Cranberry Oat Bread

It was perfect but not done in the middle -- I liked the "done" part so much that I threw my Oster bread machine in the trash! So... I mixed and kneaded a new batch by hand in a large Pyrex bowl. I let the dough rise in the same bowl for one hour inside my microwave with the light on underneath (the light makes the inside of the microwave warm). I oven baked it in the same bowl (retro) at 350 for 30 minutes using the convection setting. I love one rise, as it makes bread dense and hardy (like the raisin/walnut bread at a HyVee). This bread is even better toasted!!

A nice recipe that tastes very good to us. I had to make one minor substitution because I did not have bread flour on hand, so I used regular flour and instead of going by the cup measurement, I weight it (300 grams instead of 2 1/2 cups), in my experience recipes that go by weight instead of volume turn out better and are more accurate.

The instructions that came with my bread maker say to wait for a beep, which is 5 minutes before the end of the first knead to add raisins and nuts. The picture shows the bottom of the loaf. However, it smelled and tasted so good, I can hardly wait to try again, but put the craisins and nuts in sooner. I expect I will be updating my rating.

The bread was very good, but I found it just a tad on the dense & heavy side. I liked it, it was rather easy to assemble in the bread machine, will make again, possibly a little less flour. But over all I liked the tang of the cranberries.

I don’t use a bread machine, so I proofed the yeast in 110º water, and completed the dough in my Kitchen Aid mixer. To dress up the bread slightly, I put a light egg wash on the top so I could sprinkle a little oats and baked the bread at 350º for 35 minutes. The bread was very nice, with good flavor and texture. I’m looking forward to toasting it for breakfast.