Rye Bread with Steel Cut Oats

Rye Bread with Steel Cut Oats

This ugly loaf is one of those fast rye breads that I have been throwing together hastily lately just to have something to eat when I go to work. Nothing interesting here. I tossed in the steel cut oats, without any soaking or boiling of them, just to give the dough some extra texture. I used 1/4 cup of them and then sprinkled some on the surface a couple of times.

I let the dough sit out for a couple of hours before adding the salt. Then I kneaded the salt in and let it sit out for about 4 hours before baking.

This is an ugly grey coloured loaf, probably because I am using some very old motherstarter that I should have tossed away. It was old, but it had been refrigerated. I threw out the hooch layer, and just incorporated the old spent rye.

I am very surprised that the resultant loaf is not more sour.

There was one thing different about this loaf. I tried a rye wash, with about 15 minutes left on the 65 minute long bake. It did turn the top of the loaf an unappetizing grey colour.

The wash was boiling water (150g) and rye flour (2 tbsp), stirred for 1 minute and then left to sit for 50 minutes before brushing on the top of the baking loaf. I coated the bread liberally. By then, the scores on the top of the bread had left deep fissures, and I coated them too.

Notes to Myself

• The Taste of this bread grows on me. I actually really like the crust. The oats are subtle, and give the bread more than mere texture.
• I've made this basic recipe before, in other ways:
• The first time I made this recipe was here, based on a CIA recipe.  What made it special was the homemade bread spice, which I sometimes forgot in the recipes that followed.
• The next time I made it, I tried enriching it.
• I tried adding Grain Flakes and Grain Meal to the recipe.
• I tried combining Whole Wheat and Rye sourdoughs in one bread.
• I added some boiled grains here, and experimented with egg wash.
• Here I added some boiled wheat, millet and barley to the recipe.
• I tried it with a whole rye kernel soaker.
• I've tried it with Spelt, Whole Wheat, and All Purpose flours.
• Perhaps there are an infinite number of variations that might be tried.  Obviously I have not exhausted the possibilities.