Sourdough bread with toasted oats

Sometimes I don’t want big holes in my bread. Don’t get me wrong. I also love the feeling of cutting up a perfect ciabatta and see the lovely crumb with big holes surrounded by a chewy and crispy crust. Chewy and crispy sounds like a paradox, but that’s how I experience a well-baked sourdough Ciabatta. Add tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, and some olive oil, and you have something divine.

But I don’t want that on my breakfast plate on a Monday morning. I am not ready for divine things at 6:00 am. That early I want something a little more down to earth. Something that suits my mood a bit better. I want a hearty sandwich with cheese, red pepper, and a reasonable amount of butter. That can be tricky to accomplish with a Ciabatta, especially when you feel more like a Zombie than a living creature. The crumb of a ciabatta can be compared to a sinkhole. The butter just disappears. Somewhere.

I love butter, but there have to be some limits. So the sourdough bread with toasted oats in this post will be a bit less extraordinary. When it comes to the size of the holes, that will say. When it comes to taste, there will be no concessions. It contains both sourdough, whole rye, and roasted oats. Especially the toasted oats give extra oomph to the taste.
Roasted oats are easy to do. Just keep an eye on the roasting process. Spread the oats on a baking tray and roast them in the oven until they have got a dark brown color. That can happen very quickly, so don’t go away and do something else in the meantime, or you might come back to a smoking inferno. Let the roasted oatmeal cool and mix with a food processor or a stick blender to a somewhat coarse flour.

The hydration of the dough is not that high, only about 68% if the oatmeal counts as flour. If you want a less dense bread, you can try to increase the hydration. You should always be prepared to be flexible when it comes to the amount of water to be added, no matter what recipe you follow. Different flours absorb different amounts of water. Therefore, you should always see the amount of water that is specified in the recipe as a guideline.

The sourdough starter used for this recipe has 100% hydration and is a mix of mostly wheat flour and a small amount of rye flour. I almost always add some rye flour to ensure enough activity in my starter.
I decided to mix the dough in a dough mixer, but kneading it by hand with a slap or stretch and fold technique should work just fine. Just don’t forget to give the dough an Autolyse for about an hour before you begin.

I always use rice flour for the cloth in my proofing baskets. If any additional type of flour is required, I mix it with the rice flour. Rice flour is one of your most valuable allies. There is no other flour that prevents the dough from sticking to the cloth as rice flour. I never take the risk to exclude it, even if the dough is of low hydration. For this recipe, I floured the clothing with both rice flour and a very coarse type of rye flour. Feel free to use whatever flour or grains you prefer.

The bâtard shape is the optimal choice for this bread. The boule shape is slightly more beautiful in my opinion, and I use that form more often. But not for this bread. Remember what I said about feeling like a zombie at 6:00 am in the morning? A bâtard is simply easier to slice.

All fermentation for the bread you see on the pictures appeared at room temperature, about 22ºC/72ºF. I let the bulk fermentation go for about 4 hours, and the final rise for another 3 hours. If you want a more sour taste, I recommend you to put the loaves into the refrigerator for the final rise instead. It will take at least 10 – 12 hours, perhaps longer.

I normally bake my bread on a baking stone. I also add steam in the beginning. There are many ways you can add steam to your ordinary kitchen oven. Some say you should place an ice cube on a hot baking tray under the one that holds your bread. I have never understood the benefits of throwing in ice in a hot oven. Of course, the ice will melt into water that will evaporate into steam, but what is the meaning of the melting process? Besides, one ice cube is far too little in my opinion, and throwing in a whole ice bucket seems like a very bad idea. More experienced bakers use other methods, like pouring water on heated lava rocks or kitchen towels. I pour water on some metal scrap instead. I work as a mechanical engineer after all.

Each loaf needs at least 30 minutes in the oven. I like this bread dark, so I use to bake them for 35 to 40 minutes. I start with a temperature of 480ºF / 250ºC, and after 20 minutes I use to turn down to 420ºF / 220ºC.

After that, you only need to wait an hour or two while the loaves cool on a wire rack before assaulting them with your bread knife. Patience, my friend. I know it’s hard.

Sourdough bread with roasted oatmeal

A sourdough bread loaded with lots of taste from whole rye and toasted oats.

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Servings 2 loafs

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 60 gram oatmeal
• 60 gram whole wheat flour
• 60 gram whole rye flour
• 450 gram Wheat flour (In this recipe I have used bread flour with 12.5% protein content)
• 400 gram water
• 180 gram sourdough starter Wheat starter, 100% hydration)
• 12 gram cane suger or syrup
• 20 gram sea salt

Instructions

 

Roasted oatmeal

• Spread oatmeal on a baking tray and toast them in the upper part of the oven in 480ºF / 250ºC until lightly browned. Let the oatmeal cool and mix to a coarse flour.

Sourdough bread with roasted oatmeal

• Mix all ingredients except salt in a dough mixer until the dough is elastic. Use windowpane test. Add the salt the last minutes. If you prefer to knead by hand you can use a stretch and fold technique. You will find a link in the recipe notes. There's also a link to a video in the blog post.
• Let the dough ferment for 4 -5 hours in room temperature.
• Lightly flour your work surface and dump out the dough. Divide it into two halves with your bench knife. Form each piece of dough to a Batard. Follow the link in the recipe notes for an in-depth description.
• Place the loafs in lightly floured (rice flour) lined bannetons. you can also add some extra oatmeal or other grain of your liking.
• Let the loaves rise for about 120-180 minutes. Press gently with a finger against the dough. If the hole disappears completely when you remove your finger, the dough is under-proofed. If the hole springs back halfway, the dough is ready.
• Preheat your oven to 480ºF / 250ºC with two oven plates. One to bake the bread on and one just below.
• Score each loaf along the side and place them in the oven. Pour some water on the plate below and bake each loaf in 30-40minutes. Lower the heat to 420ºF / 220ºC after 15-20 minutes.
• Let the bread cool on wire racks.

Keyword sourdough bread

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