Pictures? Sounds really good. Funny about the butter...shows dough is pretty forgiving.

We also love When Pigs Fly. So much so, it's hard to get motivated to bake my own. We just don't eat much bread anymore. Our favorite is the Tuscan.

I'll bet your oatmeal/honey makes a terrific ham sandwich!

/tricia

Way-to-go!

1. Good news... You can make half a recipe from the Artisan Bread In 5- Minutes a Day book. That's how I usually make it.

2. Did you use 1/2 c. honey for a single loaf? If so, that's a LOT of sweetener for one loaf and it can cause the rise to be much slower, or even destroy gluten or kill yeast. I'd suggest 2 T. honey per 3-cups of flour; and no more than 1/3-cup for 6-cups of high-protein flour.

"When dough contains a lot of sugar, the two gluten proteins link with the sugar instead of with each other. Glutenin combines with sugar, gliadin combines with sugar, and very little gluten is formed." Too much sugar is also damaging to yeast. It draws water from the yeast and inhibits its growth.

You can use a little extra yeast in sweet doughs, or use a special yeast called Osmotolerant Instant Active Dry Yeast; which is recommended for use in dough characterized as sweet, salty or low absorption. About 2 T. of sugar per cup of flour is the maximum that you can add without major gluten damage. For honey - 2 T. per 1-cup of high-protein flour is the maximum.

Caution: Some honeys will kill yeast. This happens when honey processors use an additive to prevent mold from growing on honey.

3. Did you substitute oat flour for some of the high-gluten wheat flour in the recipe or for the amount of oatmeal called for? Caution adding too much low- or no-gluten flours. I'd keep it to 20-25% of the flour amount. Too much oat flour will make the crumb of the loaf "gummy" and crumbly.

-Grainlady

Yeah, love to see some pictures!

I've been trying for years to recreate When Pigs Fly 7 grain and pumpkin seed bread. I love it but it is very expensive. I used to indulge because my daughter went to school near their bakery store in Kittery. I'd stop by when I dropped her at school. I could buy whole loaves at the bakery store for the price of half loaves in the supermarket. I live 35 miles away so it isn't worth the trip now but it was great while it lasted! :-) Lisa if you have any luck recreating it I hope you'll share the recipe. I'll keep trying and share if I have success.

Thanks guys! Grainlady - you are just a font of information!! I keep copying and pasting your little "gems" into a separate document that I then keep in front of the "breads" section of my three ring binder where I keep all the recipes I collect - keep them coming!

Unfortunately, the bread's already long eaten so I don't have any pics! Sorry - I'll remember to take some next time! I just made two free form round loaves.

Off the top of my head, the recipe I used called for 1 1/2 cups oatmeal and 3 cups of all purpose flour. I simply used 1 1/2 cups oat flour instead of the oatmeal. So there was 4 1/2 cups total flour. I used 1/2 cup honey because of the other recipe calling for 1/2 cup maple syrup. It was my first time making it and since I wasn't following the recipe exactly I figured I'd just do it and see what the results where. It made two small to medium loaves of bread. It seemed to rise fine - I'm no expert bread maker by any means, but it did double in size for the first rise, then I halved it and made the two loaves and let them rise again. I read the Pig's label and theirs had oats, flour, yeast, and cider and I think that was about it. The recipe I used had the two flours, the yeast of course, milk, butter, and the honey.

I'm one that likes "heavy" bread tho. I'm after a hearty, dense bread. I like lots of fiber and whole bits of seed and groats and things in my bread. Chewey center and crusty outsides.

I've gone to the When Pig's Fly store a couple of times myself when we take a trip up to Kittery. The 7 grain one is my favorite, but I also like the oat & honey. I love their apple, chocolate, orange pistachio cranberry, the olive and red pepper - hell, I love every one I've ever tried!

I try to not eat too much bread because I'm trying to watch my weight and I could easily sit down and polish off a loaf of good bread all by myself and be perfectly happy. But I do have the "taste" for it now so I do plan on making some now and then. I'll try to keep it to a couple times a month so I can fit in my clothes tho!!

Lisa