This wholesome Maple Oat Bread is nothing fancy, just a delicious, tender loaf of bread that I adapted from Kevin’s recipe over at Closet Cooking. The recipe calls for a sprinkle of maple sugar on top, but I did a sprinkle of coconut sugar instead my first try. It enhances the maple flavor and gives that nice sheen to the bread that you see in the picture below. Still, I did opt to omit the sugar topping in my second loaf so that it could be used either for breakfast toast or sandwich bread. It was still quite delicious, but the maple flavor was a bit more subtle.
If you haven’t made bread from scratch, it’s time to get started. Many brands of store-bought bread contain dairy and/or added preservatives, hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup … you get the picture. You really can’t beat the quality of from-scratch bread, and it is surprisingly easy to make. Yes, you have to let it rise, twice, but for that you need not be present. Simply 10 minutes of hands of labor will yield you a loaf like this …
Special Diet Notes: Maple Oat Bread
By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free / non-dairy, egg-free, soy-free, nut-free, peanut-free, vegan, plant-based, and vegetarian.
- 1 cup warm water
- 2-1/4 teaspoons (or one packet) active yeast
- ½ cup rolled oats
- ¼ cup oil (I have used coconut oil and extra-light olive oil)
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1-1/2 cups bread flour or all-purpose flour
- 1-1/4 teaspoons salt
- 1 Teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional, it does help to bring out the sweetness in the bread)
- 1 to 2 tablespoons maple sugar or coconut / palm sugar (optional, see note above)
- Combine the warm water, yeast, and oats in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, stir together the flours, salt, and cinnamon. Stir the oil and maple syrup into the yeast mixture. Gradually add the flour (I do about ⅓ at a time), stirring after each addition. Once the dough starts to come together, continue adding the flour and knead it with your hands. If the dough is still too wet, add a little more white flour; if it is too dry, feel free to add a wee bit more warm water. This ratio actually came out just right for me, but I live in a dry climate.
- Place the dough back in the large bowl, and cover, letting the dough rise for about an hour.
- Grease and flour (I usually flour just the bottom and corners) a 9x5-inch loaf pan. Punch the dough down, knead it a few times, and shape it into a loaf that will fit lengthwise in your loaf pan. Place the dough in the pan, and leave it to rise for about 1 hour.
- Preheat your oven to 350ºF. If desired, brush the loaf lightly with water and sprinkle on the sugar. Bake the loaf for 20 minutes. If it is starting to brown quickly on top, tent it with foil. Bake it for 15 to 20 minutes more. Let the pan cool for 15 minutes (I usually place it on a wire rack to get the air circulating around it) before removing the loaf to cool completely.
- Note: I have trialed a higher ratio of whole wheat flour, but this ratio was better. If you want to go 100% whole wheat, I recommend adding a little wheat gluten to the mix.
