Friday, March 02, 2007

Oat Squares

havrerutor

I love baking bread! And hopefully, so do you. Here's another really easy bread recipe, that yields soft, flavorful squares of oat-y goodness. Perfect for tea, lightly toasted. They freeze brilliantly, so make lots.

Oat Squares
Makes 24

50 g yeast
300 ml milk
300 ml soured milk (you can use buttermilk, or just all milk)
2 tbsp neutral oil
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp salt
200 ml rolled oats (that's about 0.8 cups)
550 g rye and wheat flour (the kind I get usually has 60% wheat and 40% fine rye flour)
2-300 ml (0.8-1.2 cups) wheat flour

To decorate:
1 egg
about 4 tbsp rolled oats

Crumble the yeast in a bowl. Heat the milk and/or sour milk until tepid. (It might start to curdle a little - don't worry.) Pour the liquid over the yeast to dissolve it. Stir well. Add salt, sugar, oil, oats and the rye and wheat flour, and almost all of the remaining wheat flour. Knead until you have a soft and supple dough that's easily released from the bowl.

Leave to rise, covered, for 45 minutes.

Add a little more flour if needed. and knead until dough feels smooth. Press into a lined baking pan (about 30*40 cm). Mark the dough in squares with a sharp knife, and prick each square several times with a fork. Cover with a towel, and leave to rise for 30 minutes.

Heat the oven to 225°C. Brush bread with an egg beaten with a few drops of water, and sprinkle with rolled oats. Bake for 15-18 minutes.

Let cool completely before breaking into squares.

Recipe in Swedish:
Havrerutor

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Something very different from the usual bread - a bit Scottish, eh? I found a quick way of getting liquid to a comfortable temperature for yeast. Boil a kettle & pour out half what you need into a measuring jug then top up with cold water or milk. Give it a stir to equalize the temperature all the way through & test with pinkie finger. Always works for me.

Anne said...

Pene, I'd actually say that this is a fairly normal bread here in Sweden. There's loads of recipes like this :) (And breads like it to buy in the supermarket, too.)

I often use the kettle for warming the liquid too - if I'm using water, of course. :)

Anonymous said...

Hi Anne,
These sound really interesting--and unlike any bread I've ever made. I'm definitely going to have to try them. Thanks for the recipe! : )