Toasted Oat & Honey Discard Sandwich Bread (Freshly Milled)

Prep Time:10

Cook Time:55

Autolyse and Rising Time:1 50

Total Time:2 55

Servings:16 slices

Calories:152kcal

Equipment

stand mixer - (optional) You can also make this loaf with some extra determination and a longer, intentional knead by hand.
standard bread loaf pan
or pullman bread pan - (a special kind of bread pan with taller sides and a lid)

Ingredients

Autolyse Ingredients

280 g water - 1 cup + 3 tbsp
120 g sourdough discard (fridge cold is okay) - ½ cup
40 g honey - 2 tbsp
490 freshly milled soft wheat or spelt flour (see Notes for swaps) - 3¾ cups

Other Ingredients

10 g salt - 2 tsp
55 g butter (cold and cubed) - ¼ cup
7 g instant yeast - 2¼ tsp (or 1 sachet)

Instructions

Autolyse:

In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine water, starter, honey and fresh flour. Use the paddle attachment to combine the ingredients into a shaggy mass with no dry pockets of flour. Cover and rest for 30 minutes.

Knead the Dough:

Add the salt, butter and yeast and knead with the dough hook until the dough comes together and cleans the sides of the bowl. It doesn’t need to form a perfect window pane, but it should come together into a cohesive, non-sticky ball. (Knead no longer than 10 minutes, or you’ll start breaking down the more fragile gluten network of soft wheat and spelt.) Cover again and rest for 45 minutes.

Prepare Loaf Pan and Worktop:

Generously grease a bread loaf pan with butter and line with parchment paper if necessary. Gently dust your work surface and the top of the dough with a little flour. Keep oats ready.

Shape the Dough:

Carefully pull out the dough into a rough rectangle. Fold in both sides towards the middle, then roll up the dough from the smaller side. Rotate by a quarter turn and roll up from the shorter side again, to create tension on the dough’s surface. Use a spray bottle (or your hands) to wet the surface of the dough carefully. Sprinkle some oats on both sides of the dough and roll it back and forth, until all sides are encrusted with oats. Transfer to the loaf pan, cover and rest for 35 minutes. (The dough may feel very soft after rolling in the oats. That’s fine!)

Bake the Loaf:

Preheat the oven to 220°C (440°F). When the oven is hot and the dough fills most of the pan, spray the top of the dough with water, so the oats don’t burn in the oven. Reduce temperature to 200°C (400°F) and bake for 50-55 minutes, or until it reaches a core temperature of around 90°C (190°F). Remove from the pan and let cool completely before slicing.

Notes

Flour Substitutions

This recipe is written for freshly milled soft wheat, but spelt works beautifully too. No home mill? Use store-bought whole grain spelt, whole wheat pastry flour (U.S.), or any European whole wheat flour.

In Case of Crumbliness

Freshly milled flour can behave differently from one batch of grain to another. If your loaf feels fragile or crumbly towards the middle, try adding one egg to the dough. It improves structure and elasticity and has reliably solved this issue for me.

Vegan / Dairy-Free Swaps

To make this loaf dairy-free, use a good vegan butter or margarine with a fat content around 80%. Refined coconut oil also works, but it’s 100% fat and water-free, so use slightly less. For a vegan loaf, swap honey with raw cane sugar. Same texture, slightly less floral flavor.

Baking Tips

Timing matters: Fresh flour ferments fast! Don’t let the dough overproof in the pan, so check your timer.
Toasty oats, not burnt: Spray the oats with water before baking to keep them from turning too dark. No spray bottle? Wet hands or oven steam (ice cubes on a tray) work too.
Check for doneness: The bottom should sound hollow when tapped. If not, flip on its side, and bake directly on the rack for another 5 minutes.

Author: Sarah | Grains & Greens Kitchen

Calories: 152kcal

Tried this recipe?Let me know how it turned out!