Milk and oat bread in a ceramic casserole

This simple, easy-to-make recipe won't leave you indifferent. This milk and oat bread is soft and tender, “brioche-like” from the milk and flavored with rosemary honey.

Perfect to serve sliced at breakfasts and accompanied by homemade jam, the aroma it leaves in the house is so wonderful you'll want to bottle it as a home fragrance. Baked inside the Emile Henry ceramic casserole, you get a crispier crust and a more tender interior.

You can mix and knead by hand if you wish, but using the Kitchen Aid (with the dough hook that all models include) the process is easier, since this recipe has a wet, sticky dough, which makes it a bit heavy to do by hand.

Bérard olive wood flour spoon

Ingredients

• 200ml whole milk
• 60g rolled oats
• 420g bread flour
• 1 packet of baker's yeast (7g)
• 30g butter
• 2 eggs
• Pinch of salt to taste
• 4-5 tablespoons rosemary honey (or whichever you prefer, but make sure it's good quality)

KitchenAid Artisan 5KSM175 stand mixer, Emile Henry Delight ceramic casserole and Pallarès carbon steel kitchen knife with Boxwood handle

Preparation

1. We begin by warming the milk until it's lukewarm. Add the 5 tablespoons of honey and stir until dissolved.
2. In the bowl of our KitchenAid we pour the flour, salt, oats and mix. Attach the dough hook and place it on the mixer. Add the yeast and then the milk with the honey and start mixing at medium speed.
3. Add one egg and mix well before adding the next. Continue kneading; you'll see the dough is very wet—don't worry, keep kneading about 5 minutes until it stops sticking to the sides of the bowl.
4. Now add the butter and, if needed, a little more flour (no more than 2 tablespoons) and continue kneading for 3 more minutes.
5. The dough will be as wet as Brioche dough, but it should hold together in a kind of ball and be elastic.
6. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly to shape into a ball. Pour into the base of our Delight ceramic casserole by Emile Henry*, lightly greased with vegetable oil and cover to let rise in a dry, warm place for an hour and a half/two hours.
7. Once the time has passed and it has doubled in size, turn it out again onto a floured surface, knead to release the gas and shape into a ball again.
8. Let it proof again for 1 hour. Turn it out again onto a floured surface and, while we knock out the air, preheat the oven to 180º and place the casserole without the lid in the oven to heat it.
9. After a few minutes, take it out of the oven carefully to avoid burning yourself, pour the dough inside, score the surface with the tip of a knife in two lines, or as I do, making a square on the surface, brush the surface with a little milk and put it in the oven with the lid on on the upper rack. On the lower rack place a small ceramic bowl (ovenproof) with water to act as a steam source and bake for approximately 25 minutes.
10. For the last 15 minutes we will remove the lid from our casserole and let it bake and brown on the surface. If we see that it needs another minute, we will give it.
11. When removing from the oven, you'll know the bread is ready if, when turned over and tapping its base, it sounds hollow.

*For this recipe I used the Delight casserole; it works wonderfully for me because of its shape and the cooking qualities of the ceramic. I have it because my cooktop is induction, and when I cook on the stovetop it is the one I need. That said, if you do not have this casserole, you can follow the same recipe in a cast-iron casserole or in the Emile Henry round loaf pan.

Emile Henry Delight ceramic cocotte, Bérard olive wood flour spoon and Pallarès carbon steel kitchen knives with Boxwood handle