Posted on 58 Comments

Butter Toasted Oatmeal Sourdough Bread

This butter toasted oatmeal sourdough bread can be added to the category of my favorite breads. Toasted oatmeal adds such a nutty and creamy flavor. My kids love it for its softness. Spread some butter on it and have your perfect breakfast.

Ingredients

Sourdough starter 

Soaker

  • 50g rolled oats
  • 15g butter
  • 100g hot boiling water

Dough

  • 270g bread flour
  • 30g whole wheat flour
  • 218g water
  • All soaker
  • 60g levain
  • 6g salt
  • Extra oats to cover the dough

Directions 

Starter

  • 10 pm add starter to the water and whisk together, add flour, mix well, cover loosely, let sit at room temp 74-78F until in about 8-10 hours starter reaches its peak (triples or more in volume).
  • Learn how to make starter from scratch here.

Soaker

  • 10 pm toast oats on medium heat for 3-5 minutes until golden, add butter, stir well until all oats covered in butter, pour hot boiling water, let oats soak overnight, covered.

Dough

  • 7 am mix water, flour and all the soaker, cover, let it rest 1 hour for autolyse.
  • During the autolyse the flour absorbs the water, becoming fully hydrated. This activates gluten development.
  • 8 am add sourdough starter.
  • Mix on low speed of your mixing machine for 2-3 min, or KitchenAid on speed 3 for 3-4 minutes until well incorporated. 
  • Also if for some reason you don’t have a mixing machine, you can incorporate starter into the dough by hands. Using Rubaud method or slap and fold method (about 5-7 min).
  • Cover, let it rest for 30 minutes.
  • 8:30 am add salt . Mix on low speed of your mixing machine for 2-3 min, or with KitchenAid on speed 3 for 5-6 minutes until well incorporated. The dough should come up together, but still be sticky on the bottom. 

Note:  if you perform mixing by hands, using Rubaud method or slap and fold method, that takes about 10-20 minutes. Do a couple of stops in between kneading, it helps tightening up gluten.

  • Continue gluten development and structure building by performing stretches and folds during the warm fermentation period.
  • Leave to rest 30 min. At 74-78F /23-26C.
  • 9 am wet your hands and perform 1st stretch and fold.
  • 9:30 am 2nd stretch and fold.
  • 10 am 3rd stretch and fold.
  • 10:30 am 4thstretch and fold.

Note: Performing stretches and folds helps with gluten development. Keep monitoring the dough, if you feel it proofing slowly, you can extend time in between stretches up to 45 minutes.

  • After the final stretch let the dough proof for 30 minutes at 76-80F / 23-26C. You should see some bubbles on the surface, the dough has to become lighter. We are looking for 40%-50% rise. 

Preshaping sourdough 

  • 11 am Transfer the dough on to a work surface and dust its top with flour. Flip the dough over so the floured side faces down. 
  • Fold the dough onto itself so the flour on the surface remains entirely on the outside of the loaf. This will become the crust. 
  • Place the dough round on a work surface and let it rest for 30 minutes uncovered.

Shaping sourdough 

  • 11.30 am Dust the dough with whole wheat flour. Use a dough scraper to flip it over on to a work surface so the floured side faces down. 
  • Starting at the side closest to you, pull the right 2 corners of the dough to the left, then fold them up into half of the dough. Repeat this action on the left side too.
  • Finally, roll the dough. Shape it into a smooth, taut roll.
  • Spray it generously with water and roll it in the mixture of seeds, or just regular oats.
  • Transfer the roll, seam side up, into a prepared proofing basket (loaf pan with kitchen towel).
  • Cover it with plastic and return the dough to the 78F / 26C environment for 15 minutes. 
  • Then transfer the dough to rise for 14-24 hours in refrigerator at 40F / 4C.

Baking

Next morning

  • Preheat your oven to 500F, place a cast iron pan with the lid inside for 45 minutes – 1 hour.
  • Remove the dough from the fridge. 
  • Flip it over on a parchment paper, score it with a sharp knife or a scoring lame
  • Transfer it on to the hot cast iron pan, cover with lid (to create steam for a beautiful and crusty crumb).
  • Bake at 500F for 15 minutes with lid on.
  • Remove the lid, lower the temperature to 450F. 
  • Bake for 20 more minutes until golden brown.

Let it cool for 2 hours and enjoy your butter toasted oatmeal sourdough bread.

58 thoughts on “Butter Toasted Oatmeal Sourdough Bread

  1. Can you use only bread flour?

    1. Yes, absolutely

  2. Hi Natasha, sorry I am a bit confused, if I see the levain salt and water it is calculated based on 300 g flour but the whole wheat flour 30 g is stated 19%, is it typo on the gram or typo on the percentage?
    Sorry for asking

    1. Caroline, hi!
      Thank you for pointing it out. It was a typo. Will fix it.

  3. Do you use unsalted butter for the recipe?

  4. Hi Natasha, please can you check the amount of flour? Because I think it should be 300 grams if you use 60 grams of levain (20%). Thank you.

    1. I think it adds up the flours- both bread and whole wheat plus the oats gets you to 300g

      1. Thank you, Nadja 🙏

    2. Hi!
      I was counting oatmeal as a flour.
      Thank you 🙏

  5. Hi Natasha,
    Do you think I could feed the starter (say 20g instead of 5) in the morning instead of the night before to shorten the process?

    1. Yes! Absolutely! You can follow your regular routine of feeding starter
      🙏

  6. I prepared my soaker the night before as instructed and I also autolysed my flour and water to begin building structure and save a little time in the morning:). I multiplied the recipe times four and made three nice size loaves. They came out beautiful! Thank you again for your inspiration! I would love to see some videos on YouTube of your bread process!

    1. Anita!
      Thank you so much for your kind feedback 🙏

    2. Hi Anita
      Do you have good luck with autolysing the night before and leaving out overnight
      Then adding levain in morning?

      1. Please
        Natasha I’d appreciate your advice on the autolyse question too!

      2. Hi!
        Just replied

      3. Yes, you can do that if you’d keep the dough at fridge or chiller, otherwise gluten will be affected.

  7. If I want to double the recipe at what point in the process do I divide the dough into two separate loaves?

    1. Hi!
      During preshaping you have to divide the dough in 2 loaves 🙏

      1. Thank you 🙏🏼

  8. Hi Natasha,

    What do you mean by bread flour? Unfortunately, we in Germany have very different views on this. I have now used 1150 rye flour as bread flour and fear that it was wrong.

    1. Jan, sorry for the confusion. I’m using white flour with protein content 12.7%

  9. This is absolutely my FAVORITE sourdough recipe. Hint of butter in the bread along with oats add to the richness and the texture! Well done Natalya!

    1. Thank you so much 💖

  10. Natalya, the smell of the soaker is heavenly. I started last night and I was also making your 100% sandwich loaf so I messed up and added 240gr of water for the oat soaker to this recipe. This morning when I combined flours and water for autolyse and the dough was way too liquid, I realized my mistake. So I decided to double the recipe and I toasted some more oats, soaked them in very little boiling water adjusting to just complete the water % for a second loaf. I honestly cant wait for them to be baked tomorrow. I have a little dinner party and I am bringing them as a gift. Im sure they will be crazy about them.
    Thank you so much for sharing your recipe!!!

    1. Mayte, thank you for your feedback! I’m pretty sure it will be so delicious!
      Enjoy 🙏

  11. Hi there, would love to try this recipe. But I am really confused. Your baking percentages, (disregarding the water and flour of the starter from the night before), look like they are based on 300 total g of both the bread flour and the WW. But your total of those flours is 250g. Which is correct for the dough. 220g bread and 30 WW, or 300g bread and 30WW, or something different? I thought that the flour is supposed to add up to 100%? Please clarify.

    1. Hi!
      I was counting oats as a part of total amount of flour.

      1. Ah, got it. I tried the recipe with using my stand mixer. The bread overproofed. Will try again, as I love your photo and the ingredients.

      2. Thank you 🙏

      3. I am going to give this a second try. 2 quick questions. If after mixing in the stand mixer per your instructions, and 4 sets of S&F, the dough is really sticky and still spreads out, does this mean I overproofed? I did 30minute intervals.Should I increase to 45 minutes and do more sets?

      4. Sorry, did you try to mix the dough longer? It should clear the bowl but stick to the bottom. It’s lower hydration dough, do you should be fine.
        Or your flour has less protein

      5. Ty so much for your responses. Your help is invaluable. I am using King Arthur Bread flour and King Arthur WW flour. High enough protein? Would you suggest something else?

      6. Victoria, hi!
        Yes, that’s the same flour I’m using.
        So I would suggest longer mixing with couple minutes stops in between( stops will help to tighten up the gluten) then continue back to mixing. Usually total mixing time shouldn’t take longer then 10 min.

  12. Perfect. Will try your suggestion. Hope mine comes out!! Thank you so much.

    1. Good luck 🙏

  13. Hi Natalya, can I use instant oats for this recipe? I’m thinking it might need less soaking time. Appreciate your advice. Thanks.

    1. Yes, absolutely!
      They will get soaked very fast 🙏

  14. Hi Natalya, Thank you for reposting this recipe on IG. I can’t believe how difficult it is to find a fail proof Oatmeal Sourdough bread recipe for my level of experience on IG. I’m curious if you have ever tried using the steel cut oat variety for the soaker?

    1. Thank you!
      Sure you can use steel cut oats. Let them cook longer though

  15. Thank you so much! The bread came out absolutely amazing. One of the best recipes I used in the 2 years of baking sourdough

    1. Aww 🥰 thank you 🙏

  16. Hi, thank you for sharing this amazing recipe. It’s so delicious and definitely a keeper. I was wondering if I can replace the oats for muesli? Will it work the same way?

    1. Hi!
      Yes!
      I think it will work the same!
      Thank you for your feedback 🙏

  17. Hi Natasha,

    I have made this recipe a few times and absolutely adore it, it’s now my regular weekly loaf but I’m struggling to get oven spring/much of an ear. Do you have any tips?
    Thanks, Hazel

    1. Hazel, hi!
      Thank you for your kind feedback.
      You can try to proof it less or more, just to test it, Since I can’t see the crumb.
      Usually you won’t be able to get an ear if the loaf was under or Overproofed

  18. Hi! This recipe looks really good
    Is there a way to adapt it to be a whole wheat loaf instead of a white loaf?

    1. Sure, you can do a whole wheat loaf. Just increase final hydration up to 86-87%

  19. Hello, Natasha. Can I use whole grain oatmeal instead of oatmeal?
    Do i need to add butter ?

    1. Hi!
      Sure you can use whole grain oatmeal. Butter adds softness. But without butter bread will be delicious too 🙏

  20. Amazing! Thank you! ❤️

  21. Hi loved the look of the recipe but I as yet haven’t used sourdough starter, would it be possible to use this recipe with instant yeast.
    Many thanks, Michelle

    1. Hi!
      Yes you can use the yeast, but the recipe and directions will be completely different . You can create your own sourdough starter

      https://natashasbaking.com/sourdough-starter-from-scratch-in-7-days/

  22. Hi Natasha! I am relatively new to sourdough. I have made basic sourdough using a rye starter made of 50g rye, 50g water, 50g starter. I see here you have specific recipe to make the starter…. Can I use my normal starter, or will I need to follow this starter recipe for best results? Thanks for your help!

    1. Hi!
      You can follow the proportions for the starter as it used to. Mine is older and stronger, that’s why the proportions are higher.

  23. Can I soak oats for 18 hours? Does it affect the recipe?

  24. This looks delicious. I’m curious as the bulk proof seems much shorter than I’m used to. Is it due to the lower hydration?

  25. I would love to try this but do not like rye flour so can I use white whole wheat flour instead?

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