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Scotch Bread
2 cups milk, scalded and cooled 2 cups cooked oatmeal 1/4 cup molasses 3/4 cup raisins 1 cake yeast 1/4 cup lukewarm water 4 cups flour 4 cups whole wheat flour 2 teaspoons salt Combine milk and oatmeal, and cool. Stir in molasses, raising, yeast dissolved in the warm water, then add flour and half the whole wheat flour. Mix well and set aside in a warm place until double in bulk. Mix salt with remaining whole wheat flour and add to sponge, kneading slightly. Let double in bulk again, shape into loaves, then let double in bulk a third time. Bake in a hot oven (400 degrees F.) for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature slightly and bake for 45 minutes.
A large, slow, three-rise oatmeal loaf typical of the interwar era, when whole wheat and molasses breads were marketed as wholesome. It makes a heavy, wet dough that rewards patience more than technique.
- YeastOne cake of compressed yeast equals about 2 1/4 teaspoons (one packet) of active dry or instant yeast. Dissolve active dry in the quarter cup of lukewarm water as written; instant can simply go in with the flour.
- Scalded milkScalding was traditionally done to deal with something in raw milk thought to weaken gluten; with pasteurized milk it is generally treated as optional. Hot milk does help loosen the oatmeal, but note the recipe cools it twice, so make sure the mixture is lukewarm before it meets the yeast.
- Cooked oatmealThis means plain cooked porridge, thick rather than soupy, from rolled or steel-cut oats and unsweetened. Two cups is roughly what you get from about 1 cup dry rolled oats cooked in about 2 cups water, cooled to lukewarm.
- Salt held backThe recipe keeps salt out of the first sponge and mixes it into the reserved whole wheat flour. Salt slows fermentation, so following that order will give a quicker first rise; adding it all at the start will drag the sponge out.
- Oven400F for the first 15 minutes, then "reduce temperature slightly"; the recipe names no second figure, so read it as a modest drop, around 375F, for the remaining 45 minutes. The full hour suits loaves this size and this wet; check for an internal temperature of 195-200F rather than relying on the clock.
- Three risesThe dough is doubled twice in the bowl and once in the pans. Each rise may take 1 to 1 1/2 hours at normal room temperature, so allow three to five hours in total.
- YieldEight cups of flour plus the oatmeal gives enough dough for two large 9x5-inch loaves or three smaller ones. Grease the pans well; the molasses and raisins make the crust prone to sticking.
- Handling the doughWith the porridge in it this dough stays tacky and will not become smooth and elastic like a white loaf. The instruction to knead "slightly" is meant literally, and resisting the urge to add extra flour keeps the crumb moist.