Sweet, soft and fluffy his Oatmeal Molasses Bread is a universal bread dough that works to make your favorite loaves, rolls or breadsticks.
All my life I have been a bread lover. Like literally the biggest bread lover you could imagine. To this day I still cant help myself to raid the bakery section at the grocery store and stock up on a variety of specialty breads, loaves, buns, breadsticks, flatbreads etc.
I learned to work with yeast about 4-5 years ago and my addiction to purchasing bread became an addiction to baking bread. And yeast can be tricky if you don’t really know the science behind it. I still have my flops…which really suck because something that you know should turn out amazing since you can see it in other people’s pictures just doesn’t turn out for you. Boo.
But none the less I still keep trying and making bread. One of my favorites has always been a good old Oatmeal Molasses Bread. There is this sweet flavor behind every bite that just pulls me in and keeps me wanting more. That and the texture is out of this world. I like a good stiff bread like sourdough but when I get those pillowy soft slices I’m in heaven.
That’s exactly what this bread is. It’s like a cloud. So soft and light that it like melts in your mouth. The brown sugar molasses flavor that it has trumps no other. Spread on a little butter, honey butter or what ever you love and you have yourself a delicious piece of amazingness that you can eat for practically any meal.
With this Oatmeal Molasses Bread I decided I wanted to make a loaf and rolls. I just couldn’t really decide what I wanted to use for dinner so I decided to make an executive decision and make 2 different kinds because that’s just how I roll. Which this dough is really universal and doesn’t have to just be used for a certain type. You could make some seriously delicious breadsticks if that’s what you wanted.
The real thing that sets this apart from any normal bread that I’ve made is that this bakes in a water bath. It makes it have a crispy outside and a soft, pillowy inside. I like to also brush the tops of this with a little butter because…salty sweet, duh!! But no, in reality I like to brush the outside with butter because it helps it keep the tops moist and get a golden color to it as well.
Now I’m not going to tell you that bread making is easy, or quick. Unless of course you make a quick bread like beer bread or a sweet loaf. Those can be whipped up in under an hour and are seriously amazing as well. This takes a little time and attention and patience, which I’m not known for having much of at times, especially when it comes to me wanting to eat things.
But let me tell you my friends, the process is totally worth it! TOTALLY WORTH IT! So if you find yourself craving a nice loaf, buns or what not, I’m sure you already have the majority of the ingredients for these on hand, if not, they are easy and quickly obtainable.
Oatmeal Molasses Bread
Ingredients
- 1 pkg active dry yeast
- 1 1/2 cup warm water
- 1 Tbs honey
- 1/4 cup butter melted and divided
- 2 Tbs brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup molasses
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
- 4 1/2 cup flour
Instructions
- In large bowl add your water, honey and yeast and let sit for the yeast to proof (about 10 minutes).
- When bubbly add 2 Tbs butter, sugar, salt, egg and molasses and mix well.
- Stir in about 3 1/2 cups of your flour and oatmeal and stir until dough pulls away from sides of bowl (you can also use a stand mixer with a dough hook).
- Sprinkle a flat surface with more flour and turn out dough onto it.
- Knead dough until a soft ball forms, adding more flour (I ended up adding 4 1/2 cups) throughout the process.
- Once soft and no longer sticky, spray a large bowl with cooking spray and place dough into bowl turning over once to coat.
- Place in a warm, draft free spot and cover with a dish towel. We like to turn the oven onto warm and turn off before placing the dough inside and leaving the oven light on.
- Let dough rise until it's doubled in size about 1-2 hours.
- Once risen remove dough and turn out onto a clean surface.
- Split dough into to two sections. If you are wanting to make bread loaves, shape each section into a log and place into 2 9"x5" bread loaf pans sprayed with cooking spray.
- If you are wanting to make rolls, cut dough into about 24 separate pieces and shape into balls ad place into 2 11"x7" baking dishes, sprinkle with additional oatmeal at this time.
- Cover your dough again and let rice one more time until doubled in size.
- Once risen again, preheat your oven to 350.
- Fill 2 dishes with water about half way up the sides and place your pans inside them for a water bath.
- Place into oven and bake for about 50 minutes or until golden.
- Once baked, remove from oven and immediately brush with remaining butter. Slice and serve!
Nutrition
Tornadough Alli is not a nutritionist or dietitian, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and nutritional value is important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and values can vary depending on which brands were used.
Mo
This bread is perfect oatmeal molasses I have ever had very fluffy, soft and I kept them on kitchen counter for a week still they are great and delicious after warm them out, I made one loaf and 12 dinner rolls
Marissa
This was one of the absolute best, most amazing, delicious bread recipes I’ve made!! I LOVE bread!! It’s in my top five for sure!! Everyone should be baking and eating this bread. Seriously one of the best!! 😊😃 The texture is so amazing, it’s so fluffy and the taste is wonderful! It’s a winner for sure! I altered it just a little. I replaced the water with half almond milk and half oat milk and I replaced one third of the molasses with honey. I also, put the salt in with the flour and oats. I don’t ever let it touch the yeast so it doesn’t kill it and allows it to rise better. The last ten minutes I put tinfoil, a hat lol on top of the bread so it didn’t over brown the tops.
Alli, thank you so much for sharing this wonderful recipe!! It’s a gem! Much appreciated! ❤️😀☺️
Lisa
This was a great recipe. I altered it, using half almond milk and water. I want a relight richer flavor and it was perfect! One could use whole milk too. Great flavor and incredible texture. Definitely using this again!
Janet Reed
I’ve made this quite a few times and it’s our favorite bread. The only reason I didn’t give it five stars is I’m confused about the resulting dough before you have it rise the first time. Mine never turns into a ball. It’s like a sticky cookie dough and I lose quite a bit of dough as it sticks to my hands. the clean surface, bowl etc. I’ve even added more flour and it doesn’t change anything. However, the resulting bread is fabulous
Lisa
Try adding a smidge more flour. That seems to do the trick for me.
Charity
Perfect oatmeal molasses bread! Thank you for sharing the recipe! The texture is so soft and fluffy, the flavor is delightful. Doubled the recipe and made 4 loaves to share. So tasty!
Sheila
The breads sound Amazing, deffenatly want to make, but could you explain the pans of water, do I just put a couple or even just a casserole dish in the oven with water on a rack under my Bread pans while cooking
Tornadough Alli
So for this it’s like making cheesecake where you have your cake pan in the water itself. If you have two 9″x13″ pans I would fill them with water and place your bread pans in each of those to bake, otherwise you can try to just fill a pan with water and place it below. You will want moisture in the oven with the bread to keep the texture.
Mark Vera
the bread looks amazing but im afraid to make it using volume instead of weight. can anyone please convert?
Caren
If you have a google home or Alexa, you can just ask what is the weight of a cup of all purpose flour…what is the weight of a teaspoon of salt….and then go from there. I never have trouble getting the weight equivalent of a volume measurement. I agree with you, that’s the way I prefer to bake!
Alison
Hi Alli ,how can I make these in buns version,have you ever tried? Thanks
Tornadough Alli
Hi Alison, the recipe should state how to make for the buns. They are our favorite way to make this bread 🙂
Mommar6
2 things: I’m loving fresh baked bread right now and have a new obsession for molasses. I’ll be making this today!
Mommar6
I adapted your recipe to fit my bread machine and used the dough cycle. I’ve never baked bread in a water bath before. It turned out beautifully. Thank for a great recipe!
Tornadough Alli
I’m soooooo happy that you liked it and you were able to adapt it to fit your needs. I loved the water bath, made it nice and moist and gave it a crisp top!
Carlee
Yum! i can’t wait for it to cool down a bit so I can really get excited about baking bread. There is nothing better than the smell of bread in the oven!
BEV H
REALLY ENJOYED THIS BREAD. IT WAS NICE AND LIGHT AND NOT TOO MUCH TASTE OF THE MOLASSES. THANKS!