This is a lean yeasted loaf rather than a sourdough, despite the name. Milk carries the fat, oats and nuts carry the texture, and the dough gets a half hour of cold rest before kneading so the flour takes up the liquid evenly. It makes two large loaves from one bowl.
Chinese · Bread
Oat and Nut Milk Bread With a Cold Rest Before Shaping
A soft, barely sweet loaf built on milk, muesli and black sesame, given half an hour in the fridge so the flour hydrates before the dough is worked.
- Prep25 min
- Cook20 min
- Serves8
- LevelEasy
Ingredients
| 500 g | bread flour |
| 5 g | instant yeast |
| 50 g | caster sugar |
| 300 ml | whole milk , at room temperature |
| 50 g | nut and fruit muesli |
| 10 g | black sesame seeds |
| 1 | egg |
| 60 g | mixed nuts , roughly chopped |
Method
- Stir the yeast and sugar into the room temperature milk and leave for five minutes, until the surface looks foamy.
- Add the egg, the muesli and the flour all at once and mix with chopsticks until no dry flour is left. The dough should feel soft and slightly tacky; add a spoonful of water if it fights the chopsticks.
- Add the chopped nuts and the sesame seeds and fold the dough over itself repeatedly until they are spread through it rather than sitting in one lump.
- Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes, then take it out and knead for a few minutes until the surface smooths out.
- Leave at room temperature until doubled, then punch it down and divide into two pieces.
- Shape each piece into a large oval and set them on a lined tray to proof again while the oven heats.
- Slash the tops with a blade, cutting about a centimetre deep at a shallow angle.
- Bake at 250 to 280 C for 15 to 20 minutes, turning the tray once if your oven runs uneven at the back.
- Cool on a rack before slicing, or the crumb will tear.
Notes
- The 30 minute cold rest is the step worth keeping. It hydrates the flour and shortens kneading, and the dough is far less sticky when it comes out.
- The source bakes at 250 to 280 C, which is much hotter than most bread recipes. Watch the loaves from 12 minutes and cover the tops with foil if the crust darkens before the middle sets.
- Swap the muesli for plain rolled oats and add 20 g more sugar if you want a sweeter breakfast loaf.
Ratios and technique checked against Cshuh on Douguo (燕麦坚果欧包). The method here is written by Stellaok; the photograph is the source kitchen's, credited on the image above and linked back to the page it came from. No recipe text is reproduced.