This is one of a number of recipes I’ve copied recently from various cookbooks in the collection of the museum I work at. Many of them require slight changes (due to, for instance, the types of yeast now commonly used), but are pretty easy and delicious. There are, of course, a lot of really horrendous looking recipes in these books as well, but I’m probably not going to waste my time on those!

This bread is from a 1930 cookbook written by the Women’s Club in Parco, which is what our neighboring town used to be called.  The bread is moderately sweet, and not hugely tall. When it’s first out of the oven, the crust is lightly crispy, but by the next day it has softened, and the inside of the bread is soft and dense.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 cups water, boiling
• 1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast
• 4 cups all-purpose flour

Stir together the oats, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Glass is ideal, if possible, to prevent getting melted plastic in your dough in the next step. Pour the boiling water over the oat mixture and let sit until cooled to room temperature. It smells nice while this happens!

Stir the yeast and the flour into the oat mixture until most of it holds together, then turn out onto a clean surface and knead for several minutes.

Clean, dry, and grease your bowl, giving the dough some time to rest, then return to the dough and continue kneading until a soft dough is formed, and you don’t see any dry bits left. Form into a ball, place in the bowl, and turn to grease all over. Cover loosely and let rise until doubled.

Punch down the risen dough, divide in two, and shape into loaves. Place each into a lightly greased bread pan, cover loosely, and let rise until doubled again. During this time, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Bake 50 minutes, or until loaves sound hollow when tapped on their bottoms. Let cool on a wire rack before slicing.

Oatmeal Bread

From the Parco Cook Book.

• 1 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 cups water, boiling
• 1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast
• 4 cups all-purpose flour

Stir together the oats, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Pour the boiling water over the oat mixture and let sit until cooled to room temperature.

Stir the yeast and the flour into the oat mixture until most of it holds together, then turn out onto a clean surface and knead for several minutes. Clean, dry, and grease your bowl, giving the dough some time to rest, then return to the dough and continue kneading until a soft dough is formed, and you don’t see any dry bits left. Form into a ball, place in the bowl, and turn to grease all over. Cover loosely and let rise until doubled.

Punch down the risen dough, divide in two, and shape into loaves. Place each into a lightly greased bread pan, cover loosely, and let rise until doubled again. During this time, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Bake 50 minutes, or until loaves sound hollow when tapped on their bottoms. Let cool on a wire rack before slicing.