I made whole wheat oatmeal bread from scratch. The dough was so tough that my shiny red mixer (I think from here on out, it will be referred to as SRM, ha ha), had a rough time mixing the dough. I've decided that I need a bread dough hook for it if I am to continue on my journey of bread perfection. I followed the directions to the last detail (including the 10 minutes of kneading by hand) and I still could only get it to rise about halfway up to what it should. It turned out "dense", as James described it, but good.
While the oatmeal bread was rising, I decided to give my old bread machine that's been sitting in the garage for four years one more try and if it did not make a good loaf, I would throw it away. No use taking up space if it does not work. Back when I was using it weekly, the bread stopped rising. I was always using a boxed bread mix and I assume the yeast was old, if that's a real thing. I made whole wheat honey bread in it today and it turned out great.
The inspiration:
Adding the honey:
The SRM:
The whole wheat honey bread:
The oatmeal bread:
