Oat & Spinach Bread Rolls Recipe

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Today I’m sharing a delicious and healthy oat and spinach bread rolls recipe.  Quaker Oats is encouraging consumers to increase the amount of soluble fibre in their diets by getting creative in the kitchen and cooking with oats.  Soluble fiber has been linked to lowering cholesterol, and oats are a fantastic source of it, so as part of their #FeelingFibrant campaign, I was challenged by Quaker Oats to come up with an imaginative and healthy oat-based recipe and these yummy and healthy bread rolls are the result.

Oats are a real staple in our house – as well as our favourite breakfasts of porridge and homemade granola, I also tend to throw them into my recipes wherever possible, giving our makes and bakes a healthy boost. Recently I also shared a treat recipe with some sneaky added oats!  One recipe I almost always add oats to is homemade bread. Even when using white flour, the oats disappear into the texture of the bread and you’d never know they are there – a great way to improve the diet of even the most hardened white bread addicts!

I decided to try making some fun green bread for this challenge, and adding spinach seemed the perfect way to do it naturally. I was so happy with the result and it passed the children’s taste test with flying colours – they ate it all up and came back begging for more.  I’d call that a great success – sneaking in both healthy spinach and healthy oats into one recipe with no complaints from the children!

I used a half and half mixture of wholemeal and white flour to keep the rolls fairly light, and a handful of mixed seeds to give them a little extra fibre boost.  You could adapt the recipe to use all wholemeal or all white flour if you prefer.

Oat and Spinach Bread Rolls

Ingredients: (makes 8 rolls)

• 225g wholemeal bread flour
• 225g white bread flour
• 2 x 27g sachets Quaker ‘Oat So Simple’ Original
• 2 tbs mixed seeds
• 1 tsp yeast (I use Doves Farm Quick Yeast)
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt (I use crushed sea salt flakes)
• 75g fresh baby leaf spinach
• 300ml warm water
• 1 tbs olive oil

Method:

Weigh out the flour, then place in a large bowl with the oats, seeds, yeast, sugar and salt.  Mix together until well combined.

Wash the spinach leaves, then whizz them up in a food processor or blender until finely chopped.  Add half of the water, then whizz it up some more.  Add the spinach liquid and the rest of the water to the dry ingredients along with the olive oil and mix well with your hands to form a dough.

Tip out onto a clean work surface, scraping all of the dough out of the bowl, and start to knead for around ten minutes until the dough stops being so sticky and becomes more elastic.  If it remains sticky after ten minutes, add a little more flour and knead for a minute or two longer.

Oil a large bowl or pan and place the dough inside.  Cover and leave to rise for around an hour until it has doubled in size.  Rising time will depend on the temperature of the room – it will rise quicker if it’s quite warm.

Whilst the dough is rising, oil a large baking sheet or tray.  Once the dough has doubled in size, knead it gently a couple of times to knock it back then divide it up into 8 equal pieces. Shape them into rounds with your hands, then place them on the baking tray, cover loosely with clingfilm or a plastic bag and leave to rise again.

Once your rolls are rising well, preheat the oven to 220°C (450°F/gas mark 8) .  If you wish, you can add a shallow baking tray filled with boiling water to the bottom of the oven, which creates steam to aid the bread rising (steam slows down the hardening of the crust, which allows the bread more time to rise before the crust is formed).

When the oven is at the correct temperature, spray the rolls with a little cold water (this also aids the rising in the oven) and pop them in the oven to bake for 15 minutes.  Once the rolls are golden brown, take them out of the oven and tap the bottom of the rolls to check that they sound hollow.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool, or serve warm.

Once cool the rolls can be bagged up and frozen for a later day. Take them out of the freezer the night before you need them and leave to defrost, then refresh them by popping them in the oven at around 180°C (350°F/gas mark 4) for 5 minutes or so to heat through.

I served these rolls up for lunch stuffed with cheddar cheese and ham – I had a bit of fun with them too, of course! They were a big hit and the boys have already asked when they can have green monster rolls again!

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Oat and Spinach Bread Rolls

Delicious and healthy oat and spinach bread rolls recipe with Quaker Oats.

Course: Lunch

Author: Grace

Ingredients

• 225 g wholemeal bread flour
• 225 g white bread flour
• 2 x 27g sachets Quaker 'Oat So Simple' Original
• 2 tbs mixed seeds
• 1 tsp  yeast (I use Doves Farm Quick Yeast)
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1  tsp salt (I use crushed sea salt flakes)
• 75 g fresh baby leaf spinach
• 300 ml warm water
• 1 Tbs olive oil

Instructions

1. Weigh out the flour, then place in a large bowl with the oats, seeds, yeast, sugar and salt.  Mix together until well combined.
2. Wash the spinach leaves, then whizz them up in a food processor or blender until finely chopped.  Add half of the water, then whizz it up some more.  Add the spinach liquid and the rest of the water to the dry ingredients along with the olive oil and mix well with your hands to form a dough.
3. Tip out onto a clean work surface, scraping all of the dough out of the bowl, and start to knead for around ten minutes until the dough stops being so sticky and becomes more elastic.  If it remains sticky after ten minutes, add a little more flour and knead for a minute or two longer.
4. Oil a large bowl or pan and place the dough inside.  Cover and leave to rise for around an hour until it has doubled in size.  Rising time will depend on the temperature of the room - it will rise quicker if it's quite warm.
5. Whilst the dough is rising, oil a large baking sheet or tray.  Once the dough has doubled in size, knead it gently a couple of times to knock it back then divide it up into 8 equal pieces. Shape them into rounds with your hands, then place them on the baking tray, cover loosely with clingfilm or a plastic bag and leave to rise again.
6. Once your rolls are rising well, preheat the oven to 220°C (450°F/gas mark 8) .  If you wish, you can add a shallow baking tray filled with boiling water to the bottom of the oven, which creates steam to aid the bread rising (steam slows down the hardening of the crust, which allows the bread more time to rise before the crust is formed).
7. When the oven is at the correct temperature, spray the rolls with a little cold water (this also aids the rising in the oven) and pop them in the oven to bake for 15 minutes.  Once the rolls are golden brown, take them out of the oven and tap the bottom of the rolls to check that they sound hollow.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool, or serve warm.
8. Once cool the rolls can be bagged up and frozen for a later day.

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