Gingerbread Oatmeal Bread

Charmie777's Note:

This is from Quick Cooking magazine. Yummy cross between oatmeal bread and gingerbread!

• Total Time: 3 hrs 10 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 3 hrs

Ingredients:

Yield: 1 loaf

• 1 cup water
• 1 tablespoon water
• ½ cup molasses
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 3 cups bread flour
• 1 cup old fashioned oats
• 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 -1 ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon orange zest
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 (¼ ounce) package active dry yeast

Directions:

1. In bread machine pan, place all ingredients in order suggested by manufacturer.
2. Select basic bread setting.
3. Bake according to bread machine directions, but check dough after 5 minutes of mixing and add 1-2 tablespoons of water or flour if needed).

Reviews

[LuuvBunny]

After reading all the reviews on this recipe I decided to add 2 tbsp of brown sugar to my bread.This made it just sweet enough.Even with all the spices it is not overpowering at all.It's like a cinnamon raisin bread without the raisins.This bread is quite dense and doesn't rise very high but it sure tastes good!I used half all purpose flour and half whole wheat.I did all this the traditional way without a bread maker.Here are the steps I took:
Put yeast,1 cup water & 2 tbsp of brown sugar into bowl,stir to dissolve.Let sit about 10 minutes until frothy.Add salt,molasses and oil;mix.Add oats,cinnamon,ginger,nutmeg,cloves and 2 cups flour and mix together.Add remaining 1 cup flour as needed until the dough is no longer sticky.Put dough into greased bowl and let rise for 1 hour.Punch down and form into 3 even balls.Put into greased bread pan and let rise 1/2- 1 hour.Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.Cool on rack.

[The Wallaces]

Great bread, I loved the unusual mix of spices! I enjoyed it toasted with a little bit of butter on it. My home smelled just like a Bavarian bakery while making this, tempting me all afternoon! The only issue I had was that all of the edges of my bread ended up burning except for the top using my bread machine. I wasn't sure the weight of the bread, so I set it to the 2 lb loaf. I would recommend using the 1.5 lb setting instead. After cutting the edges all off, the inside tasted great. Thanks Charmie! Made for ZWT6-Oma's Challenge by a fellow Looney Spoon :)

[hodgemo2]

I think that this bread has potential, but I just didn't really like it too much. It was very dense and kinda flavorless. Maybe with some sugar, like another reviewer recommended. My bread was also a lot darker than the pictures, so maybe I need a lighter molasses?