today's recipe experiments

[topaz]

Oatmeal bread with cooked oatmeal

Both boys asked for oatmeal this morning and neither of them ate it.  Before I threw it out it occurred to me that it must be possible to turn this wreck into oatmeal bread.  This turns out to be a recipe adapted from Beard on Bread, a book which I, unaccountably, do not own.  It's very easy and turns out to make two very nice loaves of bread, even using instant oatmeal and whole wheat flour (despite the poster's insistence on regular oats and bread flour).

Peanut butter dog biscuits

These are still in the oven so my chief taster has not had a chance to try them yet (despite her deep soulful eyes looking up at me as I mix), but they smelled so good while I was rolling them out that I was tempted to eat some of the dough myself, chicken broth and all.

Comments

[jostajam.livejournal.com]

I just use less water when I use cooked oatmeal. I go by the kneaded texture. When I use dry oatmeal, I make the dough wetter than I like to work with, because after the second rise, all the extra water is sucked into the oats. Cooked oatmeal, or mashed potato helps retain moisture when you store the dough in the fridge. Cooked oatmeal can also go into oatmeal muffins.

As far as ingredients, bread is tons more forgiving than people think. It might not turn out the same way every time, but it will be bread and by and large edible whether you use whole wheat, instant, or steel cut, sunflower seeds or flax.

My main gripe is my kids like the packets of sweeeet instant oatmeal. I'm trying to come up with little home made packets of my own that they won't reject.

[keyne.livejournal.com]

my kids like the packets of sweeeet instant oatmeal.

Our solution was just to buy one box of "regular" (unflavored, unsweetened) instant oatmeal for every maple-and-spice or whatever -- then we mix them half-and-half for each bowl. Works pretty well, and we don't spend precious morning minutes cooking oatmeal :)

[jostajam.livejournal.com]

I do most of my oatmeal in the microwave. The old fashioned stuff takes a few seconds more, but the only difference is that instant is ground to dust. My younger kid likes that the packets are pre measured. He loves to be able to use the microwave himself. If I pre measure regular oatmeal, add sugar and dried fruit, he might be happy.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Part of the trick here is that through laziness I have let my kids think that "bread" is the store-bought stuff, and when I present them with a glorious fresh homemade loaf they turn up their noses at the hard crusts and the crumbly texture. So I'm trying to find a good idiot-proof no-nonsense recipe that yields a sufficiently chewy and soft bread to satisfy them. My previous attempts at oatmeal bread have come out way too dry; this worked better. Maybe, like you said, I haven't been adding enough liquid and the oatmeal absorbed most of it.

And I'm so with you on the instant oatmeal problem! Note what keyne said. At one time I was actually emptying whole boxes of instant oatmeal into an airtight container -- one box of regular, one box of sweetened -- and mixing them up. But done that way, all the sugar falls to the bottom of the tub and you just delay the problem. I like your idea about pre-measuring sugar and regular oatmeal into reusable containers for microwaving later.