17 January 2020

High fibre white loaf recipe

I've been working on a new loaf - a high fibre white. I usually make either white or rye loaves and I do that because Hanno loves rye bread and our main toast loaf is white. When I plan to make something regularly, I want to be able to easily buy the ingredients in bulk. I can get good white bread flour at the local supermarket and good rye flour at an organic supermarket that I have to drive to get to.


Recently I've been adding extra fibre to the loaves, using mainly milled rolled oats, but in this loaf, I also added rice bran. The oats add moistness and the rice bran gives a slightly nutty flavour. Both the fibre additions make for a slightly heavier loaf which is absolutely delicious as sandwiches on the day it is baked and makes really good toast.  Of course, if I have ends left over I either add them to a bag of frozen bread I turn into bread crumbs when I need them, or, when they're soaked in milk, they make up a high protein extra meal for the chooks. That will help you cut down on your feed bill as it provides a nutritious boost for your hens.

I combine the ingredients and knead the dough in the bread maker on the dough setting. After the first rise, I take it out of the machine, knead and shape, add it to a bread tin to bake in the regular oven.

HIGH FIBRE WHITE LOAF
  • 2 teaspoons dried yeast stirred into ½ cup of cold water  <-- do this first so it's fermenting nicely before you add it to the flour mix

  • 1 teaspoon salt - add this to the bucket first so it doesn't mix with the yeast
  • 3 cups white bread flour
  • ½ cup rolled oats that have been finely processed 
  • 3 level tablespoons rice bran
  • plus enough water to make a dough that is more wet than dry
If you're a new baker, or not confident baking bread, add 2 teaspoons of Wallaby bread improver to the mix.

After you start the yeast fermenting in the cup, leave that to one side and add the following to the bucket in the order it's written: salt, flour, rolled oats, rice bran, the contents of the yeast cup and enough water to make a dough. That will be different according to the weather, in humid weather, the flour will have absorbed moisture and you'll use less water.  You need about 2  - 3 cups but add 2 cups first and then slowly add the rest until the dough is pliable and slightly wet.  It's better to have a wetter dough that dry dough.  Dry dough will give you a denser and tighter crumb, while a slightly wet dough will help the dough rise. Put your hand in and feel the dough, you have to learn what it should feel like - you want it to be slightly sticky, not dry.

 Here is the flour already in the bread maker bucket, the finely processed rolled oats and yeast.

 The oats should be finely processed so they aren't too heavy in the dough.



If you prepare the yeast like this you'll know that it's alive and viable before you add it to the flour and it will start working its magic on the flour immediately.

When the dough is mixing in the bread machine, just leave the machine do its thing.  When the dough cycle finishes, you'll have kneaded dough that has just finished the first rise.  Get the dough out of the machine onto a floured surface and punch the dough down.  Then knead it for a couple of minutes, shape the dough and place it in the bread tin.  Let it sit for the second rise.

The amount of time it needs to rise again will vary. It depends on how warm it is in your kitchen.  I generally need about 30 - 40 minutes in my kitchen for the bread to rise a second time.  Yours may take more or less time. Test the dough to see if it's ready by poking your finger into the dough up to the first knuckle. If the dough slowly refills the whole, it's ready for the oven, if the hole doesn't refill and you just see a hole, it's over-proofed.  If you bake an over-proofed dough it may collapse in the oven. You might save an over-proofed loaf by kneading it again for a minute and leaving it to rise again. 

This is the poke test to see if the dough is properly proofed and ready to bake.  Poke your finger into about the first knuckle and let go. If the dough is ready to bake the hole will slowly fill in but won't fill completely.  If the hole stays indented, it's over-proofed.

When you're happy with the dough, add it to the bread tin, add toppings and slash the top with a very sharp knife or razor blade. This allows steam to escape and helps the loaf rise upwards.  If you don't slash the top, the loaf will split a bit on one side.  I don't mind that and sometimes leave the top unslashed.

I brushed the top of the dough with egg wash and sprinkled on some polenta.  To add extra nutrition to the loaf, it's always a good idea to sprinkle on some kind of topping like oats, polenta or seeds.

When the loaf is completely cool, slice it and store it in a cotton or linen bag.

Set your oven to 220C/430F and have it heated at that setting when you put the loaf in to bake.  Bread has two rises - one is the yeast rise and one is an oven rise.  Oven rise usually produces a light loaf and it happens when you put uncooked dough into a very hot oven. Bake at 220C/430F for 15 minutes then reduce the temp to 190C/350F for about another 30 minutes. Check the loaf when you can smell it baking,  and remove the loaf if it's close to the time, it smells cooked and it's golden brown on top. Take it out of the oven and tip it out of the tin - tap the bottom a few times to hear a hollow tapping. If you don't hear that sound, put it back in the oven for another 5 minutes.  When it's baked, let it sit in the tin for a couple of minutes, then turn the loaf out on a rack to cool.

There are plenty of my other bread recipes here. 

It's easier for the family to use the bread if you slice the entire loaf and place it in a bread bag.  I store my bread in the fridge because the weather is very humid at the moment.  Instead of using plastic bags to store your bread, a cloth bag is a much better option. To make a cloth bread bag, find some good linen or cotton, or a linen or cotton tea towel, and sew according to the directions here.  It would look really good if you embroidered "bread" on the bag but I'm sure everyone will know what the bread bag looks like if you don't have the time to do that.

Happy baking everyone.  🍞🥯🥖

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23 comments

  1. Thankyou for posting this new bread recipe Rhonda. I am very eager to try this one. This is similar to a bread recipe I made up myself about a year ago I used 00 flour, fine milled oats and wholemeal flour, along with the yeast and a pinch a salt and luke warm water, it made a very good heavy load of bread only reason I stopped adding the fine milled oats was my family where not to keen on this type of bread for there sandwiches 🙄 I'm not sure whether it was the oats or the wholemeal flour that made the loaf heavy.I'll try this recipe maybe my family will be happier with this one 😁❤
    Gabriella

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    1. Hi Gabriella. It's great to see you experimenting with your breads. I do that a lot too. I think the problem with rise on your sandwich loaves is the combinations of flours is too heavy. Bran in wholemeal flour interferes with the gluten so it doesn't rise as much as a white loaf does. Sometimes you can get around that by adding 2 teaspoons of bread flour to your dough mix and that might be enough to get your oats + 00 flour + wholemeal loaf to rise. Otherwise, I'd leave out the wholemeal flour and try the 00 flour with oats. If you want to provide a brown bread to your family, with brown bread signifying wholesomeness, I'd add one cup rye flour and some sesame seeds to white flour or 00 flour, with the bread improver,
      and see how you go with that. Good luck with it and let me know how you get on. xx

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  2. This looks so good 🍞
    I have been baking quite a lot recently.
    I like adding oats to bread and cakes.

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  3. Thankyou for response Rhonda,will try your suggestions and let you know how my loaves turn out.
    If it's raining at your place now,I hope that you and Hanno are having a lovely afternoon enjoying the rain.
    All the best
    Gabriella Xx

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  4. That loaf looks so tempting! I must make it. Rhonda, I love a loaf with added rice or oats and this has both. There is a bakery called BurtoNZ (New Zealand) Bakery not far from where I live. They make a sunflower Seed and Barley Loaf. It is basically a white bread for sandwiches, but of course it is rather expensive. Would you have a similar recipe for one?

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  5. Dear Rhonda,

    I have been such a long-time reader and I am always grateful for the content that you so regularly and lovingly put out into the online world. It is like a virtual hug or cup of tea with a friend and I wanted to thank you for all that you have given, and continue to give us.

    Could I please ask why you don't cook the loaf in your bread machine? I have two toddlers so the set & forget aspect of the bread machine (as well as not having a hot oven within reach of little hands) is my preferred way of baking. Would I need to make any adjustments? Thanks, Genevieve x

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    1. Thank you, Genevieve.

      If the bread machine works for you with mixing and baking, keep doing it. I don't like the shape of the bread machine loaves and with all the time in the world to do what I want to do, I prefer to transfer the dough to the oven for baking. You have to fit much more into your day with toddlers to take care of, and you need to manage your time to do all your work, so make sure you always do what suits you and your timeline. You'll still get good bread. xx

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  6. dear Rhonda i am a family of one, and find that my bread usage is small e.g. one loaf of bread per fortnight, i make my bread similarly to you but use a "lidded" bread tin to bake in so it turns out like the shape of the supermarket bread. you mentioned putting the bread in the fridge in a cotton bread bag rather than a plastic bag, i put mine in a sistema container in fridge but the bread doesn't seem to stay fresh for more than a couple of days, would you suggest that i freeze it to keep it fresher for longer? all help appreciated thank you

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    1. Hi Jaspar
      We don't eat much bread either. A loaf does us 4 or 5 days or up to a week sometimes. We eat it as sandwich bread on the first day (the best day) and toast the rest of the loaf. All bread, except the heavy rye loaves, go stale after a couple of days. I'd suggest you slice the whole loaf, then portion the loaf into 2 - 4 slices, wrap the portions and store them in the sistema container in the freezer. You might have to tweak it a bit but the bread will last better in the freezer than the fridge if you have to keep it for a fortnight. Good luck.

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  7. Thanks for the recipe. I will try this one Rhonda in the oven rather than in my breadmaker. What size tin do you use?

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    1. Kathryn, I use a large bread tin - 28cm x 13 cm. Good luck.

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  8. Fantastic ... I will try that recipe in the next few days. I usually either make bread by hand or do it in my bread machine but I am going to try this method as it looks like it creates really good, beautifully risen bread (without the hole in the bottom that the bread maker produces!).

    Thank you for sharing another great idea.

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  9. Wowww...... I surely will try this recipe! Thank you for sharing. I think your blog is so inspiring ....

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  10. I love your response to Geniveve and that’s why I’ve been reading the blog for so long, you are encouraging and absolutely non- judgemental. Thanks you, Helena

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  11. Thanks for the recipe Rhonda, sounds lovely. Will be grabbing some rice bran next time I shop and trying it :) Kate from Tassie

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  12. Your loaves of bread always look so round and delicious. Thanks for the recipe, Rhonda. I wish I could eat more bread, but I have to really watch it, or I start to ache. Sometimes I opt for an open face sandwich. I have to freeze my bread, or it will go bad.

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  13. Another beautiful looking loaf from your kitchen! Thank you Rhonda - will give it a go on my next baking day.

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  14. Is it 2-3 cups of water for 3 cups of flour? Or am I reading that wrong?

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    1. I was wondering if someone would question the water. It's 3 cups of flour, ½ cup of oats and the rice bran and I wanted to give a wider range for the amount of water for those in very dry areas, which is many parts of Australia at the moment. The instructions say: "plus enough water to make a dough that is more wet than dry" and for many people that will be closer to 2 cups than three, but for some it will be more than that. Just start with 2 cups. I hope I've given clear instructions in the paragraph following the ingredients list. Happy baking.

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    2. Lol...I'm up in Michigan with a fresh 10" of snow over the last two days. Must be a little damp here. I tossed in the yeast with the 1/2 cup of water and wasn't thinking clearly and tossed in more cups. My bad...next time I'll add that second cup a little slower. I just added a bit more bread flour. It rose like a champ and looks just fine, maybe a little spongy. No rice bran around here so I took the liberty of grinding brown rice. I ground extra oatmeal and rice for the next batch when I pay better attention to the water lollolololol. Have a great day!

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    3. Wow, 10" of snow sounds pretty good to me and I'm guessing to a whole lot of Australians right now. I hope the bread turns out okay. I'd be interested to know how the ground brown rice goes in the bread. Is it like powder or has it some hard bits in it?

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  15. I like the idea of this recipe but don't have a food processor. Can I use oat flour in placed of the rolled oats? Or would it be better to use the rolled oats as they are? Thank you!

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  16. Could you finely chop the oats? That would be better than using whole oats. I've never used oat flour so I can't advise you. Good luck.

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