Right now, this is my favorite bread recipe. I got the recipe from my sister, Jill. I have adapted it slightly to make 3 loaves at a time and to use whole wheat flour if desired.
1 ½ cups oats
3 ½ cups water
1 cups brown sugar or honey
1/3 cup oil
7 ½ cups flour (white, wheat, or half and half)
1 TBLS salt
3 TBLS yeast
1/3 cup vital wheat gluten if using wheat flour
Boil water and pour over oats in bowl. Let cool about 10 minutes. Add brown sugar or honey and oil. In a separate bowl, combine 3 cups flour with yeast and salt. Add to the oatmeal mixture and mix well. Continue to add additional flour and the vital wheat gluten and knead well. (I usually knead in my bread mixer for 10 minutes.) Cover with a towel and allow to raise until double in size, about an hour. Punch down dough and divide into 3 parts. Roll each part into a narrow rectangle, and roll up to form a loaf. Let raise again, and then bake at 350 for 35 minutes. If you want to speed up the raising process, turn the oven to 200 before forming into loaves. Once it has reached temperature, turn the oven off and stick the formed loaves into the warm oven. Let raise about 20 minutes or until at least double in size, then turn oven to350 and bake for 35 minutes.
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