Homemade Swirl Bread

Basic Swirl Bread (1 loaf)
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup uncooked plain oatmeal
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 ½ teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon oil
1 envelope of yeast (2 1/2 teaspoons yeast)
1 1/8 cup warm (NOT HOT) milk (room temp milk is fine)


Make the sponge by combining 1 cup flour, oats, sugar, salt oil, yeast and milk in a large bowl. Mix well. This mixture is called the sponge.

Sponge

Stir in remaining 1 ½ cups of flour.

Dough

Cover with a damp cloth and allow it to rise in a warm draft free place. I usually just leave it on my counter top. Allow the dough to rise until it has doubled in size (about 1 hour).

Risen dough

Once the risen dough, grease 1 loaf pan and set it aside.

Turn dough onto a floured board or counter.

Turning risen dough out to knead

Knead the dough about 5 minutes until it is smooth and elastic.

Kneading dough

Done kneading

Using a well floured rolling pin, roll the dough out until it is a ½ inch thick rectangle.

Ready for the swirl

Add the swirl:

Spread melted butter over dough rectangle. Mix sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Sprinkle evenly over melted butter.

Butter, cinnamon and sugar added

Starting at the long end of the dough, to roll it as tightly as you can.

Roll the dough tightly

The roll is too long for the pan.

Tuck the ends under so that the loaf will fit snugly into the loaf pan.

Tuck the long ends under the dough

Now the dough fits in the pan

Waiting to rise

Cover and set aside to rise. Allow the dough to rise until it has doubled in size. (About 1 hour)

1 hour later, the bread has risen

Once dough has doubled in size, bake for 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Fresh from the oven!

Remove from pan immediately. Set on a cooling rack.

Once cooled, slice and eat!




Variations:

For plain white bread: Don’t add the swirl (butter, cinnamon or sugar)

For pesto swirl bread: Use fresh or store bough pesto instead of cinnamon and sugar

For Garlic bread: Add 1 Tablespoon of garlic powder to sponge

For Wheat Bread: Make the sponge using 1 cup of wheat flour and 1/2 cup of all purpose flour. Once the sponge is mixed, add 1 ½ cup all purpose flour.

For Honey Oat Bread: Substitute honey for sugar in the dough.

For raisin bread: add ½ cup of raisins to sponge.

Special notes:

- If your milk is too hot it will kill the yeast and your bread won’t rise. Use room temp or slight warm milk for best results

- If you add oatmeal to the dough it will be a little wetter than usual. Don’t panic. That’s normal. Use a little extra flour when kneading and rolling.

- Be patient! As long as you didn’t kill the yeast, your bread should rise. It usually takes an hour or so.

- Don’t let the dough sit all day to rise. If you forget about it for a long time (4-5 hours) then come back, your bread will have risen and then fallen.

Yum!