toast as I write to you. Thank you for sharing your recipe. This bread is delicious.
So nice to read this, Darlene! I think you’re right about the brown sugar, which in addition to flavor I think also lends a moistness and chewiness. Thanks so much for writing and sharing your experience 🙂 🙂 🙂
I just made 2 loaves of this bread. Waiting to cool to cut it. The dough was way too dry so I added a short half cup of water. Baked at 425 for 10 minutes and dropped the temp to 350. At 11 minutes they were getting pretty brown, so I figured they were done.
I just made 2 loaves of this bread. Waiting to cool to cut it. The dough was way too dry so I added a short half cup of water. Baked at 425 for 10 minutes and dropped the temp to 350. At 11 minutes they were getting pretty brown, so I figured they were done. Just cut into it and it has a hollow center and is doughy. Tops are brown and done. Oh well
Oh no! Questions: did you use a scale to measure? how soon after you removed the bread from the oven did you cut into it?
There are 2 standard size loaf pans. 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 and 9 x 5. Which one is used in this recipe. Thanks for replying.
Hi! You can use either. I prefer the 8.5×4.5-inch pan for this one — it makes for a taller loaf.
Delicious easy bread recipe.
Great to hear 🙂
Wonderful recipe love the texture & the flavor as well as how simple it was to make. Thank you for sharing this with us. I’ll be baking this one again, Lord willing.
Great to hear, Jennifer 🙂 🙂 🙂
This bread is super good, and I’ve already made it twice in less than a week. I did make one change after I made it the first time. I coated the pan and the top of the loaf with oats before baking the first time, and I’m still finding pieces of oats around the house! The second time I left off the coating, and am much happier not having to pick up the pieces. Just a personal preference, but I’m a very lazy housekeeper. Other than that, I love this recipe, and it will be my go-to for the future. Thanks!
I hear you, Anne! The oat coating is pretty… until you have to pick up all the pieces 🙂 I’ll make a note in the recipe. So great to hear you like the bread. Thanks for writing!
Thank you for yet another fabulous recipe! You’ve got me thinking that I can actually bake bread 🙂
Do you think it’s possible to make bread in mini loaf pans and, if so, any idea how would you adjust baking time? I’m the only one in our house that eats bread and I’d love to be able to bake and then freeze so that they get eaten before they go stale. Thanks in advance for any guidance!
Yes, absolutely! Regarding the baking, it depends on the size of the loaf pan. Just know that the timing is very forgiving — I’d rely on the visual cues: when it looks nicely golden brown on top, it will be close to being done, and the loaves will take at least 25 minutes to bake. If you have an instant read thermometer, you can rely on that: 210ºF.