Honey Oatmeal Bread

So who doesn't love bread? I have give this bread as gifts with elderberry jelly for Christmas. It was a hit.

I should say that I use my stand mixer for this recipe and have no real idea of how long to knead bread. I have heard others say knead till your arms feel like falling off and then add another minute or so. I did make some sourdough bread recently and that method seem to produce a nice loaf.

Honey Oatmeal Bread

from the KitchenAid Stand Mixer handbook

1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup butter or margarine
5 1/2-6 /12 cups flour (can do half white and half wheat)
1 cup oats
2 tsp salt
2 pkgs active dry yeast (4 1/2 tsp)
2 eggs (I often forget)

Place water, honey, and butter in a small saucepan. Heat over low heat til the mixture is very warm (120-130).
Mix together 5 cups flour, oats, salt, and yeast in a large bowl. Gradually add the warmed liquid mixture to the flour mixture. And stir till well combined. Add the eggs and combine well.
Stir in as much remaining flour as you can. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a smooth and elastic dough. (Till your arms are ready to fall off and then a minute more.)
Place dough in a greased bowl and turn to grease top of dough. Cover lightly with waxed paper. Set in a warm place for about an hour or till dough doubles in size.
Divide dough in half. Shape into loaves. Place in a greased loaf pan, cover, and put back in the warm spot for another hour or till the dough doubles.
**Optional--beat 1 egg white and 1tbs water together and brush over the tops of the loaves. sprinkle with oatmeal.
Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes. Remove from pans immediately (otherwise the crust gets soggy) and cool.

Served warm or cool, this is great bread. Maybe I'll bring it next month.

I looked in my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook which said that one would need to knead for 8-10 minutes to get a good loaf. That seems to correlate with the knead till your arms feel like they will fall off and add a minute that others have said.

I am sure this can be modified to use a bread maker too, but as I don't have one I don't know how. If you do, please comment.