Honey Oat Loaf ❤️ Low-Fat & Healthy ❤️ Soft with a Toasty Oat Aroma

Friends often ask me how I eat so much bread without gaining weight.

The secret is that I regularly bake healthy, low-fat loaves like this one! I highly recommend this formula: it uses no added oil or refined sugar, smells wonderfully of honey and toasted oats, bites down pillowy soft with a gentle natural sweetness, and keeps you full for hours.

🍞 Ingredients: (One 450g Pullman loaf pan)

Rolled oats 35g, boiling water 90g

Bread flour 250g, honey 40g, salt 2g, instant dry yeast 3g, milk 140g.

Extra rolled oats for topping

🍞 Instructions:

1️⃣ Pour 90g of boiling water over 35g of rolled oats, stir, and let sit for about 15 minutes. Stir again so the top layer hydrates evenly, and let it cool completely before using.

2️⃣ Referring to Picture 2, combine all ingredients in the mixer bowl and mix on low speed. The dough will feel wet and sticky at first. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, mix on low speed for another minute, scrape down again, then cover and let the dough rest (autolyse) at room temperature for about 20 minutes. After resting, resume mixing on low speed, then medium speed, and finish on low speed, scraping the bowl if needed, until the dough comes together smoothly and pulls a thin, translucent membrane (full windowpane stage).

3️⃣ Since this dough is quite tacky, lightly wet your hands with water to shape it easily into a smooth ball. Cover and let it bulk ferment until doubled in size. See Picture 3 for shaping details.

4️⃣ After dividing, rolling out, coiling, and placing the dough into the pan, proof in a warm, humid spot until the pan is 80% full. Mist the top with water and sprinkle with rolled oats.

5️⃣ Bake at 190°C on the lower-middle rack for about 33 minutes. Tent with aluminum foil once the top browns.

❤️ Baker's Tips:

1 Picture 5 shows my loaf pan next to a standard 450g Pullman pan; their volumes are nearly identical, so this recipe fits a 450g Pullman pan.

2 The original recipe comes from online (see the last picture), and I made a few tweaks such as using bread flour instead of all-purpose flour.

3 You can also swap part of the bread flour for whole wheat flour; just adjust the liquid slightly since whole wheat absorbs more moisture.

4 If you like nuts or seeds, fold them in at the very end of kneading just until evenly distributed without over-mixing.

5 Adjust the liquid amount as needed for your flour's absorption, and adjust baking temperature and time according to how your oven runs.