Leftovers 411 – Oatmeal Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Ever wonder what to do with that lump of oatmeal after breakfast that no one ate?  Here is one delicious and simple answer…Oatmeal Cinnamon Raisin Bread!Oatmeal has long been one of my family’s favorite breakfasts.  Since my children were little, in the mornings, they have asked for, and enjoyed, having oatmeal …or porridge, as they sometimes called it (I think they liked the Goldilocks reference).  Now my grandchildren frequently ask me to make it for them…even for dinner sometimes.  If you are anything like me it always seems that I end up with extra oatmeal.  After years of tossing out that last little bit I started thinking about what I might to with it.

I was in the bread aisle of the market one day and when I saw some Oatmeal Bread on the shelf it hit me….why not use that leftover oatmeal and make some bread?  So the next time I made oatmeal for breakfast, I decided to try my hand at making some bread with it.  Since it just so happened that I had a bit of raisins left from breakfast too, I decided to make my bread an Oatmeal Cinnamon Raisin Bread.  It sounds difficult and complicated but that just isn’t the case.  This is really an easy loaf to make …or rather I should say loaves, since it makes two.   If you don’t think you’ll eat two loaves of bread before they go stale you can either use one to make French Toast Casserole (that recipe will be offered next week) or freeze the loaf until you are ready to use it.  Or maybe there is someone who did something nice for you recently and you could drop off a loaf of yummy homemade bread as a way to say “thank you”….who wouldn’t feel appreciated with that gift?  🙂

Oatmeal Cinnamon Raisin Bread

½ – 1 cup  leftover oatmeal
½ cup warm water
2 pkg. yeast
½ cup honey
1 cup warm milk
½ cup butter
5 cups all purpose flour
2- 21/2 cup bread flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup raisins

Place yeast in warm water with a couple of tablespoons of the honey.  Allow yeast to ripen.  It will be bubbly.

Add this to the oatmeal, in a mixer with a dough hook, along with the warm milk and the butter cut up into chunks, and the rest of the honey.  Mix all this together for a minute then add in the first 5 cups of flour, the salt and the cinnamon.  Add in the raisins and then mix in the rest of the flour. (You can also use all bread flour or all all-purpose flour or even use some whole wheat flour if you prefer.) If you don’t have an electric mixer this can all be done by hand it will just take a bit longer to get everything thoroughly mixed together

Allow the dough to knead for about 5-6 minutes.  Then allow the dough to rise until it is doubled in size about 1-11/2 hours.  Once it has risen punch it down and then divide it in half.

Place each half in a loaf pan which has been buttered and lined with parchment paper.

When loaves are doubled in size place them in a 350 degree oven for 30-35 minutes or until lightly browned.

Remove from oven and allow the loaves to sit for 5 minutes then remove from loaf pans and place loaves on a rack to cool completely.   Slice, butter and enjoy.

When you bite into freshly made bread you will know that this is when life starts to feel abundant:)