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I decided to revisit my whole wheat/oatmeal recipe to see if I can transform it into a no-knead recipe. I revised it to have the ingredient ratio promoted by my bread book. I also took out any oil and sugar that I was using before. Sugar is unnecessary and oil just slimes it. (I think oil is better for pizza crusts.)

• 1 ½ c. water
• ¾ tbsp. yeast
• ¾ tbsp. salt
• 2 c. whole wheat flour
• 1 c. oatmeal
• ¼ c. gluten flour

As usual, I had me some fraction math problems thanks to using not-metric. The original recipe size said to use 1 ½ tbsp. of both yeast and salt. This amount is for making 2 (1.5 pounds each) or 3 loaves (1 pound each). So I wanted to divide this by 2 since I was only making enough dough for 1 loaf. I whipped out the white board marker and went to work.

Okay, half of 1 ½ tbsp. is ¾ tbsp. Now to convert that to teaspoons, since my measuring spoons only come in ¼ tsp, ½ tsp, 1 tsp, and 1 tbsp. Hmm... Multiply by 3 gives me 9/4 tsp., or 2 ¼ tsp. It sounds so easy now, but I was staring at the marker board for a while late last night trying to make sure I did it right. Not only that, but I screwed up the first time and added some weird amount of yeast then had to do some fraction subtraction to figure out how much more I needed to add. I'm not convinced I got it right, but I think I'm at least within ¼ tsp.

One day, I'll want to make the switch to weight measurements instead. I'll need a scale. I haven't looked into this, so I don't know what's needed.

I thought of maybe skipping the gluten and using whole wheat. But I've had the gluten for a while now and am really just trying to get rid of it all. Maybe next time I do this bread, I'll leave it out and see what happens.

Steps: after mixing in a bowl with a wooden spoon, the dough rose covered on the counter for 2 hours. In went in the fridge overnight. This morning, I took it out and did the cloaking thing. It didn't quite work out as there was no soft give like with all-purpose flour. I formed it into a long loaf, coated it with all-purpose, and put it on corn meal on a wood cutting board. It sat there for 1 hour and 40 minutes. With 30 minutes left, I started to preheat the oven to 350°F (since I have a baking stone). Then I baked for 65 minutes. (I had to keep on eye on it to get the right darkness.)

So how'd it turn out? At the time of this posting, I don't know yet. But I'll attach an addendum below when I do.

Addendum: When I first sliced the bread, I could tell that I have the same wet problem: I need to bake the thing longer. I need to stop fearing that I'll burn the loaf. But still, it tastes really good when toasted, which I always do. I just feel that this can be improved somehow. It's not where I want it to be. I worry that I need to use some all-purpose flour. Unless... unless it's possible to do a spelt/oatmeal/whole wheat blend. Hmm...