I've been wanting to make the barley bread recipe from Maggie Glezer's A
Blessing of Breads for a while now, but have had no success getting hold of
the barley grits. I'm reluctant to mail-order from Arrowhead Mills, and
none of the other sources including other mail order places seem to have
them in stock.
Anyway, I tried making it with rolled oats instead of the barley grits, and
had very nice results. I had to add more flour than the original recipe
possibly because the oats absorb water differently than the barley. The
dough was on the sticky side and the bread did not have the most even crumb
I've ever produced.
Nevertheless, it worked. Using my standard bread quality test ("Is there
any left by 2pm if I leave a loaf in the company lunchroom?") it was a hit.
The recipe is in the archives of this list - not the recipe archives yet
for some reason. Really worth trying even if you can't get the barley grits.
- Jessica Weissman