I love good sandwich bread; it’s something I spend the most time selecting in a grocery store. I try to find bread that is tasty but not too healthy – a carb that can taste great with something sweet but also work for a savory sandwich. Unfortunately, a surprisingly high number of breads have high fructose corn syrup in them, which I try to avoid. Even after all these years, I don’t have a favorite brand of sandwich bread, so this week, I finally set out to make my own.
This bread tastes just as good, if not better, than store-bought bread. The honey flavor is quite prominent, so I recommend making this with a mild honey if you are not a fan of sweetness in bread.
If you choose to make this with all-purpose flour, it will be soft and wonderful. I chose to swap some of the all-purpose flour out with some white whole-wheat flour, which makes the bread a bit denser and more filling. Feel free to play with the ratios of flour.
My only problem with this bread is that I’m not so great at cutting ultra-thin slices the way mass-produced bread is sliced, so I always end up with fat slices if I’m not careful. But either way, this is lovely to share with a neighbor, eat with breakfast or make into a snack with peanut butter and Nutella.
Honey-Oat Bread
Adapted by Amrita Rawat from a recipe originally published on Summer Harms. Yields 1 loaf
1½ cups all-purpose flour
3 cups white whole-wheat flour
¼ cup old-fashioned oats, plus 1 handful for sprinkling
1½ tsp. salt
1½ cups warm water
1 pkg. (or 2¼ tsp.) active dry yeast
¼ cup honey, plus 1 Tbsp. more for spreading
2 Tbsp. butter, melted and cooled
• Combine the flours, oats and salt in a bowl and set aside.
• Mix the water, yeast and honey in the bowl of a stand mixer. Gently whisk to dissolve the yeast. Let sit for 10 minutes to ensure the yeast has dissolved.
• Add the dry ingredients and butter to the mixer bowl and use a dough hook to mix, scraping the sides of the bowl if necessary. If you don’t have a mixer and/or dough hook, use a wooden spoon to combine ingredients.
• After 1 minute or so, the dough will pull away from the sides of the bowl and come together as a ball around the hook.
• Pull the dough off and with your hands mold it into a ball. If the dough is slightly sticky, that’s fine. Put the dough in a large oiled bowl, cover and let rise for 1 hour.
• After the first rise, punch the dough down. With your hands, form the dough into a loaf and place in a greased loaf pan lined with parchment paper. Cover and let rise for 1 more hour.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
• Spread 1 tablespoon of honey and sprinkle 1 handful of oats on top of the risen dough.
• Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the loaf is golden brown and you can insert a knife into the center and the knife comes out clean.
• Brush the top crust with butter after pulling it out of the oven (optional).
• Let cool in the pan, then turn it out onto a wire rack or cutting board and slice.
Store in an airtight container or wrap carefully in plastic wrap at room temperature. The loaf can last up to 2 weeks.
This article appears in March 2013.
