Vermont Honey Wheat Oatmeal Bread

The smell of bread rising and baking in my kitchen is so comforting to me!  While browsing the web, I found this recipe on the King Arthur Flour website.  I love their flour and they have a wonderful database of great recipes.  They also make a good gluten-free flour mix from what I've heard from my GF friends.  This is actually an oatmeal bread (one of my personal favorites), so I couldn't resist trying it this past weekend!  I made one loaf in the bread pan and one round loaf because I didn't have another bread pan of the right size.  The round one was good, but burned a bit on the bottom, but the bread in the loaf pan was amazing and it really made the best sandwich bread!

This bread tastes so amazing with a little bit of marionberry jam from Oregon (thanks to my BIL and SIL who provide us with our stock whenever we get a chance to visit).  I'm told the Marionberries are grown in the Pacific Northwest and that they are similar to blackberries, but much larger.  I think I will be making another 2 loaves tomorrow because I've got to have more of this stuff!  :)

Vermont Whole Wheat Oatmeal Honey Bread (adapted from King Arthur Flour - original recipe)

Ingredients:
2 cups boiling water
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar (or maple sugar if available)
1 tablespoon maple syrup or honey
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon Saigon-type cinnamon
1 tablespoon instant yeast
1 1/2 cups King Arthur 100% White Whole Wheat Flour
4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, combine the water, oats, maple sugar, honey, butter, salt and cinnamon. Let cool to lukewarm.

Add the yeast and flours, stirring to form a rough dough. Knead (about 10 minutes by hand, 5 to 7 minutes by machine) until the dough is smooth and satiny. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover the bowl with lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow the dough to rise for 1 hour.

Divide the dough in half, and shape each half into a loaf. Place the loaves in two greased 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch bread pans. Cover the pans with lightly greased plastic wrap and allow the loaves to rise till they've crowned about 1 inch over the rim of the pan, about 1 hour.

Bake the loaves in a preheated 360°F oven for 33 minutes.* Remove them from the oven when they're golden brown, and the interior registers 190°F on an instant-read thermometer.

Yield: 2 sandwich loaves.