Rabbit Hill Inn Molasses Oatmeal Bread

This Oatmeal Molasses bread is as healthy as it is delicious. With just one tablespoon of added fat, lots of oatmeal and vitamin B rich molasses, this bread is soft, fluffy and a favorite when I make it for friends and family. Not to mention, molasses bread makes the best BLT Sandwich you’ll ever taste.

About This Recipe and Why It Works

Have you ever considered turning the Winter months into a food goal project? I suppose you could call it a New Year’s Resolution. Pick something that you’d like to master. Strengthen your kitchen skills.

January and February would be a perfect time to learn on a new culinary skill. Declare war on your nemesis food.

Decide on your task…make it once a week until you master the dish.

Me? I’m working on bread.

One of the unexpected benefits that resulted from my time in Culinary School was learning that I actually loved making bread.

I’ve been making bread as much as I can. I’ve become familiar with how the dough should feel and behave during each step of the the process.

And watching the dough come to life as it rises is truly rewarding. Homemade bread makes a mockery of the mass produced bread we buy on our supermarket bread aisle.

My favorite bread to make is this Oatmeal Molasses Bread. The aroma as it bakes is simply intoxicating. Not to mention the flavor and texture is out of this world.

Molasses bread is a wonderful dark, crusty fragrant bread, a recipe made famous from the bed and breakfast, Rabbit Hill Inn, in Lower Waterford, Vermont.

I found this Molasses bread recipe hiding inside one of my favorite bed and breakfast cookbooks, Dairy Hollow House.

This cookbook contains some of the best soup recipes you will ever slurp, and where there’ s good soup, there’s good bread. And if I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times, bed and breakfast recipes are some of the best comfort food recipes you’ll find.

Molasses bread is great for a breakfast toast served with eggs. Wonderful with an apple butter or jelly. Nice for lunch with a slice of Swiss cheese melted over it. And as a base for egg salad sandwich. And possibly the best bread to make a BLT sandwich – the best you’ll eat in your entire life.

I’ve also made this sweet molasses bread to make on of our favorite sandwiches with Ham with Manchego. You should check that one out.I’ve made this molasses bread recipe many times and it’s become on of our favorites.

Let’s take a look.

Ingredients You’ll Need

Ingredients for Homemade Oatmeal Molasses Bread

All Purpose Flour: No need for anything special for this molasses bread recipe. You most certainly can use bread flour, but all-purpose flour works fine.
Quick Cooking Oats: Instant oats are called for in this recipe as they are soaked prior to folding into the dough. They’ll absorb the liquid faster and better and will be a softer option than steel cut oats, which always require a longer cooking time.
Dry Active Yeast: As opposed to quick rising yeast.
Black Strap Molasses: You’ll find black strap molasses in the baking department. It’s processed differently than regular molasses. It’s more dense, thicker and a carries a somewhat bitter flavor.

How To Make Oatmeal Molasses Bread

soaking oatmeal to make molasses oatmeal bread

Step 1. In a Kitchen-aid Mixing bowl, pour the boiling water over the oatmeal and butter. Let stand 30 minutes.
Step 2: In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the lukewarm water and let stand to dissolve. 5 – 10 minutes.

working with sticky dough for making bread

Step 3. Add the yeast, molasses and salt to the oatmeal mixture and stir well.
Step 4. Using your Kitchen-aid paddle attachment, on low, stir in enough of the flour to make a kneadable dough 1 cup at a time, so that is still somewhat sticky to the touch. Switching to the dough hook, knead until smooth and elastic on power 4. About 7 minutes. Keep adding pinches of flour until the bread just starts to clean the side of the bowl. For me, I usually end up adding about 6 – 8 pinches. The dough will still be sticky.

placing dough in an oiled bowl for its first rise

dough doubled in size for molasses bread

Step 5. Transfer dough to a large oiled bowl. Turn dough to coat and cover with a clean cloth.
Step 6. Let rise until doubled. About 1 ½ hours.

2nd rise for oatmeal bread in 9 x 5 loaf pans

Step 7. Punch the dough down and divide it in half. Note: Use a bench knife to divide the dough. It works like a charm.
Step 8. Oil two 9 x 5 inch loaf pans. Shape the dough into loaves and place them in the prepared pans. Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk. About 40 minutes.

2 loaves of molasses bread cooling on rack

Step 9. Bake the bread until crusty, about 30 minutes. Turn the loaves out of the pans onto a wire rack. Let cool.

Expert Tips and FAQ’s

Why Is Black Strap Molasses Important To This Recipe?

The role black strap molasses plays is important here, making the bread almost as dark as pumpernickel and with a flavor all its own. Molasses is a key flavoring in many New England breads, such as Boston Brown Bread. A sweetening far more dimensional than plain old sugar or even honey. Sweetness with pleasantly subtle sour bitter under note of flavor.

Can I Use Regular Molasses For This Recipe?

The original recipe calls for Blackstrap molasses, which will give the bread a potent bittersweet flavor. I’ve used regular molasses, which will give the bread a milder flavor.

All I Have Is Quick Rising Yeast, Can I Substitute?

To substitute instant yeast (or rapid rise yeast) use about 25% less. This recipe calls for 1 Tablespoon of Dry Active Yeast. 1 Tablespoon weighs .5 ounces, so use 0.125 ounces of instant yeast. A kitchen scale is an excellent tool to measure this. You will also not need to prove instant yeast. Just mix it in with the water and continue with recipe.

How Do I Know If My Water Is Warm Enough For Yeast?

The water should be between 100 – 110 degrees. Use a thermometer to determine if the water is the right temperature. If the water is too hot, such as 120 degrees, it will damage or kill the yeast.

Pro-Tip About Punching Down Dough: Punching down dough is a common technique in bread making. It deflates the dough and releases air so that you can form it into other shapes. Make a fist with your hand and push it firmly into the center of the puffy dough. Fold the edges into the center to make a rough ball. Then proceed with recipe instructions.

More Tips for Success

Want more of a Steakhouse feel with the recipe? Simply divide the dough into 6-8 mini loaves and reduce baking time to about 10 minutes. Watch them close to make sure you don’t over-cook.
Leave bread to rise in a warm spot. Cold places in your house will compromise the rising process. And could even stop it completely. You can even warm your oven to 200 degrees and then turn the oven off. Wait a few minutes and then place the dough in to rise.

Recipe for Sweet Oatmeal Bread with Molasses

I’m hoping you’ll give this luscious molasses bread recipe a try. It’s a rewarding project that your family will flip over.

And if you’re looking for more bread recipes, don’t miss my bread category. You’ll find lots of fun recipes including one of the most popular on my site for good old fashioned Banana Nut Bread.

More Homemade Bread Recipes

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Oatmeal Molasses Bread Recipe

Lea Ann Brown

A wonderful dark crusty fragrant bread from the Rabbit Hill Inn in Vermont.

5 from 14 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 3

Cook Time 30

Total Time 3 30

Course Bread

Cuisine American

Servings 12 slices

Calories 68 kcal

Ingredients

2 cups boiling water
1 cup quick-cooking oatmeal
1 ½ tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
½ cup warm water 110 degrees
½ cup molasses blackstrap preferably
2 teaspoons salt
4 ½ – 5 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Instructions

In a Kitchen-aid Mixing bowl, pour the boiling water over the oatmeal and butter. Let stand 30 minutes.
In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the lukewarm water and let stand to dissolve. 5 – 10 minutes. Add the yeast, molasses and salt to the oatmeal mixture and stir well.
Using your Kitchen-aid paddle attachment, on low, stir in enough of the flour to make a kneadable dough 1 cup at a time, so that is still somewhat sticky to the touch.
Switching to the dough hook, knead until smooth and elastic on power 4. About 7 minutes. Keep adding pinches of flour until the bread just starts to clean the side of the bowl. For me, I usually end up adding about 6 – 8 pinches. The dough will still be sticky.
Transfer dough to a large oiled bowl. Turn dough to coat and cover with a clean cloth and let rise until doubled. About 1 ½ hours.
Oil two 9 x 5 inch loaf pans. Punch the dough down and divide it in half. Shape the dough into loaves and place them in the prepared pans. Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk. About 40 minutes.
About 30 minutes into the final rise, preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Bake the bread until crusty, about 30 minutes or until an instant read thermometer inserted into the center of each loaf reads 190 degrees. Turn the loaves out of the pans onto a wire rack. Let cool.

Notes

The original recipe calls for Blackstrap molasses, which will give the bread a potent bittersweet flavor. I’ve used regular molasses and find I like the flavor better.

If rapid rise yeast is all you have, use 25% less than this recipe call for. Just add it to the water and stir, no need to let it prove for 10 minutes. Just add it to the dry ingredients and proceed with the recipe.

This recipe works with a somewhat sticky dough. Using a bench knife makes easy work when dividing the dough to place into the bread pans for its second rise.

Keyword molasses, oatmeal

Oatmeal Molasses Bread … It’s what’s for dinner.