“Maester Luwin sent Poxy Tym down to the kitchens, and they dined in the solar on cheese, capons, and brown oatbread. While tearing apart a bird with fat fingers, Lord Wyman made polite inquiry after Lady Hornwood, who was a cousin of his.” -A Game of Thrones
Brown Oatbread
Thoughts:
I tried several recipes before lighting upon this one in an old family cookbook, on a snippet of browned newspaper clipping. As is so often the case in my kitchen, the old recipe took the day. This is such an amazingly light, fluffy, soft bread, and almost impossibly easy. It requires no kneading, and is quick to rise, and fills the whole house with a rich, buttery aroma while it bakes. I can just imagine loaves of this bread luring the Stark children to the kitchens of Winterfell. Homey enough to be a comfort food, but delicious enough to serve to guests, it could well be a staple of Northern cuisine.
Because the bread is so soft, it has to be cut into fairly thick slices- what a shame! Light toasting makes for a sturdier slice that is ideal with jam, honey, or other spreads. And, as in the quote, it is excellent with some cheese and chicken.
Recipe for Brown Oatbread
Ingredients:
- 2 cups boiling water
- 1/2 cup molasses
- 2 Tbs. butter
- 1 cup rolled oats (not the instant variety)
- 1 Tbs. yeast
- 1/2 tsp. coarse salt
- ~2 cups flour (you may need more or less depending on how much liquid your oats soaked up)
- 1 Tbs. melted butter
Combine the boiling water with the molasses and butter, stirring to combine. Pour this over the rolled oats, and let sit for 30 minutes. When the mixture is warm to the touch, but not hot, stir in the yeast, and let sit for another 15 minutes. It should be very light and bubbly at this point. Add the salt, followed gradually by the flour, until the dough no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl.
Transfer the dough to a clean, greased bowl, and brush the top with melted butter to keep from drying out. After the dough has doubled in bulk, transfer it to a bread pan, brush the top with butter, and let it rise again until doubled.
Bake at 350 for ~40 minutes, when the bread should be a nice golden brown. Allow to cool for at least 30 minutes before taking it out of the pan and slicing. Enjoy!
Going to make this today! It looks so easy and delicious
That looks so delicious. What kind of yeast is used? Fresh, dried or bread machine yeast?
I used dried baker’s yeast. I’m curious to try all kinds of versions, though, including a Gluten-free, if I can manage it. :)
I made a whole wheat and rolled oats Irish soda bread yesterday so I laughed when I saw this post. The addition of molasses is intriguing … may try it next time I make the quick bread.
I have everything but molasses, alas!
Just to clarify, is the yeast dissolved in any liquid first, or just stirred in dry?
I used instant yeast, so it could just go into the main liquid. If it’s not instant yeast, you should prime it in a bit of warm water first.
Let us know how it turns out! :)
This bread looks as delicious as Umma’s Olive Loaf, which is one of my favorite recipes from your blog! I can’t wait to try it. http://thewiseserpent.blogspot.com/2012/09/ummas-olive-loaf-from-inn-at-crossroads.html
That’s one of my favorites, too. I have substituted dried tomatoes for the olives, or spent grain, or whatever else I had handy – it’s always some out great.
…if I had seen this two hours ago I would be making this instead of the bread I’ve got rising in the oven. OMG, that looks gorgeous!
Should I cover it when left to rise? ❤
The melted butter should keep it from drying out!
I have this in the oven but had some issues with it. I added much more then 2 cups of flour and had a thick batter not dough. After I put it in the oven I looked for a similar recipe (http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/old-fashioned-oatmeal-bread-recipe). It looks like yours might have too much water. (just checked and the loaf in the oven overflowed, guess I should have used 2 pans (mine are 1lb pans))
Ruh roh! The recipe definitely needs some personalized tweaking- it’s hard to say exactly how many cups of flour one will need because each batch of rolled oats will soak up a different amount of liquid. My oats usually soak up most of the water, so I think it would be tough to work with much less. Whatever the case, it should end up being a dough that is soft, but sturdy enough that you can pick it up out of the bowl. I hope your next batch cooperates better!
I think I may of stumbled upon what is causing the extra wet dough. I happen to be low income and visit food banks. I get a lot of unmarked oatmeal. So I’m using some in this recipe right now, but I also had the problem of it being extra wet. I think it might be caused by the oatmeal not being rolled oats but quick oats instead. I am trying to mitigate it in the batch I’m making now by adding in about an extra 1/2 cup of the same oats shortly before I added the yeast, and then added about another 2/3-3/4 cup of flour. There was so much dough, I’ve split it into two pans. They are currently on the final rise before baking.
Ooooh, I’ll be very curious to see if that works! Let us know!
Goofed a little on the final proofing, got side tracked by my 5 year old and the dough was left to sit for about and hour and a half. Baked them for about 30 minutes. Came out still fairly airy, very crumbly, slight bitter note I think comes from the molasses I use (full flavor). My 5 year old likes it. Probably could of done it in just one loaf pan, as these are about 1.25-1.5 inches thick/tall. I brushed butter on the tops before the final proof and after they came out of the oven.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v45/Yuuri/Game%20of%20Thrones%20food/DSCN0050.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v45/Yuuri/Game%20of%20Thrones%20food/DSCN0048.jpg
I also had issues with the amount of liquid, in the end I added a bit more than 2.5 cups and the dough was still too soft to handle. However, the resulting bread was very delicious! I also substituted half-and-half black treacle and golden syrup as that what was I had in my cupboard, but next time (and there will be a next time) I will use molasses. I’ve posted on my FB about the bread with a link to this page, and here’s a photo of my attempt: https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/554963_10151363712869072_623210442_n.jpg
Apologies if you don’t allow photos in comments.
2.5 cups of flour, that should have been.
I’m on my fourth slice now…. it’s so light and fluffy, so very tasty.
I had to add an extra cup of flour, too. But it came out perfectly, and went great with our St Patrick’s day corned beef.
And it’s a fantastic vehicle for cream cheese…
Ooh, I haven’t tried the cream cheese yet, but I definitely agree on the Corned Beef pairing! Awesome with some cheddar, too. :)
I am working on some recipes for my fantasy novel. Stumbled upon this site and it looks very well put together.
Thanks for the recipe – it is yummy and worked very well spread with soft goats cheese.
I had some leftover oat bread (small household!), which I wrapped in foil and put in the freezer while I thought of what to use it for. The freezing made it very crumbly, so today I made a boozy bread pudding, adding whisky-soaked raisins, spices and sugar to the basic recipe, It worked very well indeed. Bread pudding is an ancient recipe, mostly made in the English Midlands.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/523597_10151382498474072_1665907421_n.jpg
heya…had a problem with this (will admit I’m not a bread-making veteran)
Got it cooked on the outside, but gooey on the middle?
Any suggestions that may help in preventing this?
I do end up with a large amount of dough.. so do you reckon that maybe making two loaves may work better?
This sometimes happens for a variety of reasons. It could be that the mixture was too wet, or that the oven temperature was off. Sometimes even not letting it cool completely can make the difference, as it continues to cook outside of the oven for a while. Bread can be finicky, though, so I hope you give it another go.
Even mine sometimes turns out this way, unpredictable. I usually toast each slice, which fixes the matter. :)
thanks for the fast reply. Think the stuff you’ve got going here is genius :)
Moved, finally have a decent oven.
It works! Slight tendancy to fall apart when being sliced, but still delicious
Tried this on a slightly humid day. I used 1 cup old fashioned rolled oats (the slow-cooking kind) plus 1/4 cup steel-cut oats (McCann’s Irish), a combination of 1/4 cup unsulphured molasses and 1/4 cup Lyle’s golden syrup (no bitterness that way), 2 cups King Arthur unbleached white whole wheat flour, and 1/2 cup sliced almonds dry-toasted first in a skillet and cooled. The sliced almonds were added with the flour, alternating and adding a little at a time, until the dough was just thick enough. The steel-cut oats added a nutty flavor, as did the almonds, while helping to absorb the excess water and make a nice dough. Delicious sliced thick, toasted and spread with soft cream cheese and apricot preserves. Yummy!
I made this and brought it to DragonCon. Both of my roommates loved it, and it went quite well with cheese and jerky, with trail mix on the side as a hiking-style lunch (to cut down on the number of meals eaten at restaurants without having to visit the Con Suite).
I tried to make a gluten free version of this, using coconut flour instead of wheat flour. It came out really dense and not fluffy like I was hoping for. It still tastes really good, though.
This sounds so good! I wonder if this is similar to the “brown bread” that Hot Pie made for the innkeep who ended up having him stay to bake. Thanks for the recipe!
I just made mine. Had to modify a bit, because I only had quick oats and steel-cut oats. No plain rolled oats. I used the steel-cut ones and let it soak a little longer. Turned out beautiful, dark, dense and moist. I think I’ll add more flour next time, but the flavor is fabulous! It will make great toast, too. Thanks again!
Did you use white flour? Can wheat flour be used in this recipe?
I used half-white, half-wheat flour and it worked out perfectly, giving it a more earthy taste than the regular white flour that I used the last time. This has become a family favorite now, so I make it quite often. Thanks for the recipe!