Honey Oatmeal Bread

We have reached a landmark, my friends. This was the last recipe marked in the big TOH cookbook I have been working through since last Christmas!! So it took like 15 months to get through. Not too bad, I guess, considering I have thrown in recipes from other sources too. This bread came out quite good. It is a good toasting bread. That's what we did last night, just made toast out of it and ate cereal. It made 2 loaves and I froze the other one, mostly to see how well it un-freezes, to see if in the future these are suitable for giving away to people, like when they have babies and stuff. Anyway it's on page 458 of the cookbook.

Honey Oatmeal Bread
2 cups water, divided
1 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup honey
1 tbsp salt
2 pkg active dry yeast
1 egg
4 to 5 cups all purpose flour, divided
melted butter, optional

In a small saucepan, heat 1 cup water to boiling. Stir in the oats, butter, honey, and salt. Let stand until mixture cools to 110-115 degrees, stirring occasionally (took about 25 minutes or so). Heat remaining water to 110-115 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the egg, oat mixture and 2 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a stiff dough. Spread batter evenly into two greased 8x4 inch loaf pans. Smooth tops of loaves. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 35-40 minutes. Bake @ 375 for 40-45 minutes. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool. Brush with melted butter if desired.

So Nathan didn't have any toast, but the rest of us did. I thought it was the perfect toasting bread. It would have been too dense for like a sandwich, but was perfect for toast. So I will keep this recipe. And as far as bread making goes, this one was pretty easy because you don't even have to knead it or anything. Just mix, rise, and bake. So that was good. Anyway definitely a keeper. Next time I may try using some whole wheat flour in it, too, to see how it goes.