This recipe is fantastic; I swapped half the bread flour for wheat flour and added an extra 1/2 tsp of yeast--the result was a gorgeous bread that's pleasantly sweet.
Nice loaf, very tasty. Next time I will skip the final brushing with honey. It leaves the loaf sticky. I will sprinkle a handful of oats on top of an egg or milk wash just before baking. This is good with a mixed grain type of rolled grain hot cereal mix, instead of just oatmeal. Substitute one cup of whole wheat flour for one of the white flour, too. More fiber/flavor. Also, I cooked the rolled grain cereal with potato water (water saved from boiling potatoes for mashing)so whatever vitamins and minerals are boiled out of the potatoes are now in the bread.
This recipe produces excellent bread with a few changes! As some other reviewer I also found that with the fluid-flour ratio as stated in the recipe the dough turns out very sticky... I needed to use 3 more cups of flour in oder to get a workable dough. Also I used half wholemeal half plain bread flour and it tastes great. Definitely worth the 4 hours!
I don't know if my dough had issues because it's been raining for a week nonstop and the humidity is a b***h. I followed the recipe exact and it was super sticky. Even with about a 1/4 c. added flour. I couldn't stop eating the dough, though. Good stuff. I used my Kitchen Aid mixer from start to finish. Let the dough rise in my huge metal bowl then transferred it to two greased loaf pans and let it rise again. Smells unbelieveable--taste is incredible. EDITED: Grandma tells me that the wetness of the dough is to be expected with an oatmeal based bread. The taste and texture of this bread is unbelieveable. So wonderful. This one's a keeper for sure.
Nice light loaf, although dough was quite sticky. Baked them in a smaller pan for a higher loaf. Won a blue ribbon at a county fair on this, will be entering it in the state fair, too.
This recipe produces a great loaf of bread. It's nice and light with just a hint of sweetness. The only thing was that I had to add a couple more cups of flour as the dough was too sticky. My relatives are begging me to make more!
My husband said this was the best bread he has ever eaten. I also took it to a class I teach at night and everyone loved it and wanted the recipe. I did not have bread flour so I used all purpose. also I had to add about an extra 3/4 cup of flour but it was perfect after that. Will make this many more times.
Excellent bread. I did add an additional cup of flour and some more while kneading. I am a novice bread maker and this is a great first time recipe. Easy simple and tasty! 5 stars & beyond!
Meh. I had a very different take on this recipe from most. Incorporating the suggestions of many reviewers I used half whole wheat and half bread flour. The bread was good not great certainly nothing that rocked my world. It was moist and the flavor was OK. However I'd suggest that the last 1/2 cup of water is unnecessary and contributes to a very sticky dough. Even after adding another 3/4 cup flour to try to give the dough some body it was still soft. I went ahead with it which I now know I shouldn't have done. There wasn't sufficient structure to support the loaf when it rose (I did not experience the problems others reported of the dough not rising.) It looked gorgeous nice and high. But as soon as the heating element kicked on in the bread machine POOF! it all deflated. The result was a relatively flat loaf - the outsides were higher than the middle which was less than attractive. That aside as I said the flavor was still reasonably good and let's face it: homemade bread even so-so homemade bread still tastes wonderful when fresh. I suspect that if I had left out the later addition of water the results would be a lot lighter and higher. Because of the extra pain-in-the-butt step to allow the oats to steep for an hour this is just too fussy a recipe for me to want to try again. I'm going to cut my losses on this one and move on.
