Recipe for Oatmeal Raisin Whole Wheat Quick Bread-Daring Bakers Challenge

I used to be a chocolate chip kinda girl, now more an oatmeal raisin one.  Don't get me wrong, I love chocolate but when reaching for a cookie, I'm more likely to go for the oatmeal raisin one.  Well, the truth is I'm happiest when I can have an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie!  I don't know why oatmeal raisin cookies were on my mind when I came up with this recipe for February's Daring Baker's Challenge.  I'm glad they were though, because this Oatmeal Raisin Whole Wheat Quick Bread is terrific.  


The Daring Bakers’ February 2012 host was – Lis! Lis stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own. She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles.


The challenge instructions were quite good and very helpful in putting this together.  Here are some of the great tips Lis gave us:


Quick breads can be created by the following methods:

• Muffin (or the two-bowl) method – The dry and wet ingredients are kept separate and then are combined quickly and gingerly by adding the wet to the dry, and folding the two together with only a few strokes. The idea is to not over-mix, basically moistening the ingredients and leaving the batter slightly lumpy, with wisps of flour showing (even small lumps are fine) so as not to overdevelop the gluten in the flour which will keep the bread tender. An over mixed batter creates tough and rubbery muffins/quick breads. Since over-mixing will cause "tunnels" – holes where the air bubbles can escape – which will make the quick bread tough.
• Creaming method – The butter and sugar are beaten and creamed together until smooth and fluffy. Next, the egg and liquid flavoring are added to the butter and sugar mixture. The dry ingredients and other liquids are folded in last. This method is best when baking cakes since a lot of air pockets are added into the mixture. Folding in the ingredients creates even more air pockets to keep the cakes light and fluffy.
• Cutting in method – The chilled fat is cut into the flour. The fat results in a flaky texture since the fat melts while in the oven. This method is best used when baking biscuits, scones or pie crusts.
• Depending on the recipe and the type of quick bread, there are also three different types of batter:

• Pour Batter: This type of batter has a dry:liquid ratio of 1:1. Because there is so much liquid in this type of batter, the result is very moist and dense.
• Drop Batter: This batter has a dry:liquid ratio of 3:1. This batter will result in a moist but fluffy baked good.
• Stiff Dough: This batter has a dry:liquid ratio of 7:1 This batter will result in a very light and fluffy baked good.
• Lower gluten flours are best to make quick breads you can replace 4 tablespoons in each cup of all-purpose flour with cake flour in most recipes or replace 2 tablespoons in each cup of all-purpose flour with corn flour (cornstarch) if you wish to lower the gluten levels of your flour.
• Flour should be sifted to aerate it which gives more rise therefore a lighter crumb to the final baked goods.
• Add fruit, nuts, etc. after lightly combining the wet and dry ingredients. Then give the batter one more light-handed stir and you're done. Is the batter still thick and lumpy? That's exactly what you want.

With all that good information and some sample recipes to look at, I was ready to go.  I wanted a moist but fluffy quick bread so I used the muffin (two-bowl) method, sifted my dry ingredients and approximated a 3:1 dry to liquid ratio with my ingredients (a little more of the wet ingredients because I assumed the oats would soak up a fair amount).

Yield: 1 loaf (9x5 pan)

Time: 60 minutes

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup whole wheat flour
• ¾ cup cake flour
• 1 ½ cups old fashioned oats (uncooked)
• ¼ cup sugar (plus more to sprinkle on top-optional)
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 2 TBSP cinnamon
• 2 eggs
• ¾ cup 2% milk
• ¾ cup plain non-fat Greek yogurt
• ¼ cup macadamia nut oil
• ½ cup honey
• ½ cup golden raisins
• Baking spray (or butter)
• Parchment paper

 Method:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Lightly spray a 9x5 loaf pan with baking spray (or spread with butter) and line with parchment paper sling. Lightly spray parchment.
• Sift flours, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon together in a bowl.
• Stir in oats and raisins.
• In a second bowl, mix together the egg, milk, yogurt, oil and honey.
• Stir wet ingredients into dry, just to mix.   Batter may be a little lumpy, that is okay, don’t over mix.
• Pour into parchment lined loaf pan.
• Bake for 45 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted in center comes out clean.
• Sprinkle top with sugar when removed from oven (optional).
• Cool 10 minutes in pan on a rack then remove from pan and continue cooling.
• Serve room temperature, warmed or toasted.

A perfect loaf, if I do say so myself! Breakfast treat, dessert, afternoon tea?  Yes, yes and yes.

This is the first time I used the parchment sling with a loaf pan-it works like a charm, so don't skip that step. So easy to remove the loaf, just lift the parchment.

Printable recipe


Here's more info about the Daring Bakers and some of my other baking challenges:

Biscuits (aka scones in some parts of the world!)

Sans Rival Cake

Recipe for Whole Wheat Pita

In my "to try" file are about a dozen naan recipes.  So, of course I can't seem to get going on making some-just keep looking at the recipes, thinking about the best attributes of each one.  Help!  I have naan paralysis!


However, I came across a recipe for pita and just jumped on it!  No messing around.  No saving many versions and trying to come up with "the best".  It is a recipe with mostly whole wheat which I like.  Is it "the best"? Who knows?  But it made lovely pillows of whole wheat goodness just begging to be stuffed with spinach, ham and cheese.  So different than the cardboard texture of the whole wheat pita I buy at the store.

I made very few changes!  The original recipe calls for a tad of OJ which I left out and adjusted the water accordingly. I also used white whole wheat flour because that is what I had. I brushed the tops with olive oil and sprinkled on some organic, no-salt seasonings (Kirkland Brand from Costco) to finish them off while they were still warm.


Yield: 8 pita (whole)
Time: 20 minutes plus 1 hour 40 minutes rising time


Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups white whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour
• 1 1/2 tsp table salt
• 1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
• 1 1/4 cups warm water
• 2 TBSP olive oil plus more for brushing tops
• Organic no-salt seasoning (or other mixed herb/spice blend) for topping

Method:

• Combine flours and salt in a bowl.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer with dough hook, add yeast and 2 TBSP olive oil to water.
• Start mixer on low and pour in flour mixture.
• Turn to medium and knead for 5 minutes (if by hand, 8-10 minutes).
• Remove bowl from mixer and cover with kitchen cloth/towel for 1 1/2 hours or until dough has doubled.
• About an hour in to the rise, place pizza stone on bottom rack of oven and preheat to 450 degrees.
• When dough has doubled, turn out on to floured surface and divide into 8 portions.  Re-cover and let rest for 10 minutes.
• Roll each portion into approximately a 6 inch circle.
• Using a floured pizza peel, slide pitas into oven, cooking 2 at a time (keep others covered).
• Bake for 3 1/2 minutes, then flip for an additional 2 1/2 minutes.
• Remove and wrap in kitchen towel to cool while others cook, adding cooked to pile in kitchen towel as they come out.  
• When cooled slightly, brush with olive oil and sprinkle with seasoning mix.

As I said, great texture and the taste is waaaaay better than store bought!

In to the oven

See how they puff!

Now, on to that naan.


Printable Recipe
King Arthur Recipe