Merry Christmas! 🎄 As I mentioned at the end of 17-47: Italian Fruit Bread, the first of my holiday baking entries for this year (XMAS 16), I had a vegan gift recipient this year, so I made a specially adapted version of 17-41: Molasses Oatmeal Bread to replace all the other treats and goodies that weren’t quite vegan-friendly. I gave the other loaf (this recipe made two, and I didn’t multiply it like the others I made this year) to my aunt who loves these kinds of things. 🎁
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This recipe isn’t vegan-friendly without a bit of tweaking (swapping coconut-almond milk for regular milk and coconut oil for shortening), but it’s pretty easy to do and still results in a beautiful and tasty loaf of bread. 🍞
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Not a terribly difficult bread to execute, and while I see the note about bread flour, I don’t currently have any, so all-purpose flour it will have to be.
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Ingredients. As mentioned before, I made this recipe vegan-friendly by substituting coconut/almond milk for regular milk and coconut oil for shortening. Feel free to keep things the way they are if you aren’t interested in the vegan angle.
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This milk boils just as well as regular milk, in the microwave or on the stovetop. 🔥
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I used regular quick oats for this bread, but they don’t seem particularly picky about which kind you use. 🌾
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There really was no way to make this look good–it’s the oat/milk/molasses mixture, before heavy mixing.
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Oat/milk/molasses mixture after heavy mixing (note the color change) and dissolved yeast, ready to be combined.
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Again, less than appetizing, but will come out much better once flour is added and mixed.
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Molasses dough, ready to rise for a while. Note the line on the bowl (below 8 cups). It’ll end up above the 12 cup line.
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Cut the dough in half and shaped each piece into a loaf. Pan goes back up on top of the fridge to let the loaves proof.
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Definitely a noticeable difference from the un-proofed loaves–these ones are touching the sides of the pan now. Slashed the tops of the loaves with a curved paring knife and started them baking, rotating the pan halfway through.
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After baking the loaves. Instead of brushing the loaves with water, I used a squeeze bottle filled with water and squirted some on the inside of the oven door right before closing it, creating steam within the oven. I used to do it on the bottom of the oven, but the creaking and groaning of the contracting metal bottom of the oven made me think twice. 💨
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After brushing one of the loaves with the molasses. It does give it a shinier, glazed finish.
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As beautiful as these loaves turned out, apparently both were eaten by animals before the intended recipients could get to them in completely separate and unrelated events. I suppose this could be a recipe to try again someday, just so someone gets to eat them.
Grade: A(?) – based on appearance & aroma
🎅🏼 Interested in the full list of Simply Delicious treats we made for 2016’s holiday baking extravaganza? (XMAS 16) 🎄
- 17-47: Italian Fruit Bread
- 17-42: Luscious Lemon Bars
- 17-41: Molasses Oatmeal Bread
- 17-20: Macadamia Chip Cookies
- 17-48: Buttery Vanilla Rolls
- 17-49: Apple Muffins
- 17-25: Almond Rolls
- 17-40: Apple Rolls
How about another year’s Simply Delicious holiday bake-off? XMAS 15