Oatmeal Bread Recipe (Sandwich Bread)

This oatmeal sandwich bread recipe uses instant yeast to make a delicious sandwich bread. Your family will love this homemade bread. This recipe is easy to make and utilizes simple ingredients such as oat flakes, flour and brown sugar. You will use instant yeast (or bread machine yeast) to create the dough with your bread machine or electric mixer and then you will finish the oatmeal bread by baking it in your oven. This results in a classic oatmeal bread that tastes great, looks fantastic and fills your home with the aroma of fresh baked bread.

Delicious Oatmeal Bread!

Some key advantages – Since this oatmeal sandwich bread recipe uses instant yeast or bread machine yeast (and not active dry yeast), it is quicker to make because there is no need to spend time pre-“activating” the yeast in a liquid. You just add the instant yeast (or bread machine yeast) in with the dry ingredients. Moreover, this recipe helps bread machine users to avoid the dreaded “mixing paddle” hole in the bottom of their bread machine bread. Furthermore, since this oatmeal bread is oven-baked in a bread pan, you will get a beautiful traditional shaped bread loaf and not the standard bread machine “block shaped” bread.

Key Ingredient – Old Fashioned Oat Flakes

Ingredients – Oatmeal Sandwich Bread

•  1 1/3 Cups – Milk (lukewarm) – 307 milliliters
• 4 Tablespoons – Unsalted Butter (softened) – 57 grams
• 3 Cups – Bread Flour – 360 grams
• 1 Cup – Old Fashioned Oatmeal (oat flakes) – 90 grams – Do not pre-moisten oats. Use DRY oat flakes.
• 1/3 Cup – Light Brown Sugar (packed cup) – 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 – Instant Yeast – 7.5 milliliters – Not active dry yeast

Servings – Roughly 18 slices

Equipment – Measuring cup & spoons, flexible spatula, cutting board, 9 x 5 bread pan, oven mitts, oven, wire cooling rack and a kneading machine to make the dough (either a bread machine or electric stand mixer with dough hook).

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Dough & Oat Flakes

Instructions

• Creating dough with bread machine
• Or Creating dough with electric stand mixer & dough hook
• Shaping dough & baking bread in oven

FYI – These detailed instructions are designed to help beginners.

Instructions – Creating Dough with a Bread Machine

• Your bread machine should be unplugged.
• Remove the bread pan from the bread machine (so when you add the ingredients, they can not accidentally spill into the machine).
• Pour the milk into the bread pan and then add the other ingredients. Place the instant yeast (bread machine yeast) in last and the yeast should not touch the liquid (until the bread machine is turned on and the ingredients start to be mixed together by the bread machine). Some bakers like to make a small indent on top of the flour to prevent the yeast from spilling into the liquids or mixing with the salt before the machine is turned on.
• Put the bread pan with ingredients back into unplugged bread machine.
• Plug in bread machine. Enter the “Dough” setting on your bread machine and then press the “Start” button.
• When the bread machine has finished making the bread dough, unplug the bread machine.
• Remove the bread pan from the bread machine.
• Now go to the instruction section below on “preparing the dough & baking the bread”. FYI – Ignore the instructions for the electric stand mixer below if you are using a bread machine to make your dough. Skip down to the preparing dough section.

Instructions – Creating Dough with an Electric Stand Mixer with Dough Hook

• Your electric mixer should be unplugged.
• Remove the mixing bowl from the electric mixer.
• Insert a dough hook into the electric mixer.
• Pour the milk into the mixing bowl and then add the other ingredients. Place the instant yeast in last and the yeast should not touch the liquid (until the electric mixer is turned on and the ingredients start to be mixed together). Some bakers like to make a small indent on top of the flour to prevent the yeast from spilling into the liquids or mixing with the salt before the machine is turned on.
• Place the mixing bowl back into the electric stand mixer.
• Plug in the electric mixer and use a low speed to mix the dough. Mix the dough for 8-10 minutes.
• Turn off the electric mixer and unplug machine.
• Remove the mixing bowl from the electric mixer. Pour the dough into a second large mixing bowl that has been lightly “greased” with olive oil, melted butter, cooking spray, etc.
• Optional – Lightly coat the top of dough with vegetable oil in order to prevent dough exterior from drying out.
• Loosely cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for 60-90 minutes.
• After the dough has risen, go to the instruction section below on “preparing the dough & baking the bread”.

Dough in a Bread Pan

Instructions – Shaping the Dough & Baking the Bread

• Preheat the oven to 350 F.
• Sprinkle a little bit of flour onto a large cutting board.
• Remove the dough from the bread pan or mixing bowl and place the dough on the cutting board.
• Press down on the dough with your hands and create a “flattish” rectangle with the dough. The dough should be roughly 1 inch high. FYI – You want to squeeze out any large yeast “bubbles” from the dough during this stage or they will become too large during the second rise. The yeast bubbles will return during the second rising of the dough.
• Roll up the dough into a tight “jelly roll”. FYI – Please see the short instructional videos in the tips section below for more information on how to shape the dough if you haven’t shaped bread dough before. It is easier to watch & learn from these short videos versus trying to explain the rolling technique step by step.
• Place the rolled up dough into the bread pan.
• Press down heavily on top of the dough so the edges of the dough press out towards the sides of the bread pan. This should result in little or no gaps between the dough and the bread pan. This helps the bread to turn into a nice loaf shape without any misshapen edges. Make sure that the top of the pressed down dough is roughly level (so one side isn’t much higher than the other). FYI – Again you want to squeeze out any remaining large bubbles in the dough during this stage or they will become too large during the second rise.
• Lightly coat the top of dough with vegetable oil in order to prevent dough exterior from drying out.
• Loosely cover the top of the bread pan with plastic wrap. Set the covered bread pan aside for 60-90 minutes for the dough to rise into a loaf shape. Once the dough has risen 1 – 1.5 inches (2.5 – 3.8 cm) above the rim of the bread pan, the dough should be ready to be placed in the oven. FYI – You want the dough to fully rise during this stage. So don’t try to shorten this rising time. If the dough is still significantly rising while in the oven, you are more likely to see crust/seam cracks or “bursts” in the oven. In addition, the speed of the dough rise will vary in part based on the temperature of your kitchen (i.e. rise faster in the summer & slower in the winter).
• Optional (just before placing the dough in the oven) – If you want to create a more “authentic” oatmeal bread exterior appearance, you can brush a small amount of egg white on the top of the dough with a pastry brush. Then sprinkle some oat flakes on the top of the dough (which will be sticky due to the egg white). This will add a more “oaty” appearance to the bread top.
• Place the bread pan in the (preheated) oven to bake at 350 F for 37-42 minutes. Wear oven mitts when dealing with a hot oven. Place the bread pan in the middle of the oven.
• Rotate the bread pan in the oven after 15-20 minutes (in order to ensure an even browning of the bread). Wear oven mitts.
• After the 37-42 minute baking period has finished, remove the bread pan from the oven. Wear oven mitts.
• Remove the bread from bread pan and place the bread on a wire cooling rack. Wear oven mitts.
• Optional – If you did not place oat flakes on top of your dough, you can use a pastry brush to brush melted butter on top of the bread. This should be done right after you have removed the bread from the bread pan. This butter “basting” helps to create a more golden & tasty crust.
• Allow the oatmeal bread to cool down on the wire cooling rack for 1-2 hours before cutting the bread.
• Please read the tips section below for extra information on how to make this recipe successfully.

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Tips – Oatmeal Sandwich Bread

• The tips below are designed to help baking & bread making “novices”.
• Click on our “print recipe” link if you want to print out this recipe. It includes all of the recipe’s ingredients and instructions. However, the recipe print function does not include our tips section. Please read the tips section in order to avoid common bread making problems.
• This oatmeal sandwich bread recipe is the “oven baked” variation of our very popular Bread Machine Oatmeal Bread recipe. For the instant yeast bread recipe on this page, you will create the dough in your bread machine (or electric mixer) and bake the bread IN THE OVEN (thus no bread machine mixing paddle hole in the bottom of the bread). In contrast, our bread machine oatmeal bread recipe makes the dough in the bread machine and bakes the bread IN THE BREAD MACHINE.
• This instant yeast 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.

• Do NOT pre-moisten the oat flakes. They should be added dry to this oatmeal sandwich bread recipe. The oat flakes will moisten over time as the ingredients are mixed together & the dough is kneaded. If you add “wet” oatmeal, you will be adding too much moisture to this recipe.
• Optional – To add oat flakes to the exterior of your baked bread, you will need to brush on some egg white on the dough. This will act as a sticky “glue” to hold the oat flakes on top of the bread.
• Optional – If I do not use oat flakes on the exterior of the oatmeal bread, I like to “baste” my bread by brushing melted butter onto the bread crust (right after I have removed the bread from the bread pan and placed it on the wire cooling rack). This helps to create a buttery top and adds a nice golden color to the crust.
• This slightly sweet bread also makes a great oatmeal toast bread for breakfast.
• Optional – Try our Oat Nut Bread if you want to eat an oat bread with a little extra “crunch”! Made with chopped walnuts. Or check out our Honey Oat Bread if you want to use honey instead of processed sugar.

• According to Wikipedia, “Oats contain diverse essential nutrients. 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, especially manganese (233% DV)”.
• In terms of dietary fiber, oats are a good source of soluble fiber. In contrast, insoluble fiber is found in greater abundance in whole wheat. If you want to learn more about soluble & insoluble fiber, you should read this Wikipedia article on dietary fiber.
• This oatmeal sandwich bread recipe uses instant yeast or bread machine yeast. It does NOT use active dry yeast.
• Active dry yeast is different from instant yeast & bread machine yeast. Instant yeast & bread machine yeast are added directly to the recipe’s ingredients. In contrast, active dry yeast must be activated in water/milk before being added to a recipe’s ingredients. Many bakers find it quicker to use instant yeast because you just add it to the dry ingredients. With active dry yeast, you need to spend roughly 10 minutes “proofing” (activating) the yeast with a liquid & sugar.
• If you are looking for other bread recipes where you can make the dough in your bread machine and bake it in your oven, you should try our recipes for buttery White Bread, Buttermilk Bread (a soft white bread), Cranberry Walnut Bread, Flaxseed Bread and Multigrain Bread.

• I decided to make this oatmeal bread recipe without active dry yeast because many bread machine users & novice bakers only have bread machine yeast or instant yeast at home. Moreover, there are plenty of good recipes for oatmeal bread with active dry yeast but not so many oatmeal bread recipes with instant yeast.
• This instant yeast bread recipe is also designed to help bread machine users if they wanted to finish a bread in their oven (versus in their bread machine). For example, this recipe allows bread machine users to create an oatmeal bread without the standard bread machine mixing paddle “hole” in the bottom of the bread. It also allows bread machine users to create a “normal” shaped bread loaf (i.e. 9 x 5) versus the usual bread machine shaped bread “block”.
• You can use all-purpose flour to make oatmeal sandwich bread. However, I would strongly recommend that you use bread flour when making homemade oatmeal bread. Bread flour has more gluten than all purpose flour and this means that bread flour has a greater ability to capture the carbon dioxide put out by the yeast. In turn, this means that homemade oatmeal bread made with bread flour is airier & fluffier than bread made with all purpose flour.

• Optional – If you want to add some variety to your oatmeal bread, you can add a 1/2 cup of raisins, dried cranberries or dried blueberries to the dough.
• Don’t use cold milk because that will inhibit the growth of the yeast. If you use cold milk, your bread may have trouble rising properly. The milk should be lukewarm in temperature. Of course, you should not make the milk too hot because the bread yeast can be killed by high temperatures.
• This oatmeal bread recipe uses LIGHT brown sugar because it adds a richer flavor to the bread. I would suggest not using dark brown sugar because the flavor of dark brown sugar can be a little overpowering for some people.

• You want to create a tight “jelly roll” with your dough in order to squeeze out large yeast bubbles before the second rising of the dough. If you are having problems shaping your dough, you should watch the following instructional videos:
• King Arthur Baking
• San Diego Artisan Bread School
• Father Dominic – a slightly different method versus the videos above

• How do you know when the dough has risen enough in the second rise (when the dough is in the bread pan)? After letting the dough rise for 60-90 minutes (and when it is roughly 1-1.1.5 inches above the 9×5 bread pan), you can try the “poke test“. Poke your finger into the dough (going in about an inch). If the poke hole rebounds immediately, you need to allow more time for the dough to rise further (it is “under proofed”). If the hole doesn’t come back at all, the dough has risen too much (it is “over proofed”). If the hole slowly fills over 2-3 seconds, the dough is at the right stage of proofing.
• Unfortunately, the temperature of your kitchen can make the timing for this perfect poke result hard to predict (because there is a faster dough rise in hot kitchens and a slower rise in cold kitchens). Experience with “proofing” will make this easier (but it can be a problem for beginning bakers).
• FYI – If the dough is “under proofed” (hasn’t risen enough) when you place it in the oven, the bread is more likely to burst/crack when baked in the oven (as the still rising dough will push against the hardening crust and “burst” at the seams of the crust). Bakers try to get around this issue via testing for the right “proofing” level (i.e. use the poke test), “scoring” breads (slicing the top of the dough so the cracks occur where you want them), adding moisture inside the oven (so the dough doesn’t harden as quickly), using a dutch oven (in order to trap the dough moisture inside the dutch oven container & not spread out into the oven), etc.
• If your dough is “over proofed”, you might like to read the King Arthur Baking article “How to save over-proofed dough” as it gives tips on how to save the dough.
• For more information on dough proofing, please read this MasterClass article “Baking 101: What Is Proofing?“.

• Cooler home temperatures in the winter can cause rising problems for bread dough. Ideally, your room temperature should be around 75-80 degrees F. Colder winter room temperatures can significantly delay the rise of the dough. You will need to raise the temperature of your kitchen (if you like a cold house in the winter) or find a warm spot for the dough to rise. I often put my dough (covered of course) next to a heating vent in the winter to make sure it is getting enough heat.
• Conversely, dough can rise faster than expected in a very hot kitchen.
• Kitchen humidity can also impact a recipe. A winter kitchen tends to be drier due to your heating system drying out the air. In contrast, a kitchen in the summer can be much more humid. This change in humidity impacts baking as flour can soak up humidity from the air. Therefore, you might have to add 1-2 teaspoons of liquid in the winter if the dough is looking too dry. Or you might have to add 1-2 teaspoons of flour in the summer if the dough is looking too wet. If your kitchen is very dry or humid, you might have to add even a little more (but start with 1 teaspoon at a time until you achieve the right consistency).
• Of course, excessive kitchen humidity or dryness can impact a recipe at any time during the year (not just in the summer & winter)!

• This oatmeal sandwich bread is based on using either a bread machine or electric stand mixer with dough hook in order to make the dough. A bread machine is great for single loaves (or if you don’t have room in the kitchen for a large mixer). In contrast, a large electric stand mixer with dough hook is probably better if you want to create larger amounts of dough (i.e. dough to make 2+ bread loaves at the same time). The capacity for most bread machines is generally smaller than the capacity of the mixing bowl included with a large electric stand mixer.
• If you like, you can knead the dough by hand. However, kneading dough by hand for 10-15 minutes is too much work for me!!! I prefer the bread machine or electric mixer to do the hard stuff.
• The second rising of the dough (where the dough sits in the bread pan for 60+ minutes) helps to reduce the potential of the bread top to crack. If you do not let the dough rise a second time, the top of your bread is more likely to burst or split in the oven (because the interior dough will continue rise while the exterior crust is hardening due to the oven heat). Don’t cheat and skip this second rising due to the lack of time.

• The flattening & shaping of the dough, creating the tight “jelly roll” and the press down of the dough in the bread pan is the “punch down” phase. Be aggressive with this punch down phase. You want to squeeze out large yeast CO2 “bubbles” from the dough during this stage or they will become too large during the second rise. The yeast bubbles will return during the second 60-90 minute rising of the dough.
• If you don’t do this punch down phase, your bread will have large air pockets (trapped bubbles produced by the yeast). Large air pockets are fine for ciabatta-type breads but not ideal for sandwich bread.
• Large bubbles in the dough could also lead to partial bread collapses during the baking process (due to less structural integrity – more bubble and less bread in certain areas).
• This recipe calls for the use of a 9 x 5 inch bread pan. If you use a 8.5 x 4.5 inch bread pan, the “crown” of the bread might come out too tall (or overflow) if your yeast is very active.
• Recommended – Use a digital bread thermometer to test if your bread is completely done. The interior temperature of the bread should be 190-200 degrees F. This inexpensive tool can save you from underbaked breads.
• Also consider using an oven thermometer as your expected oven temperature may be different than reality. Some ovens can be 25-50+ degrees F hotter or colder than the number you set with your oven dial. An oven thermometer (which usually costs less than $10) is an easy way to measure the actual temperature inside your oven.

• FYI – The dough setting on bread machines lasts for roughly 1:30-1:50 hours. For example, on my Sunbeam 5891, the dough setting lasts for 1:30 (one hours & 30 minutes). However, on the Zojirushi Breadmaker BB-PAC20, the “regular dough” setting lasts for 1:50. Check your bread machine manual to see how long the dough setting lasts on your particular bread machine model.
• You should let your bread cool down for 1-2 hours on the wire cooling rack before you cut any slices (or the slices will be “gummy” and not taste as good as expected). Excess interior moisture is released (via steam) during the cooldown period.
• Examples of instant yeast that can be used for this oatmeal sandwich bread recipe include Fleischmann’s Bread Machine Yeast, Fleischmann’s Instant Yeast, Saf Instant Yeast, Red Star Instant Yeast, etc. This recipe is not designed for active dry yeasts such as Fleischmann’s Active Dry Yeast, Red Star Active Dry Yeast, etc.

• If you have not made bread in a long time, please buy some new bread machine yeast or instant yeast before making your bread. Old yeast can die or lose its potency and this will lead to bread that does not rise properly. Yeast is not likely to be viable if it has been sitting in your pantry for years.
• Once you have opened the container that contains the yeast, the yeast will last longer if you store the bottle in the refrigerator or freezer. Just make sure the bottle is sealed tight (as yeast will deteriorate quickly if exposed to air, moisture and/or heat).
• Be safe! Always wear oven mitts/gloves when dealing with a oven, bread machine, hot bread pan, etc.
• For many more easy bread recipes, please visit Bread Dad’s main Homemade Bread Recipes or Bread Machine Recipes sections.

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Reference Sources

• Wikipedia, Bread
• Wikipedia, Dough
• Wikipedia, Oatmeal

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