Sourdough Oatmeal Bread

There is more sourdough information on the Net than you can shake a stick at, so I will only post my recipe below. If you want to learn more about sourdough, please visit one of the sites listed here.  Meantime, doesn’t the bread look good? It’s Sourdough Oatmeal Bread, just a little tangy, and substantial and good.

Sourdough Oatmeal Bread

Yield: 2 medium loaves

the Sponge

1/2 cup starter (remember to feed your original starter)

2 cups warm water

3-4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup instant oats

The Rest of It

1 Tblsp. salt

2 Tblsp. sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

2 Tblsp. corn oil, or any other neutral-flavored oil

Approximately 3 more cups of flour

The Night Before:

1. Mix the ingredients for the sponge in the order given. It will look like oatmeal. Cover the bowl – plastic wrap works best – and put the sponge away in a warm place overnight.

2. Next morning, the sponge should be light and bubbly. Beat in the salt, sugar, soda, and oil.

3. Start adding flour, by handfuls or generous sprinkles, turning the mass over and over with your hands or a wooden spoon. Keep adding flour and mixing it in till you obtain a cohesive dough, a little sticky.

4. Stretch and fold, adding smaller sprinklings of flour, till the dough is smooth. That should be about 10 stretches and folds. Smooth a thin layer of flour over the dough ball, cover it again, and put it away another 2 hours, or until the dough is light again.

5. Working gently, cut the dough into two. Stretch and fold each half, shaping the loaf you want.

6. Allow the dough to rise another half-hour to an hour, or until the it’s light and a few blisters are visible under the skin surface of it. Start preheating the oven. I preheat my oven to 250 degrees C, but lower the temp to 190 C right after I’ve put the loaves in the oven.

Decorate the surface of the loaves by giving them an egg-wash, pressing flakes of oats on top.

Bake for 1 hour or until a golden-brown.