Maple Oatmeal Bread

Wow! Almost 5 months since my last post. I think that's just how things are going to be from now on. But, let's get on with my post.....

A few days ago I went and looked at our town's Goodwill store. They sell everything but clothes, and are only opened limited hours, but it's really nice. I was just looking around killing time while Lauren was at piano lessons when I came across a bread machine and the tag was marked "new" and the price was $9.99. What a bargain!

Now, I've had a bread machine for a few years, and at some point something happened so that the pan wouldn't lock into place so it makes a really rattly noise when it's kneading because the pan is shaking back and forth. One time when I was making bread I was in another room and heard a crash onto the kitchen floor. The bread pan and all of it's shaking had literally moved the entire bread machine to the edge of the counter and vibrated it onto the floor! I picked it up, plugged it back in to see if it would still work and to my amazement it did, so I've still used it.

But, when I saw this bread machine at Goodwill I decided to keep looking around and think about it, but then decided this was just too good of a price to pass up. It looked like everything was there and it really did look brand new just like the tag was marked. When I went to pay for it, it actually rang up cheaper, so it was marked down a little bit more than the tag price. All I could keep thinking was, "I sure hope this isn't too good to be true." Yesterday I finally decided I better try it out. I got out one of my cookbooks and decided to try a new recipe. The machine worked like a dream--no rattling, no machine shaking so violently it will walk itself off the counter, no problems at all. When the bread was done the only thing I noticed missing was the hook to use to pull out the kneading blade once it gets baked into the bread, but I still have that from my other machine. So, now I am very lucky and have two bread machines if I want to do some double baking on the same day.

The recipe I tried is from my Taste of Home 1999 Quick Cooking Annual Recipes cookbook. It's called Maple Oatmeal Bread and it's a winner for the entire family! You can't even taste any oatmeal, or maple flavor in it. It is the softest, white bread I have ever tasted. We just couldn't get enough of it. So, because it's that good, I wanted to share the recipe here for you. Try it and enjoy!

Maple Oatmeal Bread
3/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons water (70-80 degrees)
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup quick cooking oats
2-1/2 cups bread flour
2-1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

Place all ingredients in bread machine according to suggested manufacturer's instructions. Select basic bread setting. Choose what crust color you want, and the 1-1/2 pound size.