Honey Oat Bread recipe made with part whole wheat flour, honey, milk and oats. It’s one of my favorite homemade bread recipes!
Recipe Ingredients for Honey Oat Bread
Here’s what you’ll need to make this bread:
–3 cups all-purpose flour (I used half whole wheat flour)
–3/4 cups oats (either instant or old fashioned)
–1 TBSP instant yeast
–1 1/2 teaspoons salt
–1 cup milk
–1/4 cup lukewarm water
–2 tablespoons butter
–1/4 cup honey
Toppings:
- 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons honey, warmed
- 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons oats
HOW TO MAKE HOMEMADE HONEY OAT BREAD
If you’ve never made bread before, here is the basic formula for making your own at home. It really is an easy process and you’ll be thrilled with the results. Plus your entire house will smell like freshly baked bread which is amazing.
STEP 1: COMBINE DRY INGREDIENTS
In a large bowl, or the bowl of a standing mixer, combine the flour, oats, yeast, and salt. Set aside.
STEP 2: COMBINE LIQUID INGREDIENTS
In a small bowl, or a two cup measuring cup, warm the milk so that it’s hot enough to melt the butter, but not boiling. Add the butter, stirring until melted, then stir in the water and honey.
STEP 3: MIX & KNEAD THE BREAD
Pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture, mixing with a dough hook until it just comes together to form a dough. Knead in the mixer, with the dough hook attachment, for 7-10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic (if you’re making this recipe by hand, the dough will be very sticky at first; flour your hands and work surface generously and be patient). If the dough is still very wet and sticky after 5 minutes of kneading, add more flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough is barely tacky. If the dough is too dry, add water, 1 teaspoon (5 ml) at a time, to soften it up.
STEP 4: FIRST RISE
Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover, and allow to rise until doubled, about 1/2 to 1 hour.
STEP 5: PUNCH DOUGH AND SHAPE IT
Once doubled, place the dough on a clean, dry work surface. If the dough is too sticky, lightly flour the surface before continuing. With your fingers, flatten the dough into a 9 by 12-inch rectangle. Tightly roll the dough, tucking the ends as needed, into a loaf. Place the shaped dough into a 9×5-inch loaf pan and brush the top with the warmed honey and sprinkle with the oats. Allow loaf to rise in a slightly warm location until doubled, about 1/2 hour. (It’s winter so I find my bread rises best in the oven- I turn the oven on 350 for a minute or two, then turn it off. Place loaf on the oven rack with the light on.)
STEP 6: SECOND RISE
When dough has doubled, preheat oven to 350 degrees (180 C). I just leave the dough in the oven while preheating.
STEP 7: BAKE THE BREAD
Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until the bread is deep golden brown and the internal temperature is about 190 degrees. Transfer to a wire cooling rack and allow to cool completely before serving.
I use a digital cooking thermometer near the end of the baking time to make sure the bread is fully cooked. Fully cooked bread will be 190-200 degrees F. Bread recipes that include milk will need to cook until 200 degrees. My all-time favorite cooking thermometer is the Thermapen. It’s super fast and incredibly durable. Another great thermometer is the ThermoPop which is a more basic version that works just as well!
STEP 8: COOL THE BREAD
Let the bread cool in the pan it cooked in so it can maintain it’s shape. Once it’s cooled you can transfer it to a cooling rack.
I prefer to cool it for at least 20 minutes. If you try and slice it while it’s too hot, the loaf will get smashed- it’s a soft bread!
AVOID SUNKEN BREAD
The easiest and best way to avoid sunken bread is to use a cooking thermometer to check the inside of the loaf. Fully cooked bread will register 200°F on a thermometer. My all-time favorite thermometer is the Thermapen. It’s super fast and incredibly durable. Another great cooking thermometer is the ThermoPop which is a more basic version that works just as well!
Soft & Sweet Honey Oat Bread
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour can use half whole wheat flour
- 3/4 cups oats either instant or old fashioned
- 1 TBSP instant yeast
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 cup milk
- 1/4 cup lukewarm water
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/4 cup honey
Toppings:
- 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons honey warmed
- 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons oats
Instructions
- In a large bowl, or the bowl of a standing mixer, combine the flour, oats, yeast, and salt.
- In a small bowl, or a two cup measuring cup, warm the milk so that it’s hot enough to melt the butter, but not boiling. Add the butter, stirring until melted, then stir in the water and honey.
- Pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture, mixing with a dough hook until it just comes together to form a dough. Knead in the mixer, with the dough hook attachment, for 7-10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic (if you’re making this recipe by hand, the dough will be very sticky at first; flour your hands and work surface generously and be patient). If the dough is still very wet and sticky after 5 minutes of kneading, add more flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough is barely tacky. If the dough is too dry, add water, 1 teaspoon (5 ml) at a time, to soften it up.
- Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover, and allow to rise until doubled, about 1/2 to 1 hour.
- Once doubled, place the dough on a clean, dry work surface. If the dough is too sticky, lightly flour the surface before continuing. With your fingers, flatten the dough into a 9 by 12-inch rectangle. Tightly roll the dough, tucking the ends as needed, into a loaf. Place the shaped dough into a 9×5-inch loaf pan and brush the top with the warmed honey and sprinkle with the oats. Allow loaf to rise in a slightly warm location until doubled, about 1/2 hour. (It's winter so I find my bread rises best in the oven- I turn the oven on 350 for a minute or two, then turn it off. Place loaf on the oven rack with the light on. You can see my set-up in the picture below.)
- When dough has doubled, preheat oven to 350 degrees (180 C). (I just leave the dough in the oven while preheating.) Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until the bread is deep golden brown and the internal temperature is about 190 degrees. Transfer to a wire cooling rack and allow to cool completely before serving.
Video
Nutrition
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How do you store homemade bread?
You’ll store bread in an airtight container. I bought bread bags off Amazon.
Best Bread Pan?
I bake a lot of bread and the pans I prefer are either ceramic, glass or cast iron. These pans will bake bread more evenly and release the bread more easily after baking. I don’t like using dark or nonstick pans because the bread cooks unevenly. It darkens on the outside before the bread is cooked on the inside, so the coloring is uneven. Read more about which bread pan is the best here!
Can I use raw honey?
Enjoy this bread recipe? Here are even more recipes for homemade bread to try:
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- Homemade Hawaiian Bread
- Cinnamon Raisin Bread
- Parmesan Garlic Dinner Rolls
- Fabulous French Bread
- Sweet Orange Dinner Rolls
- Homemade Hawaiian Bread
- Easy Homemade Cheesy Breadsticks
- Tomato Parmesan Flatbread
- Potato Bread Recipe
- Soft Cornmeal Dinner Rolls
- Soft White Sandwich Bread
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Rhiannon says
Absolutely amazing bread! So light and fluffy! And the flavour…oh man!! My boyfriend doesn’t like the flavour of bread on its own but when I had him taste it he stole the whole piece! Lol
The single issue I had was that some of the honey that I brushed on the dough ran down to the bottom and caused the underside to be sticky and burned. Easily cut off though. I think next time I’ll brush it on after the second rise.
Nicole says
So glad you liked it! Sorry to hear about the honey mess 🙁
Christine Gardner says
I love this bread and make it often. I get so many compliments. Thank you so much for sharing. One thing I’ve noticed is the knead time with stand mixer is a lot longer than the 7-10 minutes. I usually turn my stand mixer on a 2 and sometimes it can take 25 minutes. I just do it till the dough starts coming away from the walls of the bowl and starts clinging to the dough hook. Again, live this recipe!
Jessica says
Interesting about the knead time- I’ll have to try it! THanks Christine!
Mike says
I make this regularly and everyone loves it! Which is actually a little surprising to me, because it always comes out a little heavy/dense. I have read and analyzed the recipe over and over again, I cannot figure out what I am doing wrong. I do use 100% white flour and I mix by hand. The stickiness goes away within a minute or two and I kneed for another couple minutes before it starts getting stiffer, it does not take me 7-10 minites. I’ve tried adding a bit more water, and kneeding it in more, doesn’t seem to make a difference in the end. The dough doesn’t seem to rise as much as I would expect, it certainly doesn’t “double” as the recipe indicates. Any ideas? Could it just be the flour?
Thanks!
Jessica says
Hi Mike, ok I have a few thoughts. First- how warm is the environment you’re rising your bread in? During winter at my house, I often opt to raise bread dough in the oven! I just turn it on for 2-4 minutes, until it gets to just above 100*F, then turn it off. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set it in the warm oven.
Another idea- add a bit less flour. Sticky bread dough is not really what we want, but we don’t want all the tackiness to go away. Even though you don’t feel your dough “needs” another 5 minutes of kneading time, do it anyways! A proper knead goes a long way in improving the texture of bread. This is where a stand mixer comes in handy, but you can knead by hand.
These are my 3 ideas- warmth, a tad less flour and proper kneading time. Let me know how it goes!! –Jessica
Mike says
Thanks Jessica, I will take those things into consideration on my next bake!