Had another bowl of vegetable soup for lunch today. Yummy. Of course, man cannot live by bread alone, I mean soup alone. When we have soup, we have to have homemade bread to dunk. I ran out of time on Monday to bake a bread that needed to rise too many times, so I thought I would try "Wholegrain Batter Bread" from one of my favorite little cookbooks.
In my younger days, as a stay at home mom, I had time to coupon clip, cook from scratch every day and collect premiums from oatmeal, cake mixes, cereals, you know. There was a time that every box of oatmeal had a piece of glassware in it. I can still see the yellow and blue box of Crystal Wedding Oats. Inside was a piece of glassware. So, continuing on in the frugal pattern of my childhood, I collected free cookbooks from companies. One day while rummaging around in my recipe drawer - in addition to my shelf of cookbooks, I have made my own, save entire magazines and also just thrown clippings into a designated drawer. Every house should have one.
I decided that within that drawer was a history of my entire life as a wife, mother, even a single adult in the working world. Ahhh, an impetus for blogging my history, coupled with recipes, and maybe even words of wisdom. HA.
I love oatmeal. It's the handiest item to keep on the shelf - cookies, bars, crisp or plain old oatmeal with brown sugar and butter - there's nothing finer...
Naturally I sent for the Quaker Oats wholegrain cookbook some years ago. Since the cover has separated and made its way to the bottom of the drawer, I have no idea how old the cookbook is. But it is worn and stained and some of the pages stick together. It's a good thing or they would be all over the drawer as well hidden from view. There are many great recipes I wish to share from this booklet, but first the bread I made to go with our soup.
Batter bread differs a bit from raised dough in its sticky and doesn't require kneading. There are folks who do not like to knead dough. I love it. You need to be able to feel what you are doing to make sure the dough is sufficiently blended, elastic and ready to rise.
Batter bread is blended with a spoon, allowed to rise and then poured into loaf pans. It was wonderful fresh out of the oven, but a bit crumbly the next day. It did not stop anyone from continuing to gobble it down as toast, sandwiches or just plain.
Try it - you will like it...
WHOLEGRAIN BATTER BREAD
1-1/2 cups boiling water
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 pkg. active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
2 cups Quaker Oats (Quick or Old Fashioned, uncooked)
5-1/2 to 6-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 eggs
1 cup chopped walnuts, I used sunflower seeds
Combine boiling water, butter, sugar and salt in large bowl, stirring until butter melts; cool to lukewarm. Dissolve yeast in warm water. Stir dissolved yeast, oats, 2 cups flour, eggs and nuts into lukewarm water mixture, mix well. Stir in enough remaining flour to make stiff batter. Place in greased large bowl. Cover, let rise in warm place about 1- to 1-1/2 hours or until double in size. Spoon batter into 2 well greased 9x5-inch loaf pans. let rise uncovered in warm place 30 to 45 minutes or until nearly double in size. Bake in preheated moderate oven (375-degrees) 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans; cool at least 1 hour before slicing... Like anyone could wait...
makes 2 loaves, or four mini loaves.
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