Apparently the only recipes I want to try from The Vegiterranean Diet are breads. Oh well! I’ll get to the others eventually. 

The oat bread is soft but thick. It’s a great breakfast bread, or would serve well with tea. I definitely recommend trying it with jelly or honey! It’s so good! I prefer the taste of the bread when it’s pretty fresh, two days or younger, and either fresh out of the oven or warmed for a minute in the microwave. 

It’s much easier to cook with a silicone loaf pan, but it turns out fine in a regular loaf pan too. I’ve had middling success mixing cinnamon into the dough – the oat taste seems to overpower the cinnamon flavor. Maybe next time I’ll try adding even more cinnamon.

Ingredients:

Servings: 1 loaf

• 1½ tsp. active dry yeast
• 2 tbs. pure maple syrup
• 2 cups warm water
• 3½ cups oat flour (don’t have oat flour? put 3½ cups of rolled oats in a blender!)
• 1¾ tsp. salt
• Optional: 2 tbs. hemp, poppy, pumpkin, sesame, or sunflower seeds, or 2 tbs. cinnamon

Directions:

In a medium to large bowl combine the yeast, syrup, and water. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 10 minutes.

Bubbles will rise to the top.

Take off the plastic wrap and set it aside for now. Pour in oat flour a cup or so at a time, stirring as you go. Add the salt and stir until combined, but don’t over-stir the mix. Cover with the plastic wrap again and let it stand in a dry, warm area for at least 90 minutes.

After 90 minutes, when the dough appears puffy (pictured below), push it down a bit with your hand on the plastic wrap. It will be very sticky. Turn the oven on to 350ºF. 

While the oven warms up, transfer the dough to a 9×5 bread loaf pan. After the first time making this recipe I have always used a silicone pan and it works great! If you don’t have a silicone pan, line your loaf pan with parchment paper (makes it a hundred times easier to get the loaf out). Try to spread the dough evenly throughout the pan. If you are adding seeds or cinnamon on top, do that now before it goes in the oven.

Bake the loaf for 28 to 30 minutes. Use a toothpick in the center of the loaf to check if the loaf is cooked through. The toothpick needs to come out completely clean! This loaf does not taste good if it’s undercooked and mushy in the middle.

When it’s ready to come out, the bread should be visibly browned up. 

That’s it! This bread is best to eat right out of the oven and warm. It will last in the fridge 3-4 days in plastic wrap. It reheats well in the microwave – it only needs a minute or so to get very warm. Serve with honey, jelly, nut butter, or eat plain!