Sunflower Oat Bread has a soft crumb – slightly sweetened with maple syrup – and a tender, chewy crust flecked with sunflower seeds. It’s great for sandwiches, or sliced into thick slabs and slathered with butter to serve alongside soup or just about anything, and it makes amazing toast and French toast.
I like to shape it into three, free-form, vaguely football-shaped loaves, but you can shape it into rounds if you prefer, or use three standard loaves using rectangular loaf pans.
I follow pretty much the same process for mixing the dough no matter what kind of bread I’m making (here’s another example – I’ll be posting more bread recipes soon). I’ve never owned or used a bread machine — the essential tool for me is a stand mixer. If you don’t have a mixer, you can use a wooden spoon to stir the dough until it gets too stiff, then do the rest by hand. And even when using the mixer to do most of the kneading, I always knead by hand for about a minute at the end, just to bring the dough together and get it to the right texture without overdoing it.
After letting the dough rise for an hour and a half in a buttered bowl, divide it into three pieces, shape them into loaves and let them rise again until they’re plump and puffy. Then brush them with egg wash and sprinkle on a little more oatmeal before sliding them into the oven.
They’ll come out glorious: shining, golden and fragrant.
Most bread recipes will tell you to let the loaves cool completely before slicing and serving but I usually can’t stand it. What’s better than soft hot fresh bread? I do try to wait 15 to 30 minutes so the loaf has a chance to firm up a little for better slicing – at that point it will still be warm enough in the center to melt butter. But if you can’t wait even that long, slicing it hot from the oven is allowed.
Making this ahead:
- Sunflower Oat Bread will keep well for 2 or 3 days at room temperature, each loaf individually wrapped in a plastic bread bag.
- To freeze it, wrap each loaf individually in two layers of plastic bread bags. The loaves will keep in the freezer for about a month.
Sunflower Oat Bread
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1 cup warm water (105 to 120 degrees, or the temperature of warm bath water)
- 1½ cups buttermilk
- ½ cup maple syrup
- 1 cup (4 ounces/113 grams) whole wheat flour
- 1 cup (3½ ounces/99 grams) old fashioned rolled oats, plus additional
- 1 cup raw sunflower seeds
- 1 tablespoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt (or 1 1/2 teaspoons Morton's)
- About 7 cups (29¾ ounces/840 grams) all-purpose flour
- 2 large eggs, divided
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream
Directions
- Step 1 Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.
- Step 2 Add the yeast and sugar to the warm water, whisk it well to combine, and set the mixture aside until it’s foamy, about 10 minutes.
- Step 3 When the butter is melted, add the buttermilk and maple syrup to the pot and heat the mixture until it’s warm to the touch but not hot (don’t let it get above 120 degrees). Transfer the warm buttermilk mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.
- Step 4 Add the whole wheat flour, 1 cup of the oats, the sunflower seeds, salt, and 4 cups of all-purpose flour, and mix on the lowest speed to combine them.
- Step 5 Gradually add the yeast mixture with the mixer running on the lowest speed until everything is combined. Add 1 egg and beat for 2 minutes.
- Step 6 Switch to the dough hook and gradually add 2 cups of flour, ½ cup at a time, waiting until each addition is almost entirely incorporated until adding the next.
- Step 7 Now start adding the flour more slowly, a tablespoon or two at a time. Soon the dough will start to form a loose ball and pull away from the sides of the bowl. Keep adding flour slowly, dribbling in a tablespoon or 2 at a time while the machine runs continually.
- Step 8 Once the dough starts to form a more distinct ball and clean the sides of the bowl (pulling the stuck-on bits of dough off the bowl and onto the dough), stop adding flour, and let the machine run for 1 minute.
- Step 9 The dough will lose its shape again, spreading out and softening. Start again to add flour, 1 or 2 tablespoons at a time, just until the dough returns to a ball and starts pulling away from the sides of the bowl again. The dough will still be very soft and sticky.
- Step 10 Turn the dough out onto a floured board. It will look craggy. Knead the dough briefly by hand, adding a little more flour just to keep the dough from clinging to your hands or the board. When you’re done, the dough will still be soft and slightly sticky.
- Step 11 Butter a very large bowl and put the dough in the bowl, turning it a few times to coat all sides of the dough with butter. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise until it’s doubled in volume and puffy. Test it by poking the dough with your finger. If the hole your finger left doesn’t close up, it’s risen enough. At average room temperature, the rise should take about 1½ hours.
- Step 12 Line a large baking sheet with parchment, or generously butter 3 loaf pans. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board and divide it into 3 equal pieces. Form each piece into an elongated oval and put the loaves on the sheet pan, evenly spaced, or fit them gently into the loaf pans. Lightly oil a piece of plastic wrap and place it, oiled side down, over the loaves, then cover that with a kitchen towel. Let the dough rise for 30 minutes until the loaves are puffy. Heat the oven to 375 degrees with a rack in the center position.
- Step 13 Crack the second egg into a small bowl, add the cream, and mix with a fork until blended. Gently brush the loaves with the egg wash and sprinkle the tops with a small dusting of oats.
- Step 14 Bake the loaves for 40 minutes. When done, the loaves will be deep golden brown, and they will have expanded to fill the sheet and stick to each other. Gently remove the loaves from the sheet pan or loaf pans and transfer them to a rack. Ideally, allow them to cool for 30 minutes before slicing.
