Experiment 11 - Irish Oaten Bread - The Results

Experiment 11 - Irish Oaten Bread - The Results

Ingredients list

Let's talk about the clipping a bit before getting to the making o' the bread.  The bit of the headline that is still intact says "that bind handmade kitchen books".  I've wracked my brain trying to figure out the first part, but I'm coming up blank.  Since I have the date of publication, I will have to see if there are online archives available.  Or go to the library when I visit my family back in Connecticut later this year

This recipe has a lot of waiting.  I started with adding the stout to the oatmeal and letting it sit for about an hour.  Then the sour milk got mixed in and the whole thing got covered and left to sit for eight hours, or overnight.  I chose overnight.  This morning, the first step was to sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt.  I never had a sifter until week 2 of this project, and I bought one that has a "trigger" type mechanism.  It was good enough for that recipe, but sifting 2 1/2 cups of flour takes a long long long time.  I kept switching hands, but I have to find out if there's a better way.  Once I managed to get all the sifting done, the recipe said to "stir in well the steeped oats and their liquid".  Instead I dumped the flour into the oats and liquid.  I don't think that made any difference.  The ultimate plan was to make a dough, and I think I acheived that.  But then .... the instructions said to knead the dough until it was smooth.  I stirred it a lot in the bowl and got a nice smooth texture, but I wasn't sure if I was supposed to turn it out on the the counter and knead, like I'd done for the calzones and pretzels.  Well, I did, and to skip to the end, I had to use a spatula to get the sticky dough off of the counter.  The recipe also told me to add a little flour "if [the dough] is too floppy."  Floppy?  I'm learning lots of terms because of this experiment, even if the meanings elude me.

The dough, floppy or not, went into a medium bread pan that had been lined with waxed paper and covered.  And then it was time to wait again, half an hour this time.  After that, it was finally time to bake, at 350 for 40 to 45 minutes or until it tested done using a knife.  Mine took about 48 minutes.  I was also confused about the waxed paper.  I'd never heard of baking something with waxed paper lining the pan, but I gave it a shot.

Verdict: This is a crusty, dense bread.  Pretty tasty, though.  I had a slice with my leftover corned beef dinner, and I'm already getting ready to make stew tomorrow.

Lessons Learned - I'd be interested in seeing not only the rest of the headline from this clipping, but the article that accompanied the recipes.  I can't go back in time, but if I cut out any more recipes, I'll keep that in mind.  Oh, and I'm going to skip the waxed paper next time.  It doesn't peel off the baked loaf very well.
Tools needed - What I said last week about possibly needing some kind of wooden surface for dough preparation.
Skills needed - nothing new this week.