Sally Shelby's Oatmeal Bread

I am not the best bread baker. But when I was a child, I wanted to grow up and turn out loaves of fresh white bread every week for my family--like Sally Shelby did. Sally was one of the moms in our neighborhood. She was an AMAZING cook, and we lived for her bread. Occasionally she would bring us a loaf of her Oatmeal Bread, still warm from the oven. It was gone in 15 minutes. I'm not kidding. It would have been 5 minutes; except we had to slice and butter it first.

Here is Sally's Oatmeal Bread recipe. It's a treasure! Almost foolproof, it still is one of the only yeast breads I can make that doesn't turn out like a hockey puck.

1 1/4 C. regular rolled oats
2 1/2 t. salt
1/4 C. light molasses
1/4 C. honey
2 T. butter
2 C. boiling water
2 eggs
2 envelopes yeast
1/3 C. warm (not hot) water
5 to 7 C. flour

Place oats, salt, molasses, honey and butter in large bowl. Cover with boiling water and let stand until lukewarm. Dissolve yeast in warm water; stir into the cooled oatmeal mixture along with the slightly beaten eggs. Measure the flour; add enough to oatmeal mixture to make a soft dough.

Turn out on floured surface and knead thoroughly being careful to add only enough additional flour to keep dough from sticking to the board. Knead about 10 minutes. Place in a greased mixing bowl and let rise in a warm (but not hot) place until almost double in bulk. Punch down; divide itno loaves. Knead piece of dough until smooth and put into well-greased loaf pans (2 5X9" or 3 4X8"). Let rise again until almost doubled. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. Cool and slice with a serrated knife.