Maritime Brown Bread

Who doesn't love homemade bread? As a confessed carb-o-holic, it's one of my favorite things. I hadn't had any "down home" style bread in years so I dug out my mom's recipe for Maritime Brown Bread and got to work.

First some yeast, warm water and sugar in a small bowl to "wake up" the yeast.

If it gets all foamy like this, the yeast is good. Excellent! We're off to a fine start.
After mixing in flour, molasses, oatmeal, salt, etc. (recipe follows) the dough gets kneaded for a good 8-10 minutes. You can do this in a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment or the old fashioned way with muscle power. It's a great workout for your arms.

The ball of dough then gets put into a greased bowl. Swish it around so the entire ball is greased. Cover, place in a warm spot to rise.

After an hour or so it's really puffed up! Punch it down, let it rest then shape into loaves & place it in greased pans.

I brush some oil on the top and sprinkle with oatmeal. Cover and let it rise again in a warm spot.
Whoa! Look at it now. That's some impressive work on the yeast's part. This then gets put into the oven and baked until a nice golden. The smell of your kitchen will have you swooning and clutching the counter as your knees give out.

Remove the loaves from the pan and let it cool. Resist the urge to take a big bite out of this baby.

And there you go. Maritime brown bread baked to perfection. This is a nice hearty loaf with a touch of sweetness. I goes great with baked beans. Want to try this? You don't have to travel all the way to the East Coast of Canada. You can whip some up right in your own kitchen.

MARITIME BROWN BREAD

1 cup oatmeal

2 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. shortening

2½ cups boiling water

1 heaping tbsp. yeast

1/2 cup warm water

1/2 tsp. sugar

1/2 cup molasses

7 cups unbleached flour (approx.)

Place oatmeal, salt and shortening in a large bowl. Pour in boiling water, stir and let stand until lukewarm. Meanwhile, mix sugar and 1/2 cup warm water in a small bowl. Sprinkle in yeast and let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes.

Once oatmeal mixture has cooled to lukewarm temperature, add in molasses and yeast mixture. Add 4 cups of flour and then add 1/2 a cup at a time. When dough has pulled together, turn out onto floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic - approx. 8-10 minutes.

Grease a large bowl with oil. Place dough in bowl and turn to coat with the oil. Cover with a clean towel and let rise in a warm, draught free spot, until doubled in volume (about an hour).

Punch down dough, remove from bowl, cover with towel and let rest 10 minutes. Grease loaf pans and sprinkle with oatmeal flakes. Shape dough into loaves and place in pans. Brush top with oil and sprinkle with oatmeal. Cover and let rise in a warm spot for about 35-45 minutes until doubled. Bake at 350F for 45-60 minutes. If top is getting too brown, cover with foil.

Remove from oven and let cool in pans for 10 minutes. Turn out onto racks and let cool completely.

*You can also add raisins into the dough when adding the flour. It makes nice raisin toast.

**Maritime blood in your veins will help with the success of this, but it is not necessary.