100% Whole Grain Maple Oatmeal Bread

Maple Oatmeal Bread, mini loaf

There wasn't much time to make this dough, but much time wasn't needed!  That's the beauty of this type of baking.  The most time was spent buying the wheat germ for this recipe and quinoa for the next loaf.

Raisins were added, after hearing reviews of this bread from other group members.  As usual, I rinse my dried fruits to clean them.  This also keeps the fruit from soaking up liquid from the dough.

Dough, next day

The dough was rather wet, but I didn't mind.  I knew that I would be making mini loaves.  

The next day, the dough was stiffer.  It is possible that the raw oatmeal had absorbed some of the liquid.  Still, it wasn't easy to do the gluten cloak.  

We had a lot of plans for the day--building our harvest booth.  So I quickly covered the pans to let them rise, set two timers (one to turn on the oven awhile before actual baking), and went outside to start work on the booth.

I had made half a recipe, and it was just enough for 3 mini loaves.

Ready to rise in mini pans

When the second timer went off, the loaves were put into the oven.  Because they were mini loaves, they would bake sooner.  I kept setting timers for 10 minute intervals, and took them out when the internal temperature said 195 degrees.

Yummy, full of raisins and flavor!

The breads were a really nice snack for all of us building the harvest booth!  Nice crumb and flavor.  My friend, Debbie, said that the raisins really made the loaf!  Even my hubby said that he really liked it.  We all felt the loaf would be great with butter.  Next time, I might add some walnuts.  

I think I'll have another piece right now--excuse me for a minute...

Mmmmm, tastes great with honey butter!

What a great treat to have while we built the booth, and to give a loaf to my friend.  Here's some pictures of our harvest booth: 

Putting up the "walls"

Our crew, the booth all finished.  The "roof" is bamboo mats, so you can see the stars at night.  Peyton, who is 9, is a pro at putting up the lights.  We will be adding Chinese decorations later on, for our Asian theme.

The booth, lit up for night.  We need to add more decorations, a table, chairs, and lots of happy people!  Our friends look forward to this celebration every year!

Handwise tips:  If you have hand pain, tendonitis, or arthritis or any other pain issues and want to make this recipe:  

I guess the best tip for this recipe is to add the dried fruits into the water/dough, when you are making the dough. And rinse the raisins--you will be surprised how dirty raisins can be.

This bread is one of the breads from the "Healthy Breads in 5 Minutes a Day" book.

The HBinFive Baking Group, started by Michelle of Big Black Dogs, is baking through all of the breads in this book.  To see what my HB5 baking buddies have made recently, check out welcome-to-the-19th-hbinfive-bread-braid/">The 19th HBin5 Bread Braid
 

Thanks for stopping by to visit!  Come back soon, I'll be baking again often.  I hope you will leave a comment below.  I read every comment, and really appreciate your feedback.


Judy