bizzylizzy at the harvest forum posted this recipe and since I tire easily I have been using the dough cycle on my bread machine to make it. I usually take my bread out of the machine and bake it in traditional pans but not always. I halved this recipe and it was perfect for a 1 1/2 pound loaf...and it was sooooo good. Remember if you make it in the bread machine...halve the recipe. Grammy Mabel's Oatmeal Bread Recipe 2 Cups Scalded Milk 2 Cups Rolled Oats (NOT Quick Oats) 2 Cakes Yeast, or 2 Tbsps Superyeast 4 Large Spoons Sugar (Tbsp) 3 Small Spoons Salt (tsp) 1/2 Cup Water Water 4 Large spoons Melted Lard or Butter ( Tbsp) 5 Cups Bread Flour Method: Add Scaled milk to rolled oats, mix well, let cool. Small bowl, combine yeast, sugar water and melted lard, add a 1/2 Cup flour to the yeast mix, let stand 5 minutes. Large Bowl, combine remaing flour and salt, adding the yeast mixture, then the cooled oats. Toss on board, knead and shape into ball, place in greased bowl,brush top with melted butter, cover in warm place and let rise to double in size, about 1 1/2 hours. Next, place on floured board, knead 1 minute, shape into 2 loaves- Put into small greased bread pans, brush tops with melted butter, cover in warm place till double in size. Bake in hot oven 400 degrees for 15 minutes, cool over to 350 degrees bake for 45 minutes or till hollow sound. Variation: Multigrain Rolled Hot Cereal for the Oatmeal, I get 7 Grain at the Mennonite store to make 7 grain bread. Here is a link that might be useful: Oatmeal Bread/Harvest Forum

Here's a few I like. You can use more whole grain flour in them. Country White Bread Large loaf 1 1/3c water 1 1/2t salt 1 1/2T sugar (I used 1 T of blackberry Raw honey) 1/2c barley or oat flour (I used oat this time.) 3 1/2 c bread flour 2t yeast To mix in mixer Heat the water until warm, between 105F-115F; pour into warmed bowl, and add the yeast. Let stand 5 minutes, until the yeast begins to bubble. Add the salt, sugar, barley flour, and half the bread flour. Beat with paddle until smooth. Cover, and let stand 15 minutes. Slowly add the remaining flour, and beat until soft dough forms. Knead the dough in the mixer with the hook, on medium to high speed, adding flour as necessary, until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and is smooth and springy but still soft to the touch. Remove the dough hook, cover the bowl and let dough rise until doubled, about 1 hour. ~I then shaped into 9 large burger size rolls and let rise on cornmeal dusted baking sheets until the size I wanted. Baked at 350F until golden brown. However the instructions contiune: To Shape and bake in the oven Lightly grease a baking sheet, or cover with parchment paper. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board or lightly oiled surface. Punch the dough down and shape into a round loaf, dusting in on all sides with flour. Place the loaf, with the smooth side up, onto the baking sheet. Cover and let rise until doubled, 45 minutes or so. Preheat oven to 375F. Using a sharp knife or razon slash a 3" circle on the very top of the loaf. Bake 30-35 minutes, until the loaf is golden and a wooden skewer comes out clean and dry. Remove from the pan and cool on a wire rack. Light Wheat Brioche Large Loaf 4 large eggs plus water to equal 1 1/3c 2 t salt 2 T sugar 1 c whole wheat 3 c bread flour 3/4c butter, softened 1 1/2 t yeast To mix in mixer Warm the eggs under hot tap water, and crack into measuring cup. Heat the water to 105-115F, and add it to the eggs. Pour the mixture into the warmed mixing bowl, and add the yeast. Let stand 5 minutes, until yeast begins to bubble. Add the salt, sugar, whole wheat, and half the bread flour. Beat well. Cover, and let stand 15 minutes. Slowly add the remaining flour, and beat until soft dough forms.~change to dough hook~ Cut the butter into pieces and add it to the dough. Knead the dough in the mixer with the hook, on medium to high speed, adding flour as necessary, until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and is smooth and springy but still soft to the touch. Remove the dough hook, cover the bowl and let dough rise until doubled, about 1 hour. To shape and bake in the oven: Lightly grease a fluted brioche pan, a 9" round cake pan or 9x5 loaf pan. Turn the dough out on a lightly floured or oiled surface. For traditional brioche shape, punch the dough down and pinch off one-quarter of the dough. Shape the remaining dough into a round loaf. Place the loaf, smooth side up, in the brioche or cake pan. Make an indentation in the center of the loaf. Form the pinched-off portion into a teardrop shape, and place, pointed side down, into the hole in the loaf. Or press the dough inot the loaf pan. Cover and let rise until doubled about 1- 1 1/2 hours. Preheat oven to 350F. Brush or spray loaf with water. Bake 45-50 minutes, until wooden skewer inserted through the loaf comes out clean. Remove from the pan and cool on wire rack. Here is a link that might be useful: see if something appeals to you here

Lars - You open the lid of the bread machine after it's been going for about 5 minutes and check the condition of the dough by looking at it or touching it, and adjust the hydration accordingly, if necessary. What you want is a nice soft, sticky, well-formed ball. Just as in traditional dough making, it's still about the "feel" of the dough. Ingredient measurements in bread recipes are always just a good guess because protein count in wheat/flour and the moisture the flour has absorbed during storage all affect the dough. Flour is usually very dry during the dry winter months, and contains more moisture during humid weather and amount needed often changes because of that. A hard dry dough will end up a bread "brick", so it's necessary to add liquid. If the dough is crumbly and not formed in a ball, add more water. If the dough is loose, sticking to the sides or bottom of the pan, add a bit more flour. From years of experience, I know if I add dry multi-grain cereal or oatmeal at the add-in beep (towards the end of the kneading cycle), it's best to have a dough ball that is a little slack because the dry ingredients will absorb the additional hydration during fermentation. I want a slack dough if I want a holey type of artisan bread. I also want a slack dough for English Muffins to maintain that traditionally holey crumb. I also add chia gel (chia seeds + water) to all my loaves, and I always have to adjust the hydration because of this addition. I also use a liquid sweetener instead of sugar (agave nectar) and it's possible to need a little flour because of the additional liquid from the agave nectar. Hydration requirements changes because of the protein level of the flour, and that will vary with each bag of wheat I purchase, or bag of flour. I recently purchased some hard white winter wheat that is 13.1% protein. That tells me I'll need to some liquid because the higher protein level (gluten) will absorb more hydration. It's just a machine that does the work in bread making. It still needs a human to assess the dough condition. -Grainlady

Chloebud, thanks for the endorsement. I went on an exploration just now. I think most of my bread books came during the twice delayed mid-remodel of my kitchen, 15 years ago. Some gifts, some me wanting to at least read about it since I couldn't bake. I've found most of them I think, but not the two I used the most, Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice and Daniel Leader's Local Breads (it of the never-ending errata). One of the rest, a Jewish one, was with some favorite to browse cookbooks on the coffee table, and another couple in the corner shelves with cookbook overflow. Turns out I have a Jewish Baker book and a Jewish Bakery book, one of which is in the kitchen. There, I found proportionally more bread books than cook books, but I need to rearrange them, because I don't often use the bread books. They were handy when I was making 100% whole wheat (it turned out to be unhealthy for us!). They include Crust & Crumb, Laurel, Rose, etc. The old classics. And a few modern ones. I have to admit, my new daily bread go to, which is a wander off of my own recipe for spicy pickle bread, is very accommodating, and obviates the need to go looking for something else.. Sometime, I might want to try making specific breads again, but for now, I like the minimal effort daily bread. It's a 100g each water and flour and a tsp. yeast preferment, with a few dollops of discard, optionally. Bulk starts with 350g-ish of strong flour (14% protein) which could be bread, pizza or pasta flour. Different flavors and textures, but whatever wants using at the time, or a mix. Whatever discard wants using (mixed flours inc. ww). Seasoning (salt, natch, but turns out that pepper is delicious in bread too!, plus any herbs and spices that might go well). Produce mix-ins in lieu of water, about a cup and a half, tops. Water and/or flour to adjust while kneading until it's the "well stretched glutinous lump" my mother taught me and pulls away just so, as she taught me. Bake in a covered vessel, cold start (or 200°F start), 425°F on convection bake, for about an hour, test with Thermapen One before removing from vessel. Limited washing up water used. Infinitely changeable flavor and texture. My answer to the 5 minutes a day bucket of dough taking up so much space in the fridge, not tiring using the machine to knead rather than the kneads and stretch and folds by the timer for my go-to sourdough. So I haven't cracked a book in forever... I do have good recipes already for pita, hamburger buns, pupusas, shortcake, waffles, biscuits, etc.