Honey Oatmeal Bread

Today we were going to have patty melts for supper.  Oops, I can't say supper anymore.  That word annoys one of my facebook friends.  From now on, I must say dinner or evening meal.  Anyway, in order to make patty melts, I needed bread.  I thought of how years ago, when I was a child, my mom would put the bread dough in round cans.  They were either tomato juice cans or Hi-C juice cans.  That was back in the day when we didn't worry about drinking Kool-aid or Hi-C.  Maybe they didn't put all the additives in the juice like they do now.  We used to love that bread, and a hamburger fit on the bread perfectly.

Today my Tuesday recipe is in honor of my mom and her round bread.  This isn't her recipe.  She made plain white bread.  This recipe has a little oatmeal and honey in it to make it slightly more nutritious.  This recipe is based on a Taste of Home recipe but my technique is a little different.  I make the dough in the bread machine but bake it in the oven.

Honey Oatmeal Bread

3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup oatmeal (quick or old-fashioned)
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 cup milk (warmed enough to melt the butter)
1/4 cup warm water
2 Tablespoons butter
1/4 cup honey

In a bowl combine the flour, oatmeal, yeast and salt.

Warm the milk in a measuring cup but do not boil.  Add the butter and stir until melted.

Put the warm milk and butter in the bread machine container with the honey and warm water.
Put in the flour, oatmeal, yeast and salt mixture.  Turn the bread machine to the dough setting and turn it on.  This will mix the dough and let it rise for the first time.  It takes about an hour.  This process can be done in a mixer with the dough hook or mix by hand if you want a workout.

The dough as it comes out of the bread machine.

At this stage you can add more flour if the dough is sticky.  Today it was perfect.  I greased the tomato juice can and put the dough in.  I warmed a little more honey,  brushed it on the top of the dough and sprinkled on a little oatmeal..  I covered it with a towel and left it to rise for an hour or so.  Our house is quite warm so it rose quickly.

The recipe suggested putting a loaf pan of water in the bottom of the oven.  I don't know if it is necessary, but in this case I followed instructions.  I think it adds some moisture to the oven heat.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and bake the loaf for 45 minutes.

The warm bread was so good, we didn't have patty melts after all.  My husband had tuna fish sandwiches and left over chili.   Dad had leftover round steak, mashed potatoes and blackberries.  I had the best dinner of all.  I had fresh bread, peanut butter and Lingonberry jam that I bought at IKEA.  What could be better than that?

* I made the bread again, but this time put it in a loaf pan.  It turned out great.  The perfect loaf of bread.