Oatmeal-Bulgar Bread

I was so excited that my unborn child agreed with this delicious bread! He/she is proving to be quite a picky eater and I haven't been able to eat wheat bread in about 4 months. I think it's because this recipe doesn't call for wheat flour, just wheat bran and the bulgar. So you still get the delicious wheat flavor.
It was soo good! I love the texture and it tasted awesome the day after as well.


Sponge:
(I think this is where the unique texture comes from, usually recipes calling for bulgar or cracked wheat have you cook it beforehand, but this one doesn't)



In a large bowl: 2 1/4 cups warm water; sprinkling the following over the top: 1 tablespoon (or 1 package) active dry yeast, 2 tablespoons light brown sugar, 2/3 cup bulgar wheat, fine or medium grind (I think cracked wheat would work if you don't have bulgar). Let stand for 5 minutes, then add 2 cups unbleached all purpose flour and beat hard for about 2 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 1 hour.


Oh yeah, check out all those bubbles!

Dough

Add the following to the sponge:1 1/4 cups regular rolled oats (I actually ran out so I used 1 cup of the rolled oats and 1/4 cup steel cut oats), 1/4 cup wheat bran, 1/4 cup light brown sugar, 3 tablespoons vegetable oil, 1 tablespoon salt. Add 3-3 1/2 cups of unbleached all purpose or bread flour 1/2 a cup at a time. When the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl turn out onto a floured board (or counter :)) and knead about five minutes.
Place in a greased container, turning once to coat, and then rise 1 1/2 to 2 hours at room temperature.


Oh yeah, put a little elbow grease into the kneading!

Grease three 8 by 4 inch loaf pans and divide the dough into 3 equal portions. Let raise in the pan around 45 minutes or until doubled. Twenty minutes before baking turn on the oven to 375 F. Using a serrated knife, gently slash the top of the loaves no more then 1/4 an inch deep. (I was feeling lazy at this time, so I didn't)

Bake on the center rack in the oven 35-40 minutes, or until you hear a hollow sound when you tap the loaves. (As you can see my loaves aren't exactly full size, I blame this on running a few errands and having the dough rise about an hour too long...oops!)

Note: So I made this bread again, and measured the dough by weight this time. Apparently my pans are just a little bigger then the size asked for because I did about 1 lb 8 oz loaves and it made just two. So if you like smaller loaves go for it, otherwise just make two. :)