[Sca-cooks] Honey Oatmeal Bread

[Stefan li Rous]

  Chass of Rundel asked:
> I would kill for a good honey oatmeal bread recipe. I have eaten it at  
> many
> a feast and fell in love with it. Before you ask yes I have looked in  
> the
> florgillium,.... welp... I found bread recipe's but none are honey  
> oat.....
> (yes Stefan li Rous I know I must be screwing up the search)
Not necessarily. I went ahead and did a search just to see what I could  
find. My apologoies if I've ever given the impression that I think  
folks are missing something in the Florilegium because they are  
screwing up their searching with the search engine or by hand. *I*  
often forget about a related file, and I ought to know better than most  
where the various things are in the Florilegium. Often what the search  
engine will evoke from me is "Oh, yeah I guess I must have put that in  
that file" or  "oops. I guess I didn't remember to remove that and put  
it in file x.".

I didn't find a lot. Most hits were in the breadmaking file or the  
ethnic breads files. I've pasted a pair of messages with recipes, that  
might be close to what you are looking for below. There are also a few  
other breads using oats or oatmeal but they don't use honey.

> also am curious
> if it is a period recipe and where the source came from :) Please :)
There are only about a half-dozen to a dozen period bread recipes,  
depending upon where you draw the line on what is "bread", known to  
exist. About half a dozen of these are now in the Florilegium. It is  
very likely that a period recipe for an oats based bread doesn't exist.  
Oats were not what the upper-class medieval folks wanted in their  
breads. Oats were for the lower classes, and they likely, did not have  
access to an oven. So they had oatcakes, rather than oat breads, and  
they would have been or couldn't write the recipe down. The Scots, for  
instance.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****

> Date: Mon, 7 Dec 1998 12:10:31 -0800 (PST)
> From: Donna Hrynkiw <donna at Kwantlen.BC.CA>
> Subject: Re: SC - Time to give something back
>
> Greetings from Elizabeth,
>
> In the spirit of Maedb's "sharing" posting, I'd like to offer a recipe
> for Porridge Rye bread. I made this a couple of weekends ago (and froze
> it) and it was the star of my "different kinds of bread" display at
> this past weekend's Baroness's Birthday Tourney A&S display. People  
> came
> back for second and third helpings of the samples, and as I was packing
> up, the remaining heel was begged off of me.
>
> Elizabeth Braidwood, An Tir
> donna at kwantlen.bc.ca
>
> -  
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 
> --
> From: The Village Baker - Classic Regional Breads from Europe and  
> America
> by Joe Ortiz. (Italics are indicated by dashes around the words.)
>
> - -Pain Bouillie-
> Porridge Bread
>
> Whenever you see a French recipe that begins with the instructions  
> "Fair
> une Bouillie..." you know you have come across a very old recipe  
> because it
> starts off with a mush made by pouring boing water over flour. The  
> mush,
> with will ferment slightly overnight, is used the next day mixed into a
> bread. The most fascinating recipe I have heard of for -pain bouillie-  
> is
> one
> from the Alpine region of France around the town of Villar-d'Arène. The
> - -boullie- is made with dark rye flour and set aside for rest for  
> seven
> hours. The porridge is then mixed into a dough, without any yeast, and
> allowed to rest for another seven hours. When the dough is finally made
> into loaves, they are placed in an an oven that has already been used  
> for
> making bread and so the temperature is only about 200F. The loaves  
> bake for
> seven hours and the process produces a moist, dense, completely  
> sourdough
> bread that lasts well over six months -- or so the story goes. The  
> bread is
> traditionally made in November and it keeps best when stored in wine
> cellars and hay lofts.
>
> In the following recipe yeast and some white flour are included to  
> make the
> procedure a little easier for the contemporary home baker.
> [EB: I suspect that in the original recipes, the porridge captured
> sufficient wild yeast to take care of the leavening.)
>
> Makes two 14-ounce loaves.
>
> THE -BOUILLIE- (PORRIDGE)
> 2 teaspoons honey
> 1 3/4 cups boiling water
> 1 cup organic rye flour
> 1 cup organic cracked rye grain   [EB: I substituted rolled oats. Who  
> has
>                                   cracked rye on hand?]
>
> THE DOUGH
> 1 teaspoon active dry yeast       [EB: I used 3/4 - 2/3 cup of my  
> sourdough
>                                   yeast culture and adjusted the  
> amount of
>                                   white flour to compensate for the  
> added
>                                   liquid.]
> 3 tablespoons warm water          [EB: omitted.]
> All of the -bouillie- from the previous step
> 2 teaspoons fine sea salt         [EB: I used table salt.]
> 2 teaspoons caraway seeds         [EB: omitted. I dislike caraway.]
> 1 tablespoon raisins              [EB: omitted. Without the caraway,  
> the
>                                   raisins don't make sense.]
> 2 cups organic, unbleached white (or all-purpose) flour
>                                   [EB: I used Robin Hood unbleached  
> white
>                                   -- Canadian all-purpose flour.]
>
> TO MAKE THE -BOUILLIE- (PORRIDGE), dissolve the honey in the boiling  
> water
> and pour it over the rye flour and grain in a ceramic bowl. Let the  
> mixture
> soak for a few minutes, then stir it with a wooden spoon until the  
> flour is
> completely wet. Cover the bowl with a towel and set it aside overnight  
> in a
> warm place. [EB: I used my usual proofing place -- the cupboard over  
> the
> fridge. Always a toasty 76-80F.]
>
> TO MAKE THE DOUGH, [proof the yeast in 2 tablespoons of warm water.]  
> Place
> the -bouillie- in a medium-sized bowl, sprinkle the salt over the  
> porridge
> and stir it in. [Crush the caraway seeds in a mortar, add the raisins,  
> and
> grind the mixture to a paste. Stir in the remaining tablespoon of  
> water.
> Add 2 teaspoons of this caraway flavouring to the -bouillie-.]  
> Gradually add
> 1 1/2 cups flour, a handful at a time, while mixing with a plastic  
> dough
> scraper. Mix in the yeast. Continue adding the rest of the flour by
> handfuls until it is all incorporated and you have a medium-firm piece  
> of
> dough. Knead the dough on the worktable for between 5 and 8 minutes  
> using a
> small additional quantity of white flour if necessary. The dough will  
> be
> firm but if you press your fingers into it it will feel sticky.
>
> Return the dough to the bowl, cover it with a moist towel, and place  
> it in
> an unlit oven for between 1 1/2 and 2 hours to rise. [EB: my notes say  
> that
> my yeast culture took a little longer -- about 2 1/2 hours to doubling
> in size.]
>
> When it has doubled in bulk, cut the dough into 2 pieces. Shape the  
> pieces
> into flat loaves that are 5 inches square and 2 inches high by  
> flattening
> and then folding the edges toward the middle and sealing the joins  
> with the
> heel of the hand. Oil one side of each loaf and place them, oiled sides
> abutting, side by side in a greased bread pan that measures 9 inches  
> by 5
> 1/2 inches by 3 inches. [EB: He's making two half-loaves and putting  
> them
> in the same pan. I made one loaf.]
>
> Let the dough rise, again covered with a moist towell, in an unlit  
> oven for
> 30 minutes, until the dough has risen about 1/2 an inch above the top  
> of
> the pan. [EB: My rise at this point took a whole hour.]
>
> Give each loaf a straight, 2-inch slash on the top with a razor blade  
> and
> brush the tops with a little salad oil. [EB: I slashed, but did not  
> oil.]
>
> Set the oven at 450F and immediately place the loaves inside. Bake the
> bread in what is known as a rising oven for 25 minutes. Then reduce the
> heat to 400F and bake the loaves for 45 minutes longer. They will be  
> quite
> dark.
>
> Remove the loaves from the pan and place them on a cooling rack. When
> cooled the bread is best sliced very, very thin.
> -  
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 
> --
>
> Man, talk about a wordy recipe. An experienced baker could pass this to
> another experienced baker in about 1/3 the space.
>
> E.B.
> donna at kwantlen.bc.ca
>
And another one. Snipped because of space. This also from the  
breadmaking-msg file:
> Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1999 14:02:12 EDT
> From: Seton1355 at aol.com
> Subject: SC - REC:  Oatmeal bread
>
> I am in the process of going through my recipes and transfering them  
> to disk.
> I came across this recipe for oatbread from the Quaker Oats people. I
> haven't made it for years, but everytime I did make it, my family  
> loved it.
> It always struck me as a "hearth" loaf (well, if you don't put it into  
> pans)
> and while not period, exactly...it could be "period - like!"
> YIS, Phillipa
>
> HINTS OF HONEY LOAF
>
> 2 packs yeast                           2 1/2 tsp salt
> 1/2C warm water                         6 C flour
> 2 1/4C milk scalded                     2 C qroats, uncooked
> 1/4C shortening                         1/3 C honey
>
> Dissolve yeast in water
> Pour milk over shortening, honey & salt; cool to lukewarm.
> Stir in 2 cups of flour.
> Add dissolved yeast & oats; mix well.
> Stir in enough additional flour to make a soft dough.
> Turn out onto a lightly floured surface & knead until smooth & elastic
> Shape into a ball & place into a greased bowl, turning once to coat  
> the top
> surface,
> Cove & let rise for 1 hour.
> Punch down and let rest for 10 minutes.
> Divide dough in half, roll out each half to form a 15 X 9" rectangle.
> Roll up, starting with the narrow end, pressing together the seam to  
> seal.
> Place in 2 greased loaf pans.
> Cover & let rise for 45 minutes.
> Bake @ 375 for about 45 minutes.
> Remove from pans & cool on wire racks.