Oatmeal Bread
By Yankee Magazine|Apr 21 2002|
Yield
2 small loaves
Ingredients
2 cups boiling water poured over
1 cup oatmeal
1 teaspoon salt
lard the size of an egg (I use regular shortening)
Cool and then add:
2/3 cup molasses
1 package yeast dissolved in 1/4 cup tepid water
Instructions
Stir, then knead in enough flour to make a soft dough (I use 5-1/2 to 6 cups of flour). Cover and let rise until double.
Grease and flour 2 small bread pans. Turn dough out of bowl onto floured surface and knead briefly, adding more flour if necessary to keep it from being sticky. Divide into two loaves and put into pans, then cover and let rise until double. Bake 35 to 40 minutes at 350 degrees F. Remove from pans and brush tops with butter while still warm.
Notes
To make fried fish: Let dough rise once, then punch down and refrigerate, covered, overnight. Next morning, heat a pan of fat — the Yankee test kitchen used vegetable oil — to 370 degrees F. Turn the dough out unto a floured board and, without kneading, roll it out 1/4 inch thick. Cut out fish shapes. Test-fry a dough scrap; it should rise to the surface at once, puff out and brown in about 1 minute. Adjust heat if necessary, then fry the fish in uncrowded batched, drain well, and serve at once. A batch of dough makes about four dozen 3-inch fish.
