Bread Log 21: Oatmeal Bread

This bake marks a first for the blog posts, a straight dough.  This means there are absolutely no pre-ferments.  For most of us this is the type of bread baking we knew growing up, just mix the ingredients to gether and you're off to the races.  Straight doughs have advantages and disadvantages.  The disadvantages are that preferments, be they sourdough or commercial yeast, add a depth of flavor and the enzymes that develop over the longer life cycle actually increase the length of time the bread will go before staling.  The advantage comes if you, by some unforseeable circumstances, wound up not making a pre-ferment and just lazed around playing video games with your wife, your day of baking is still possible since there is absolutely no lead time . . . not that such a thing would ever happen to me . . . *cough*
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While there is defitely a loss of flavor from the lack of prefermented flour, the liberal amount of oats makes this bread plenty tasty. I did vary from the instructions in one important regard, I wanted to see how the bread would develop if I used the same non-mixed method as I used on the 6-fold french, and I could not have been happier with the results. 
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A pre bake, post slash shot.
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I wanted to include this shot because it gives you a good sense for the volume . . . that being HUGE. 
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And of course a post would not be complete without a shot of the crumb.

There is a modification of this bread in the book which includes cinnamon and raisins, and although I'm generally not a big fan of the latter in baked goods, this bread would suit the addition perfectly.  As it stands full of oats with just a touch of sweetness it is a fantastic morning toast bread.  Thanks as always for reading.

Here are the details for the bake:
Room: 72.3
Flour: 69.6
Water: 83
Pre-Ferment: none
Final: 76.5
Mix: 6 fold method
Bulk: 2:10
Notes: I allowed the oats to soak for 20 minutes in the water for the bread to expedite their hydration.