Cranberry-Orange Oatmeal Bread

I decided to go for a sweet bread this week. And since I had one lone orange wrinkling in the fruit bowl, too dry to eat, it sparked the idea for this. The zest was still salvagable and I managed to get a little juice from it. And what goes good with orange? CRANBERRIES!! Plenty of dried fruit in my pantry! So giddi-yup!

Ingredients:
2-3 cups bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oats
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1 egg
zest of 1 orange, plus its juice
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1- 1 1/2 cup warm water at 120F

First off, grate the zest, and squeeze the juice of an orange. Set aside.
In a big bowl, mix the whole wheat flour, 1 cup of the bread flour, yeast, salt, sugar and orange zest.
Heat the water to 120 and add the orange juice and cranberries. That way, the crans will soften a bit!!
Pour the liquid in the flour mix and whisk with a fork, add the egg and another cup bread flour. When it starts coming together transfer to the kneading surface and keand for 8-10 minutes, adding more flour if necessary. When it's all smooth shape into a ball and put it in an oiled bowl and rise until doubled, about 45 minutes.
Gently punch it down, knead for 1-2 minutes and shape to fit a loaf pan, or into an old-fashionned loaf and rise again for about 30 minutes, until double in size.
*I was gonna do it on a tray but then decided otherwise. I like the big slices I get in the loaf pan, the bread always gets nice and tall.
After the second rise, brush with eggwhites and sprinkle some oats on top.
bake in a 350F oven for 35-40 minutes.
When it's done it'll sound hollow when tapped.
Take it out of the pan immediately and cool on a rack.
I had a couple slices for lunch, with goat's cheese and coleslaw...the sweetness of the bread go really nice with the tartness of the cheese.



It'll make great french toasts too!!

I'm sending this over to Yeastspotting!!