Instructions: 1. An hour before you go to bed, fling 1 cup of oatmeal in your blender and grind. Put the oatmeal, 1 cup of wheat germ, 6 cups of white flour, 1 tablespoon of salt, and 1/2 teaspoon of yeast in a large bowl. About 3 cups of tepid water will make up the dough. Knead it, roll it in flour, and put it right back in the bowl you mixed it up in. Cover the bowl and go to sleep.

2. The next morning, make the coffee and knock down the bread. Divide it in half and put each half into a buttered bread tin (you can butter them the night before and stick them in the fridge to save time). Cover the tins with a tea towel and go to work.

3. When you come home, heat the oven to 400F., paint the top of the loaves with milk (this is a frill and need not be done, but it makes a nice-looking crust), and bake for about 40 minutes, turning once. It is hard to describe the nutty, buttery taste of this bread, and it is worth the 15 minutes of work it took you to make it.

My notes: I made this without grinding up the oats first and it did fine. I was wondering about the lack of sugar and fat in this recipe, but the bread worked okay without them. The loaves have a nice crackly top crust (I brushed it with half and half) with lots of fish eyes and a beautiful dark brown exterior. The texture is good, lots of little even holes inside. The bread tastes pretty hearty, but not too dry, and I think Ill try it with a smear of country mustard and some roast beef.

For the first rise, I let it go 12 hours, and I let it go 3 hours for the second rise, baking it when the loaves rose to the top edges of the bread pans. The first time I tried to make this bread, I must have let it rise for too long on the second rise (more like 10 hours), because it rose over the edges of the bread pans, collapsed, and blopped onto my oven floor in big globs. (I let my bread rise in a cold oven.) There wasnt much ovenspring with this bread, but then with only 1/2 teaspoon yeast and the wheat germ and oats, I guess you couldnt expect much.

I am still trying to figure out how to keep the dough from drying out during the long rises. Ive oiled the dough and covered it with a damp dish towel, but it still got a skin. Maybe Ill branch out to oiled plastic wrap, or a shower cap over the bowl. Any suggestions?

Erin Nesmith

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