This classic oatmeal bread machine recipe is perfect for great tasting lunch sandwiches… and oatmeal bread adds some healthy oatmeal into your family’s diet. Because this recipe does not contain any overpowering spices, this classic oatmeal bread can be used for huge variety of lunch sandwiches such as ham & cheese sandwiches, chicken salad sandwiches, roast beef sandwiches, etc. Also since you are using a bread machine, this oatmeal bread recipe is extremely easy to make for your family’s lunches!
Oatmeal Bread Machine Recipe – Old Fashioned Goodness!
Oatmeal tastes great and is supposed to have many health benefits. According to WebMD, “Oatmeal’s most enduring claim to fame is its proven ability to curb bad (LDL) cholesterol. Chalk that up to a type of soluble fiber called beta glucan… The fiber in oatmeal also helps you feel full and eat less later on during the day. Fiber also eases constipation and helps control blood sugars”. This is definitely the type of sandwich bread to make for your family if you are trying to add some good old fashioned natural fiber into their diet.
Since this bread recipe is done in a bread machine, it is simple & easy to make. It should take you only 5 minutes or so to prepare and then you let the bread machine do the rest of the work. For more great recipes, please visit Bread Dad’s main Bread Machine Recipes section. Bread Dad also has a printable and “pin-able” recipe at the bottom of the page. If you like this recipe, we hope you will leave a comment below and give us a 5 star rating. Thanks!
Key Ingredient – Old Fashioned Oat Flakes
Ingredients – Bread Machine Oatmeal Bread Recipe – 2 lb Bread Loaf
- 1 1/2 Cups – Milk (lukewarm) – 345 milliliters
- 4 Tablespoons – Unsalted Butter (sliced & softened) – 57 grams
- 3 Cups – Bread Flour – 360 grams
- 1 Cup – Old Fashioned Oatmeal (oat flakes) – 90 grams
- 1/3 Cup – Light Brown Sugar (packed) – 72 grams – If you prefer non-sweet oatmeal breads, you should use only 2 tablespoons of brown sugar.
- 1 1/2 Teaspoons – Salt – 7.5 milliliters
- 1 1/2 Teaspoons – Bread Machine Yeast – 7.5 milliliters
Ingredients – Bread Machine Oatmeal Bread Recipe – 1.5 lb Bread Loaf
- 1 1/8 Cups – Milk (lukewarm) – 259 milliliters – 1 1/8 cups of milk is equivalent to 1 cup and 2 tablespoons of milk
- 3 Tablespoons – Unsalted Butter (sliced & softened) – 43 grams
- 2 1/4 Cups – Bread Flour – 270 grams
- 3/4 Cup – Old Fashioned Oatmeal (oat flakes) – 68 grams
- 1/4 Cup – Light Brown Sugar (packed) – 54 grams – If you prefer non-sweet oatmeal breads, you should use only 1 tablespoon of brown sugar.
- 1 Teaspoon – Salt – 5 milliliters
- 1 Teaspoon – Bread Machine Yeast – 5 milliliters
Servings – Roughly 12 slices
- Equipment used for this recipe – Measuring cup & spoons, flexible spatula, oven mitts, cooling rack… and of course, a bread machine!
- If you are missing anything, please visit Bread Dad’s bread making tools, ingredients or cookbook sections.
Oatmeal Flakes Sprinkled on Dough after Kneading Completed
Instructions – Bread Machine Oatmeal Bread Recipe
- For a 2 lb loaf, please use the 2 lb ingredient list and set the bread machine settings to 2 pound loaf, light color and “basic” bread options. For a 1.5 lb loaf, please use the 1.5 lb ingredient list and set the bread machine settings to 1.5 pound loaf, light color and “basic” bread options. FYI – Make sure not to confuse the 1.5 lb & 2 lb ingredient amounts and machine settings!
- Unplug the bread machine & then remove the bread pan.
- Add all ingredients starting with the milk into the bread machine “bucket” (loaf pan). Make sure the yeast is last and does not touch the milk or salt. Some people like to make a small “divot” on top of the flour in order to hold the yeast in one spot before the machine starts.
- Place the bread pan (with ingredients) back into the bread machine.
- Plug in bread machine. Enter the correct settings (for either 1.5 lb or 2 lb loaf version) and press the “start” button.
- Optional – After the bread machine has finished kneading and before the baking cycle commences, sprinkle some old fashioned oatmeal flakes on top of the bread dough.
- When the bread machine has finished baking the bread, unplug the bread machine. Remove the bread and place it on a cooling rack. Use oven mitts when removing the bread machine container (bread loaf pan) as it will be very hot!
- In our Sunbeam bread machine, the baking takes about 3 hours for a 2 pound bread loaf (and 2:53 hours for a 1.5 lb bread loaf) at the light color & basic bread settings. However, some machines can differ and you don’t want to be away from home when the bread machine “finished” alarm goes off! Your bread machine should show you the length of the baking time after you have entered the settings into the machine. This will allow you to know when to be in the kitchen in order to remove the bread.
- Before using your bread machine, you should read the bread machine manufacturer’s instructions in order to use the bread machine effectively and safely.
If you liked this recipe, please leave a comment below & give us a 5 star rating. The comment section is located at the bottom of this page. Your comments help us to improve & clarify our recipe instructions. Moreover, it is ALWAYS fantastic to hear from someone who has enjoyed our recipes!!
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Tips – Bread Machine Oatmeal Bread Recipe
- The tips below are designed to help bread machine “novices” and those who haven’t touched their bread machine in years.
- Make sure not to confuse the 1.5 lb & 2 lb ingredient amounts and bread machine settings when making your bread! I have… cough, cough… made this mistake before!
- To make this bread look more “authentic”, I like to sprinkle some old fashioned oatmeal flakes on the top of the dough after the bread machine has finished its final kneading cycle. I use old fashioned oatmeal (versus instant oatmeal) in order to get large oatmeal flakes. Of course, for safety, I wear oven mitts & don’t put my hands inside the bread machine.
- If this oatmeal bread is too plain for your family, you can add some dried fruit such as raisins, dried cranberries, dried blueberries, etc.
- This oatmeal bread recipe uses plain “old fashioned” oat flakes (oatmeal) because they are less processed & have larger flakes than “one minute” or instant oats. However, you can use unflavored one minute/instant oats (oatmeal) as a substitute if you are out of old fashioned oat flakes.
- FYI – I usually use Quaker Oats Old Fashioned Oats (oat flakes) to make this recipe. However, there are also many lower cost supermarket old fashioned oat flakes brands too.
- If you want to make this recipe but without the bread machine mixing paddle “hole” in the bottom of the bread, you should try our Oatmeal Bread (Instant Yeast) recipe. It uses a bread machine to make the dough and then you finish the oatmeal bread in your oven.
- If you have a smaller bread machine, you should try the recipe for 1.5 lb version first. A 2 lb bread loaf can be too big for a small bread machine. If you are uncertain about your bread machine “loaf capacity”, please start with the 1.5 lb version.
- When adding the yeast, it should be placed in a position that is separate from the salt (i.e. placed on opposite sides of the bread pan). Close contact with salt can kill or slow the growth of the yeast. I like to make a small “divot” on top of the flour in order to hold the yeast (separate from the salt) before the bread machine starts mixing the ingredients.
- This recipe uses bread flour. Not whole wheat flour. If you use whole wheat flour, the bread is likely to have problems rising properly.
- The main problem with using regular milk is that people tend to use cold refrigerated milk and this can slow the yeast growth. Try to use warm milk (or instant powdered milk mixed into warm water). However, you should also be aware that the milk/water should not be too hot because very hot milk/water can kill the yeast.
- You should use dry oatmeal to make this bread (don’t use already cooked/boiled oatmeal). Boiled oatmeal has varying amounts of moisture and could mess up the recipe. If you use boiled oatmeal, the bread might have too much liquid (versus what is called for in the recipe) and come out undercooked.
- Once you have mastered basic bread machine bread recipes (like this bread), you might like to try some more advanced bread machine bread recipes (i.e. French bread or Italian bread). In these recipes, the bread machine will still do the hard work of kneading the dough but you will have to shape the bread by hand.
- According to Wikipedia, “In a 100-gram (3 1⁄2-ounce) serving, oats provide 1,630 kilojoules (389 kilocalories) of food energy and are a rich source (20% or more of the Daily Value, DV) of protein (34% DV), dietary fiber (44% DV), several B vitamins and numerous dietary minerals”.
- If you have a problem with a bread machine recipe, please make sure that you are following the recipe exactly (i.e. using the correct bread machine settings), you are using the correct amount of an ingredient (i.e. don’t eyeball the measurements versus using a measurement cup or accidentally add a teaspoon when a tablespoon is called for), you are using the correct ingredients (i.e. bread machine yeast versus regular yeast or bread flour versus all purpose flour), etc. Please don’t “wing” things with recipes.
- If you start substituting ingredients (i.e. different types of flour), you are experimenting and should not expect similar results to the recipe shown above. Experimenting can be fun. However, you should expect some successes but more potential disappointments when you start to experiment with recipes. For example, if you substitute whole wheat flour for the bread flour, you will probably experience a problem (as whole wheat flour doesn’t rise nearly as well as bread flour). Moreover, whole wheat flour has a totally different flavor.
- Be aware that some bread recipes may differ slightly between different types of bread machines. Therefore, please read your bread machine manufacturer’s instructions for basic bread recipes (i.e. white bread or whole wheat bread) as these are more likely to work on your individual bread machine.
- If you haven’t used your bread machine in a long time, please buy some new bread machine yeast before making your bread. Old yeast can die or lose its potency and this will lead to bread that does not rise properly. Bread machine yeast may not be viable if it has been sitting in your pantry for years.
- You also can visit our instructional videos section if you want to watch videos that provide information on common bread machine and bread making problems & solutions.
- My recipes are based on US ingredient measurements (i.e. US cups & tablespoons). However, as a courtesy to our European visitors, I have also included some very ROUGH European equivalents (i.e. grams & milliliters). Since I rarely use European measurements when baking, please let me know in the comment section below if any of the European ingredient measurements need to be changed (i.e. for XYZ ingredient, milliliters are more commonly used versus the grams information listed in the recipe).
- Always wear oven mitts/gloves when dealing with a bread machine. The bread pan and the rest of the bread machine can get very hot during the baking process. This means that the bread pan and bread machine is likely to be very hot when you attempt to remove a baked good from the bread machine and/or bread pan.
- Visit Bread Dad’s sections for Bread Machine Recipes and Homemade Bread Recipes for more easy bread ideas.
If you liked this recipe, please leave a comment below & give us a 5 star rating. The comment section is located at the bottom of this page. Your comments help us to improve & clarify our recipe instructions. Moreover, it is ALWAYS fantastic to hear from someone who has enjoyed our recipes!!
Reference Sources
- Wikipedia, Bread Machine, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_machine
- Wikipedia, Oat, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oat
- Wikipedia, Oatmeal, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oatmeal
Oatmeal Bread Questions
Can bread be made from oatmeal?
Oatmeal bread is generally not made completely from oatmeal. It is often a mixture of wheat-based flour (usually bread flour) and oatmeal. Most oatmeal bread recipes use more wheat-based flour than oatmeal (i.e. 3 cups of bread flour and 1 cup of oatmeal). Bakers use more bread flour because it contains gluten protein and this enables the bread to rise during the yeast fermentation process. This helps to create a taller & fluffier bread. In contrast, oat flakes & oatmeal have very little or no gluten and thus do not rise. This inability to rise limits the amount of oatmeal used in many bread recipes. Oatmeal is often added to a bread recipe in order to provide healthy oat fiber.
Is oatmeal bread better?
Oatmeal bread tends to provide more healthy fiber than regular white bread. Other health benefits from oatmeal supposedly include the ability to lower LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol), reduce constipation (due to the extra fiber), etc. Finally, in my opinion, homemade oatmeal bread tastes far better than boring store packaged white bread.
For more information on the benefits of oatmeal, please read this WebMD article.
Does oatmeal have fiber?
Oatmeal is a good source of soluble fiber. According to the FDA, soluble fiber “can help lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL or “bad”) cholesterol levels in the blood”. In contrast, whole wheat provides more insoluble fiber. Insoluble fiber doesn’t break down significantly and thus helps everything in the digestive tract “move along”. This means insoluble fiber is good for issues such as constipation. If you are looking for more insoluble fiber, you should try our bread machine whole wheat bread recipe.
For more on oats & soluble fiber, you should read this Wikipedia article. You can also read this WebMD article called Soluble and Insoluble Fiber: What’s the Difference.
What is the difference between oats and oatmeal?
The difference between oats and oatmeal is the processing. Oats are the unprocessed seeds of a cereal grain plant known as the oat plant or common oat. In contrast, oatmeal is made from processed oats where the oat seeds have been ground, steel-cut or rolled. However, due to marketing purposes, oats and oatmeal are often used interchangeably. You can find different types of oatmeal called instant oats, rolled oats, steel-cut oats, Irish oats, etc. Confusing but if the oats have been processed, the product is an oatmeal (regardless of the branding name).
Can I make bread machine oatmeal bread with all-purpose flour?
You can use all-purpose flour to make bread machine oatmeal bread. However, all-purpose flour doesn’t have as much gluten as bread flour. Gluten helps to trap the carbon dioxide released by the yeast. Therefore, bread flour rises better than all-purpose flour and creates a chewier bread. However, if you are out of bread flour and can’t get to the store, you can use all-purpose flour instead. An oatmeal bread made with all-purpose flour should be a decent substitute… just not as good as an oatmeal bread created with bread flour.
For more on the differences between various types of flour, you should read this Wikipedia article.
Can I make this bread machine oatmeal bread without butter?
Yes, you can make bread machine oatmeal bread without butter. Some people like to make “no butter” breads because they have run out of butter or they are trying to reduce the saturated fat in their diet.
You just need to substitute vegetable oil for the butter in this recipe. They are almost equal substitutes. For example, 1 tablespoon of butter equals 3/4 to 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil (depending on the vegetable oil that you use). In addition, when making no butter oatmeal bread, you might want to consider using a neutral flavored vegetable oil (i.e. corn or canola oil) versus a stronger flavored vegetable oil. However, while the oatmeal bread made with vegetable oil will be okay, it will lack the delicious buttery taste of the recipe above.
Bread Machine – Oatmeal Bread Recipe
Ingredients
Ingredient List for a 2 lb Loaf – Oatmeal Bread
- 1 1/2 Cups Milk (lukewarm)
- 4 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter (sliced & softened)
- 3 Cups Bread Flour
- 1 Cup Old Fashioned Oatmeal (oat flakes)
- 1/3 Cup Light Brown Sugar (packed) – If you prefer non-sweet oatmeal breads, you should use only 2 tablespoons of brown sugar.
- 1 1/2 Teaspoons Salt
- 1 1/2 Teaspoons Bread Machine Yeast
Ingredient List for a 1.5 lb Loaf – Oatmeal Bread
- 1 1/8 Cups Milk (lukewarm)
- 3 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter (sliced & softened)
- 2 1/4 Cups Bread Flour
- 3/4 Cup Old Fashioned Oatmeal (oat flakes)
- 1/4 Cup Light Brown Sugar (packed) – If you prefer non-sweet oatmeal breads, you should use only 1 tablespoon of brown sugar.
- 1 Teaspoon Salt
- 1 Teaspoon Bread Machine Yeast
Instructions
- For a 2 lb loaf, please use the 2 lb ingredient list and set the bread machine settings to 2 pound loaf, light color and “basic” bread options. For a 1.5 lb loaf, please use the 1.5 lb ingredient list and set the bread machine settings to 1.5 pound loaf, light color and “basic” bread options. FYI – Make sure not to confuse the 1.5 lb & 2 lb ingredient amounts and machine settings!
- Unplug the bread machine & then remove the bread pan.
- Add all ingredients starting with the milk into the bread machine “bucket” (loaf pan). Make sure the yeast is last and does not touch the milk or salt. Some people like to make a small "divot" on top of the flour in order to hold the yeast in one spot before the machine starts.
- Place the bread pan (with ingredients) back into the bread machine.
- Plug in bread machine. Enter the correct settings (for either 1.5 lb or 2 lb loaf version) and press the "start" button.
- Optional – After the bread machine has finished kneading and before the baking cycle commences, sprinkle some old fashioned oatmeal flakes on top of the bread dough.
- When the bread machine has finished baking the bread, unplug the bread machine. Remove the bread and place it on a cooling rack. Use oven mitts when removing the bread machine container (bread loaf pan) as it will be very hot!
- In our Sunbeam bread machine, the baking takes about 3 hours for a 2 pound bread loaf (and 2:53 hours for a 1.5 lb bread loaf) at the light color & basic bread settings. However, some machines can differ and you don’t want to be away from home when the bread machine “finished” alarm goes off! Your bread machine should show you the length of the baking time after you have entered the settings into the machine. This will allow you to know when to be in the kitchen in order to remove the bread.
- Before using your bread machine, you should read the bread machine manufacturer’s instructions in order to use the bread machine effectively and safely.
Notes
Nutrition
If you liked this recipe, please leave a comment below & give us a 5 star rating. Your comments really help us to improve & clarify our recipe instructions. Beginning bakers also learn a lot from your baking suggestions, ideas & recipe variations. We also love to hear from people who have enjoyed our recipes!!!
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