Following along the oatmeal thread of the past week, I want to pass on to you a bread recipe that my wife found in James Beard's "Beard on Bread". If, as I had done, you make too much oatmeal this is a great use for it. Or you can make new oatmeal for the recipe.

This oatmeal bread is non-fat, tasty as dry toast or with a little jam or honey, it seems to last an inordinately long time without becoming stale, and it freezes very well. We both recommend it.

Cook the oats following the direction on the package (but don't add any salt since you will be adding salt later in the recipe). Pour the oatmeal into a large mixing bowl and allow to cool to lukewarm. Meanwhile, stir the yeast the teaspoon of sugar into the warm water until dissolved and allow to proof.

Add the warm milk, salt, brown sugar, and yeast mixture to the oatmeal and stir well. Then stir in 4 cups of flour, 1 cup at a time. Turn out on a floured board and knead into a smooth, pliable, elastic dough. If necessary, add as much as a cup, or more, oif additional flour to get the dough to the right feel.* (This will take about 10 minutes.) Shape the dough into a ball, put it into a bowl sprayed with a very light coating of Pam, and turn to coat on all sides. Cover and let rise in a warm, draft- free place untile doubled in bulk (1-1.5 hours).

Punch the dough down. Knead for 2 or 3 minutes and shape into two loaves. Place the dough into bread pans lightly sprayed with Pam, cover and let rise in a warm place until about even with the top of the pans, or almost doubled in bulk.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, place the bread in the center of the lowest rack, and bake for about 45-50 minutes, until the loaves sound hollow when tapped on the top and bottom with the knuckles. Return the loaves, without the pans, to the oven rack to bake for about 5 minutes and acquire a firmer crust. Remove the loaves to a rack and cool.

Fatfree Digest V96 #42

From the Fatfree Vegetarian recipe list. Downloaded from Glen's Mm Recipe Archive, http://www. Erols. Com/hosey.