High protein, high fiber oat bread
[This high protein fiber oat bread recipe can be read by Google Reader if you want to work through the recipe whilst baking.]
Making bread for protein and fiber intake can be easy. This recipe is for 24 dinner rolls (or slider buds). The super food ingredients in this recipe are chia seed, quinoa, and rolled oats. Because of the chia seed, your bread making experience will take on a very different texture -- so just be mindful that the bread dough has to stay a lot more on the moist side of bread making in order to avoid making chia mochi or gum.
It will only take an hour of food prep and about 45-minutes of bake time for homemade bread. The dough is good for storing overnight if you want fresh bread in the morning. The dough can also be stored in the freezer for 3-months.
To start, in a clean medium size bowl activate dry active yeast by adding:
1 tablespoon Active Yeast1 tablespoon Sugar1/2 cup tepid to warmish water or warm milk1 tablespoon butter or margarine spread1 tablespoon self-raising flour
The yeast mix will bubble in 15-minutes and should resemble a consistently foamy yeast brew:
In an extra large bowl:
- Add 1 cup old fashion rolled oats to 1.5~2 cups of almond milk.
- Cook the rolled oats in the microwave on 450~500 watts for 5 minutes.
- Add 1/2 cup quinoa and 3 large tablespoon of chia seed into the warm rolled oats mixed.
- Add a dollop of butter here if you like that flavor in your breads.
- Heat and cook in the microwave for 3 minutes on 450~500 watts.
This processes the grains of the ingredients without having to blend or mill the quinoa, chia, or oats. Thus, it will avoid over-chewiness in the bread and create a satiating bread roll that is low carb. The precooking method of the rolled oats will also decrease the flour intake of the recipe from cups and bags full to only spoonfuls. This is exceptionally helpful to those that are carb-avoidant but still love bread.
Once the grains are cooked the second time, in the microwave, you should see some sprouting of the quinoa and the gooey chia seed formula to bind a wet batter. For a grainy bread, cook all the fibers and grains for five minutes together. [For macrobiotics, you can presprout the quinoa days before. If you do that, you would not need to cook the quinoa with the chia seeds.]
After the second cook, the grain mix will resemble slime. At this point, season your bread with a pinch of salt. Since I wanted the flavor of the bread to taste more like a multi-grain dinner roll for sliders, fillings, and gravy, I used a sharp Mediterranean olive oil to flavor my dough.
- Overgreasing the dough will cause problems when baking the bread, so use oils and butters sparingly.
To cool the mixture, stir in a few spoonfuls of your favorite [bread] flour (up to 5 tablespoons).
- The less flour you add, the less rise you will get in your bread. Too much and you will need to proof the bread for much longer, sometimes overnight. [This your culinary call.]
To the raise the bread dough, the goo has to cool.
- When baking with yeast for texture, and not just flavor, you want the oat and fiber goo to feel cool to the touch before adding in the yeast brew. You'll end up with a very dense cake like bread, if not. [Great for pumpernickel and dark rye flours.]
If your bread dough mixture looks more like pancake batter than a very wet and sticky bread dough mixture (after you have used up all 1/3 cups of meal/flour), sprinkle the top of the wet dough mixture with 1.5~3 tablespoons of flour to help the dough proof. This will let the yeast to move towards the dry flour while proofing the wet dough mixture. (For baking: time is the best cook. Bread mixes self-incorporates if you allow the bread mixture to sit in room temperature.)
Proofing the dough:
Cover with a plastic wrap to retain the moisture. Your dough mixture, should rise to double or even 2.5 times the starting size. After 30-minutes, the dough should be steamy and risen.
Cover with a plastic wrap to retain the moisture. Your dough mixture, should rise to double or even 2.5 times the starting size. After 30-minutes, the dough should be steamy and risen.
Grease down your favorite casserole with butter or olive oil. I did a blend of both for flavor. (And preheat the oven if you plan to eat the bread that day.)
To form the dough in dinner rolls:
Fold and punch down the foam dough mixture then form 24-rolls with floured hands. Drop the balls of dough into your greased casserole. Don't worry if there is a crevice between the balls of bread dough. After a second proof, it will fill the entire pan.
- I made a casserole of 15 dinner rolls the size of slider buns that were plain and savory; and filled a pie dish with a sweet version with 8 rolls that I allowed to chill overnight before freezing it.
- My bread ended up like a multi-grain dinner roll with a distinctive fluffy texture that isn't weighed down by the chewy chia seeds in the recipe. I achieved this lightness in the bread by adding 2 tablespoons of cake meal with every 1 tablespoon of bread flour (and I limited the preknead flour and meal intake to 1/4 cup for this 24-roll recipe). I also kneaded the dough even when it was stickier to the touch. The finish is more rustic as a result.
Baking bread:
Preheat the oven to 325 fahrenheit.
- You will want to cook this bread at 300-325 fahrenheit depending on the material and color of your baking gear or casserole. For the glass casserole version, as pictured, I baked with 325 fahrenheit for 45-minutes on the middle rack.
Smooth and extra fluffy dinner rolls:
If you want a very smooth textured bread, you will need to knead and work the dough to the point of being slightly sticky to the touch. (Use a machine.) Brush the formed balls with a wash (sugar/salt water). To ensure your bread proofs before it bakes, rise the bread for an extra hour (or even overnight) if your dough is non-sticky, otherwise you'll end up with mini stone breads.
The purpose of the flour is to give the activated yeast brew an action potency to works toward (but yeast to flour ratio does change the consistency of the dough). The air bubbles of the yeast can only be achieved through the flour and not the goo. So remember that.
Freezer Bread Dough:
To store proofed dough in the freezer: proof the dough to your desired size then allow wrap the dough in saran wrap. Here is the sweet version I made for the freezer:
To bake with the frozen dough:
- Thaw the dough in advance.
- Place it in a greased baking dish.
- Let it rise to the pre-freeze size. (You can make this up to a day in advance.)
- Preheat the oven to 325 fahrenheit, and bake.
