Soft and Cottony Oatmeal Molasses Bread • Color Your Recipes

This is a very soft, fluffy and lightly sweet oatmeal molasses sandwich bread which uses water roux or tangzhong method, therefore the bread stays fresh for many many days…

I always wanted to try using molasses in my baking, but somehow never got into it until I bumped into a bottle of molasses when looking for something else in the market isle. No surprise that bread was the first item that came to my mind…so here it is another adaptation of the bread recipes that I usually use, tangzhong method.

Tangzhong is a roux made with water and flour and it is added to the rest of the ingredients. The pre-cooked roux adds a sort of gelatinization to the bread, therefore keeping it soft and fluffy for many days. This technique is widely used in Asian bread making.

Since it was my first attempt using molasses, after searching intensively the internet I decided to base my recipe from BudgetBytes. The bread came pretty soft and fluffy, I just felt that the molasses was overwhelming, so next time I will reduce the amount of molasses to ⅓ cup. Although when sharing the bread to some of my co-workers, they like it and enjoyed the strong molasses flavor in the bread, so it is up to your personal taste.

This recipe was based on Budget Bytes.

Ingredients:

Water roux or Tangzhong

50 g bread flour
250 ml water

Oatmeal Molasses

500 g bread flour
100 g oatmeal, finely grinded
175 g molasses (½ cup)
7 g salt
7 g yeast
6 g vital gluten
95 ml water
50 g butter (room temperature)

Method:

Water roux or Tangzhong

In a small pan, mix all the ingredients of water roux, place in a low heat and stir constantly until the temperature reach 65C (150F), or if you do not have a thermometer, cook until ripples form. Set aside to cool by covering with a plastic film. Please see HERE

Oatmeal Molasses Dough

Place all the cooled water roux and all the ingredients listed under dough into a mixer except for the butter. Mix until all the ingredients are together, it will slightly sticky.

Increase the speed to number 2 and continue to mix for 5 minutes.

Add the butter and continue the mixing until the dough is smooth and comes out of the mixing bowl, this will take approximately 15 minutes. You will notice that the dough will no longer be sticky.

Place the dough into a medium to large bowl. Cover and let it proof until the size triple from the original size.

Now it is time to shape the dough…

Knock back the dough and split into approximately 8 little balls and let it rest for 5 minutes on the counter.

Flatten the ball making sure that the air is removed and fold into thirds, then roll it like a Swiss roll.

Place the Swiss rolls into the Pullman (4 each) pan and let it rise until triple of its original size.

Cover the pan and bake in a preheated oven of 350F for approximately 25 minutes.

Remove from the oven and flip the bread into a wire rack to cool. Slice according to your like.

Store the bread in an airtight container.

Did you know that molasses is a by-product of sugar extraction? The good news is that molasses contains some vitamins and minerals which cannot be found in refined sugar.