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2 ½ teaspoons salt (14 g)

Simmer the dates in ¾ cup boiling water for about ten minutes, stirring to be sure they don’t stick. Usually they lose their shape while they simmer; if yours don’t, mash ’em. Add ¾ cup cold water and cool to lukewarm; add the lemon juice and oil, and stir in the bulgur wheat.

Dissolve the yeast in the ½ cup warm water.

Stir the flour and salt together, fluffing the flour. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture, and add the cooled date/wheat liquid and the yeast. Mix them together, and adjust to make a dough that is soft but workable; knead it for about 20 minutes.

Form the dough into a ball and place it smooth side up in the bowl. Cover and keep in a warm, draft-free place. After about an hour and a half, gently poke the center of the dough about ½ inch deep with your wet finger. If the hole doesn’t fill in at all or if the dough sighs, it is ready for the next step. Press flat, form into a smooth round, and let the dough rise once more as before. The second rising will take about half as much time as the first.

Press the dough flat and divide in two. Round it and let it rest until relaxed; this will help in the shaping, since the relaxed dough is less likely to tear, which this dough does tend to do. Shape the loaves carefully, forming either round hearth loaves or standard pan loaves. Should the dough tear while you are shaping the loaves, press it back together with wet fingers.

For the best rise, keep the dough in a warm, only slightly humid place. If, when it is ready to go into the oven, you find that it has torn on the top, use a sharp knife to slash the loaf artfully, guided by the tears.

Bake in a preheated oven, 350°F, for about 45 minutes or a little longer.

Oatmeal Bread

1 ⅓ cups raw old-fashioned rolled oats,

OR

⅔ cup raw steel-cut oats (both weigh 106 g)*

2 cups boiling water (475 ml)

1 tablespoon salt (16.5 g)*

2 teaspoons active dry yeast (¼ oz or 7 g)

½ cup warm water (120 ml)

3 tablespoons honey (45 ml)

¼ cup oil (60 ml) (optional)

5 cups finely ground whole wheat bread flour (750 g)

Cooked oatmeal makes up the liquid in this recipe, and the result is an outstanding loaf, very different from, and totally superior to, bread made by adding raw oats. When the porridge is made with rolled oats, the bread is light and bright; it has a rich creamy flavor—very subtle, but with great warmth. When you use steel-cut oats instead, the loaves are not so spectacularly high, but the flavor is even better, and the bread has outstanding keeping qualities. Either way you get bread good for toast, good for any kind of sandwich. We consider this one of the best basic breads for everyday eating.

Cook the oatmeal in the water until it begins to thicken; add the salt and set aside for several hours or overnight. If you use leftover oatmeal, bring it to room temperature.

Dissolve the yeast in the ½ cup water.

Mix the honey and oil into the oatmeal, and add it and the yeast to the flour. Even if the dough seems very stiff, don’t add more water just yet: the flour will absorb water from the oatmeal very slowly, so the dough softens as you work. Knead the somewhat stiff dough for about ten minutes, and if it still seems stiff then, add water gradually by wetting your hands and kneading until the dough has taken in as much water as it requires to become soft and supple. If you use leftover oatmeal that is fairly thin, you may find that you need to add flour on the board instead of water.

Form the dough into a ball and place it smooth side up in the bowl. Cover and keep in a warm, draft-free place. After about an hour and a half, gently poke the center of the dough about ½ inch deep with your wet finger. If the hole doesn’t fill in at all or if the dough sighs, it is ready for the next step. Press flat, form into a smooth round, and let the dough rise once more as before. The second rising will take about half as much time as the first.

Press the dough flat and divide in two. Shape it into balls and let them rest,