No Knead Honey Oat Sourdough Bread

*This is a continuation of a series on Sourdough*

The old biblical saying "Man dose not live by bread alone," should have been rephrased to; " Man dose not live by Boring bread alone!" White bread is plain boring as are some whole wheat's, especially the stuff from commercial bakeries. I guess it is age that gives us the palate to really appreciate the complex flavor and aroma from a mutli grain or a pumpernickel and that wonderful sourdough.

 There is nothing quite like the aroma of fresh baked bread to awaken the hunger pangs and make adults act like children, given a warm slice with butter & jam we are all smiling 7 year olds for a moment. That aroma  holds special memories of Moms kitchen after school. I was the designated taste tester and she would always hand out  a sample slathered with butter.Mmmmm!

I have a bowl of oatmeal almost every day with a drop or two of honey. Those flavors are made for each other,and lead me to develop this bread recipe.
I don't remember when I had my first taste of bread made with Honey but when ever it was from that moment I was hooked. Honey adds that special something to the flavor. Top this off with some flavorful grains and throw in some sourdough batter and well... it is pretty special.

I like to bake my own bread and haven't bought any from a store for several years.  On a ranch there are plenty of chores to do and time spent kneading bread can be utilized for other things, so this is the reason I made this a No Knead recipe for  Honey Oat Sourdough.

Baking with sourdough is a little different than using commercial yeasts as the wild yeast in sourdough take longer to rise and are affected more so by temperature. Raising at 75 º F is the optimum for a good flavor. Cooler temps produce a milder flavor and warmer ones a stronger flavor. Rise times are typically 12- 18 hrs depending on the strength of the wild yeast in your starter.
Most recipes call for bringing your starter to room temp removing the portion you will need and feeding the day before prior to mixing the ingredients to make the bread. I say it is not necessary, I go about it in a different manor to achieve the same result and save 8 hrs.
Well lets make some No Knead Honey Oat Sourdough Bread. Enjoy!


Ingredients:

1cup sourdough starter batter
2 cups whole wheat flour
3-5 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup slow cooking oats+2 tbs
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup honey
1/3 cup powdered milk
1 1/2 cup water
2 tbs oil or shortening(melted)
1/4cup sunflower seeds(optional)

Directions:

Remove starter from the refrigerator measure out 1 cup and place in a nonreactive bowl, add milk powder, water, oats and 1 cup wholewheat flour, and 1 cup water. Mix with a wooden spoon and cover with plastic wrap and leave on counter over night.
You have just feed and awakened your starter and created a sponge in one step and saved 8 hours.

  *(feed your starter the same time: mix 1 1/2 cup A/P flour and 1 cup water together and add to your starter and allow to sit in the counter over night covered with a dish towel.)
The next day remove the plastic wrap and transfer the sponge to the bowl on the stand mixer add remainder of the water, oil, Honey, salt, the remainder of the wholewheat flour

place the dough hook on the mixer and start mixer on #2 mix 1 min. add the sunflower seeds and 1 cup A/P flour mix 1 min. add another cup of A/P and mix other min. The dough should start to loose its liquid state and begin to firm up. Continue to ad flour slowly until the dough comes away from the sides and the bottom of the bowl. at this point the dough should be very tacky.  Stop!!! add no more flour.

Grease a loaf pan and transfer  the dough to  the pan and cover loosely with plastic wrap place in a draft free area to raise until double in size. Bake in a preheated 400 º F oven 30 min or an internal temp of 200 º F.
Cool in pan 10 min then transfer to cooling rack.