Easy Little Bread
The simple, easy little bread you should make right this minute - yeast-based, farm-style, made from rolled oats and a blend of all-purpose and whole wheat flours.
I'm eating a slice of butter-slathered homemade bread. And quite frankly, it might be the least interesting looking bread you've ever set eyes on. That said, at this particular moment, there isn't anything on this earth that would taste better. I'm convinced of it. It reminds me of the bread my dad would sometimes bake for us as kids. A dead simple yeast bread recipe made from ingredients I can nearly guarantee you have on hand. My dad's bread was made using all-purpose white flour, whereas this bread is made with a white, wheat, rolled oat blend. I've baked it three times this week, after I came across the recipe for it in a beautiful, heartfelt cookbook by Natalie Oldfield.
I snapped a few shots of the book to give you a sense of it. See below. Super cute, right? I love the grids of vintage family pictures, and the soft color palette of the recipe pages. It's a collection recipes inspired by the notebooks of Dulcie May Booker, written by her granddaughter Natalie. It was published in New Zealand, then Australia and the UK. I stumbled on my copy of it the other day at Omnivore Books here in SF, although I don't think it's been published in the U.S. yet.
The recipes are classic and no-fuss. The kind that can and (clearly) have been whipped up a hundred times over - scones, fruit pies, chocolate cake, lemon bars, shortbread, and a selection of savory dishes as well.
So, to all of you who still shy away from yeast-based recipes - you've got to try this one. You can have the dough in the pan in 5-10 minutes. It sits around for 30 minutes while I'm in the shower, then straight into the oven. Thank you Gran & Natalie. It's a beautiful book.
Also! If you're ready to use your oven some more, here’s where you can browse all the baking recipes. This focaccia is a beauty, and this braided onion bread is also a delicious stunner. Don’t miss this black bread, or the Big Sur Bakery Hide Bread. And this oatmeal bread is so good, with lots of opportunity for variations. Have fun baking!
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Easy Little Bread Recipe
- 1 1/4 cups / 300 ml warm water (105-115F)
- 2 teaspoons active dry yeast (one packet)
- 1 tablespoon runny honey
- 1 cup / 4.5 oz / 125 g unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 cup / 5 oz / 140 g whole wheat flour
- 1 cup / 3.5 oz / 100 g rolled oats (not instant oats)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons fine grain sea salt
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted, for brushing
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In a medium bowl, sprinkle the yeast onto the warm water and stir until the yeast dissolves. Stir in the honey and set aside for a few minutes, until the yeast blooms and swells a bit - 5 - 10 minutes.
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In the meantime, mix the flours, oats, and salt in a large bowl. Add the wet mixture to the dry and stir very well.
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Brush a 8-cup loaf pan generously with some of the melted butter. Turn the dough into the tin, cover with a clean, slightly damp cloth, and set in a warm place for 30 minutes, to rise.
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Preheat the oven to 350F / 180C, with a rack in the middle. When ready, bake the bread for 35-40 minutes, until golden and pulling away from the sides of the pan. I finish things up by leaving the bread under the broiler for just a heartbeat - to give the top a bit deeper color. Remove from oven, and turn the bread out of the pan quickly. Let it cool on a rack so it doesn't steam in the pan. Serve warm, slathered with butter.
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This oatmeal bread wins the award for best toast. It’s a hearty oat-flecked loaf with a buttermilk base studded generously with melty cubes of cheddar cheese and punctuated with thin slices of jalapeño pepper. Where the cheese touches the pan it turns to golden-crispy perfection.
Braided Onion Bread
This braided onion bread is made with a rich, buttery, yeast-based dough. Each of the four strands in the braid is stuffed with a caramelized onion and grated cheese mixture.
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Big Sur Bakery Hide Bread
From the Big Sur Bakery cookbook, a seed-packed pocket bread recipe contributed by a good friend of the bakery. Sesame, sunflower, flax and poppy seeds, quinoa and oat bran impressively cram themselves into these delicious, hearty rolls.
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Comments
Looks like a NZ brand of bread called Vogels! I must try it!
This sounds lovely! I really like name of this. So classic.
Just gorgeous. Those sorts of recipes, like precious china, need to be handed down and preserved. Have just ordered the book. Can't wait to read it with a cup of tea and a slice of this with creamed honey.
This bread sounds wonderful and the recipe reminds me of my granny (who is 95) and still bakes the most amazing bread in her giant brick oven.
Aww, very sweet nd beautiful book
I love the idea of making my own bread, but I just can't find the time to make it, or so it seems. But this recipe sounds easy, and the bread looks delicious. I think I'll give this a try, perhaps I can have my homemade bread.
Ever since I checked out The Enchanted Broccoli Forest at the library and discovered how wonderfully easy yeast bread is I have been baking a couple of loaves a week. This looks like a great new recipe to try!
How gorgeous! I love that it uses oats. Can't wait for the temps to cool off a bit so I can fire up the oven to bake this :)
What a beautiful cookbook! And that bread with the butter melted on it looks absolutely delicious :)
Aha, I thought that book looked familiar. Love seeing New Zealand books featured on your site Heidi :-) There seems to be a explosion of "what my gran" style cookbooks coming out of NZ in the last few years.
The bread logs wonderfully doughy--just the way I like it! The last time we made homemade bread it also ha d oats in it. I think it makes extra moist. :)
Thanks for sharing some shots of that sweet cookbook-love it! Can't wait to try the bread recipe.
i'm so happy to see you mention this book! i live in auckland, new zealand. the author of that book, or their family, have a cafe just down the road from our house called the Dulcie May Kitchen. they actually sell this book inside. I saw the cover and thought oh that looks so familiar!! The next time I go I'll bring it up! I'm not sure if its in the book, but my favourite thing from there is this scone-ish cinnamon roll. What a small world!!!
At 11:30pm, working on my computer in my basement, I read your post. At 12:30am, I went upstairs to get a drink of water and mix up the dough. It all came together in a jiffy. I especially liked watching the yeast bloom in the water. I had never seen that before. At 2:30am, I'm still plugging away at the computer having now been fortified with two slices of bread with butter. It had wonderful texture and flavor. When the rest of the house wakes up, they will be so happy to eat this bread for breakfast.
Can't wait to try this lovely recipe. The food at the Dulcie May Kitchen is wonderful too. I'm lucky enough to live quite close by!
That looks like a completely charming book. Thanks for the show & tell (and the bread recipe). I decided that I'm not a fan of soda bread (but I was a fan of how fast it was), so this "Easy Little Bread" looks perfect!
il à l'air succulent
Looks fantastic, just perfect for every occasion and mood it seems like... Can't wait to try it. Thanks for sharing the cookbook. So lovely! I don't know what it is about families and grandmas in the kitchen but it's just about as cozy and comforting as it gets.
What a great recipe! I make breads that look like this one all the time so I think it looks delicious. What a lovely little cookbook! I love great finds like that. Thanks for showing us through pictures.
I heart this cookbook already! How sweet is that?? Heidi you still inspire me everyday!!!! My blog is growing!!!