Bread Baking and January Challenge

Our January challenge at We Love Handicrafts! is to send in your favorite bread recipe (quick or yeast) and I will publish at the end of the month. You can email it to me at leilacook@yahoo.com or post it on your blog and send me a link. I thought I would try this to see if there is any interest in doing a monthly challenge. I look forward to seeing (and cooking) your recipes!

I am not, nor do I ever have any hopes of being a master bread baker. I do, however, enjoy baking bread for our family. It is also a great activity to get children involved in and can be a great kitchen science lesson on how yeast is a living organism. I thought I would post this recipe that I enjoy using for oatmeal bread:

3/4 c milk (80 deg.)

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 large eggs (room temp)

(I warm the milk and then mix these together in a single bowl to let the eggs warm up)

Mix together in separate bowl:

1 1/2 c bread flour

1 1/2 c whole wheat flour

1/2 c whole oats

1/4 c sugar

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour contents of wet ingredient bowl (once warmed) into the well. Add 2 1/4 tea. of quick rise yeast. I don't own a good mixer so I just knead this together with my hands for several minutes. Place dough in an oiled bowl and roll to cover all surfaces with oil. Cover and put in a warm place to rise, about an hour to hour and half. Put into a regular size bread loaf pan and bake at 375 until all sides and top is brown and crusty (between 30-35 minutes, I think- my husband hates that I never time anything! I go by looks alone. It's not very scientific but it works for me!) This recipe makes one regular size loaf of bread. I usually double to make two.

I also use this dough to make home-made pizza. Just stretch thin on a cookie sheet coated with olive oil. We top with canned petite diced tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, minced garlic and Italian seasoning. Bake at 375 until crust is crispy and browned on bottom and cheese is melted. Yum!