My 79th experiment: oat cereal bread

While we are chatting with friend, hubby casually brings up the pleasure of the oatmeal braid that we have been not too long ago. So fond is his memory that this loaf is coming back again. This time, I am busy, so I just let the dough develop itself. In this experiment, I make use of water roux (through boiling the cereal), autolyse, and delayed fermentation.

Recipe: Oat cereal bread (3 sandwich buns)

Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup Trader Joe's uncooked organic multigrain cereal (mostly oat)
- 1 cup 1% milk
- 1 cup KAF all-purpose flour
- 2 tp yeast
- 1 tp salt
- 1 TB olive oil
- 2 TB honey
- 2 TB flaxseeds
- 3 TB water
- about 1/4 cup KAF all-purpose flour to adjust hydration

Procedure:
1. Mix flour with salt.
2. Proof yeast in 3 TB water
3. Cook cereal in milk until boiling. Then allow to cool.
4. When the cereal has absorb some of the milk, mix it with the flour and salt, and add the proofed yeast. Mix a bit. Then allow to sit for a few minutes. Then mix a little again. Repeat this a few times, until a soft dough is formed. Then chill.

Results:
Day 1, 5:16pm, half a cup of cereal to be cooked in one cup of milk:

Day 1, 5:23pm, milking boiling with cereal, stove ready to turn off:

Day 1, 5:36pm, cereal absorbing most of the liquid upon sitting 15 minutes:

Day 1, 5:36pm, proofed yeast and flour mixed with salt:

Day 1, 5:38pm, cereal, milk, proof yeast all added to the flour:

Day 1, 5:42pm, ingredients gently mixed, then allowed to sit for 4 minutes:

Day 1, 5:50pm, ingredients mixed gently again and allowed to sit another 8 minutes:

Day 1, 6:47pm, dough formed after being allowed to sit for an hour in total, then ready to chill:

Day 1, 9:24pm, dough after 2 hours of chilling:

Day 1, 9:24pm, dough's surface:

Day 1, 9:24pm, dough's texture:

Day 2
Day 2, 1:41pm, overnight fermentation:

Day 2, 1:41pm, texture of dough after overnight:

Day 2, 3:49pm, dough warmed 2 hours, then honey and oil added:

Day 2, 4:27pm, 1/4 cup all-purpose flour added, 2 TB flaxseeds added, then dough shaped into small pieces:

Day 2, 5:22pm, dough rested 55 minutes:

Day 2, 5:28pm, dough transferred to pan, ready to bake:

Day 2, 5:29pm, dough started baking at 350F:

Day 2, 5:42pm, loaves baked 15 minutes:

Day 2, 5:43pm, loaves' tops brushed with water:

Day 2, 5:52pm, loaves' baked 25 minutes, to be covered when baking resumed:

Day 2, 6:11pm, loaves baked 50 minutes:

Day 2, 6:12pm, tops of buns:

Day 2, 6:12pm, connection between buns:

Day 2, 6:12pm, bottoms of buns:

Day 2, 6:18pm, side of one bun:

Day 2, 6:18pm, side of another bun:

Day 2, 9:19pm, interior of a bun:

Day 2, 9:19pm, a bite:

Observations:
1. When preparing the dough, I am busy with cooking other things. So I mostly let the flour and cereal mixture sit on its own. The high moisture of the cooked cereal seems to facilitate autolyse greatly. So the dough is formed with minimal kneading.
2. It's easy bread to make, without much work.
3. When it is cooled, even though the crust has become hard, the crumb remains really tender. It's such a pleasure to the mouth.

Hubby and I both agree that the making and eating of this bread is among the most profitable activities in life.

Autolyse

Now I am enjoying baking so much, I am trying out a variety of ways to bake bread. This time, I'm studying the autolyse of dough. The key is to make a wet dough and allow the gluten to form by itself.

Ingredients:
- 2 cup of Giant brand unbleached wheat flour
- 3/4 cup + 2 TB warm water
- 1 teaspoon (tp) active dry yeast
- 1/2 tp coarse kosher salt

Procedure:
1. Mix the yeast with about 2-3 TB warm water. Allow to moisten for a few minutes.
2. Mix flour and salt in a bowl.
3. Add the yeast liquid into the bowl. Mix. Add some more water, up to 1 cup.
4. Stir the mixture a little with a fork to make sure the flour is moistened with water. Allow to sit.
5. Stir the mixture every 10 minutes. Observe the increase of smoothness and stretchability of the dough.

Results:

2:26pm, yeast is proofed in warm water:

2:27pm, yeast is added to the flour mixture. Observe the bubbles that spring up right away:

2:33pm, sufficient water has been added to hydrate the flour to form a wet dough. Observe the initial lack of strength of the dough:

2:44pm, dough has been allowed to rest undisturbed for 10 minutes. Observe the smoothened texture of the dough after the 1st rest:

2:47pm, dough is being folded and stretched:

2:47pm, observe the strength of the dough after the 1st stretch:

2:57pm, dough has been allowed to rest undisturbed for another 10 minutes. Observe the strength of the dough after the 2nd rest:

3:10pm, dough is being folded and stretched a second time:

3:10pm, observe the strength of the dough after the 2nd stretch:

3:10pm, dough is now able to sustain the stretch by its own weight:

3:11pm, dough is done, ready to chill or rise, depending on the recipe:

Observations:
My current batch of flour (Giant's store brand unbleached all-purpose flour) needs less water than my previous batch (Gold Medal unbleached all-purpose flour) to arrive at the same level of hydration. It also takes a shorter time for the dough to arrive at the strength that I like to see.