It’s no secret that Norwegians love bread. Not only do we love and eat a lot of it in general, but many are also fantastic bakers.
I think it’s generally more common for people in Scandinavia to make their own loaves at home than in any other region of the world. We eat bread for breakfast, lunch, and even as a late evening snack before bed. Whether it’s for our lunch box or the more fancy open-faced sandwiches, bread has always played a huge part in our diet.
Oats today is a very popular ingredient in Norway and the nordic countries because it adapts well to the cold northern European climate. It is considered the 3rd most popular grain after wheat and barley.
In more recent years, it has also become in demand and fashionable because of its health benefits. It has high fiber content and is high in antioxidants, and has also been shown to be able to lower cholesterol levels and keep blood sugars in check.
In other words, not all carbs are bad for you—oats are great for our digestive health and because of the fiber, keep us full for longer.
For those of us who follow a vegan diet, there are oat-based products now made into everything from butter, whipped cream, and ice cream to milk, sour cream, and cream cheeses. It’s simply a magical food!
I’ve always wanted to come up with a really great recipe for oat bread, or as we call it, “havrebrød”. It always reminds me of being at home in Norway and is still my favorite thing to have for breakfast. I’m happy to say I think the recipe I’m sharing today came out fantastic, so of course, I had to share it with all of you!
NORSK HAVREBRØD (Norwegian Oat Bread)
2 cups (5 dl) non-dairy milk (I used Oatly oat milk)
2 cups (5 dl) water
1 packet (2 ¼ tsp) active dry yeast
6 tbsp maple syrup (or other syrup)
4 cups (10 dl) whole wheat flour
4 cups (10 dl) sifted unbleached, all-purpose flour (plus perhaps another ½ cup to adjust the dough)
2 cups (5 dl) old fashioned oats + extra for sprinkling on top of loaves
1 stick (8 tbsp) vegan butter, melted
2 tbsp kosher or sea salt
Additional butter or oil for greasing the loaf pans
Heat the water and milk mixture to about 98° Fahrenheit (37° Celsius) and add it into the bowl of a stand mixer. Sprinkle in the yeast and add the maple syrup and let sit for 5-10 minutes until you see the mixture bubbling up.
Fit the stand mixer with a dough hook and slowly add the rest of the ingredients (butter last) and knead for about 6-8 minutes on medium speed until you have a fairly cohesive dough.
Let dough rest under a clean towel until double in size, about 1-2 hours.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400° Fahrenheit (200° Celsius) and grease two large loaf pans.
Remove the dough from the bowl and transfer onto a clean work surface lightly dusted with flour and punch out the air in the dough. Divide the dough in half and shape each piece into a rectangle the length of your loaf pans. Fold in from the longest side, tuck the sides in and place it in the prepared loaf pans.
Cover both with a clean towel and let rest again for another 30-40 minutes.
Brush the tops with either water on non-dairy milk and sprinkle each loaf with oats.
Bake in the oven on the lower rack for 40-50 minutes until golden on top and when it has a ‘hollow’ sound if knocking on the loaves. Rest and cool on a rack completely before slicing into it.
This bread is also great for freezing!
Ingredients
- 2 cups 5 dl non-dairy milk (I used Oatly oat milk)
- 2 cups 5 dl water
- 1 packet 2 ¼ tsp active dry yeast
- 6 tbsp maple syrup or other syrup
- 4 cups 10 dl whole wheat flour
- 4 cups 10 dl sifted unbleached, all-purpose flour (plus perhaps another ½ cup to adjust the dough)
- 2 cups 5 dl old fashioned oats + extra for sprinkling on top of loaves
- 1 stick 8 tbsp vegan butter, melted
- 2 tbsp kosher or sea salt
- Additional butter or oil for greasing the loaf pans
Instructions
- Heat the water and milk mixture to about 98° Fahrenheit (37° Celsius) and add it into the bowl of a stand mixer. Sprinkle in the yeast and add the maple syrup and let sit for 5-10 minutes until you see the mixture bubbling up.
- Fit the stand mixer with a dough hook and slowly add the rest of the ingredients (butter last) and knead for about 6-8 minutes on medium speed until you have a fairly cohesive dough.
- Let dough rest under a clean towel until double in size, about 1-2 hours.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400° Fahrenheit (200° Celsius) and grease two large loaf pans.
- Remove the dough from the bowl and transfer onto a clean work surface lightly dusted with flour and punch out the air in the dough. Divide the dough in half and shape each piece into a rectangle the length of your loaf pans. Fold in from the longest side, tuck the sides in and place it in the prepared loaf pans.
- Cover both with a clean towel and let rest again for another 30-40 minutes.
- Brush the tops with either water on non-dairy milk and sprinkle each loaf with oats.
- Bake in the oven on the lower rack for 40-50 minutes until golden on top and when it has a ‘hollow’ sound if knocking on the loaves. Rest and cool on a rack completely before slicing into it.
- This bread is also great for freezing!
Hi Sunny!!
Oh I love Oat bread! Cant wait to try this recipe out, thank you for sharing!! You’re recipes are amazing and I’m so happy to have found your blog. I love Norway and the culture, I’m dying to visit.
I just had some slices of the oat bread for breakfast with almond butter, sliced bananas and a little sprinkle of cinnamon = heaven! I’m so happy you found my blog too, welcome!! 🙂
I made this bread yesterday and my whole family loves it! I’ve tried other bread recipes in the past and this is the best I’ve made by far. I used cow’s milk and butter because that is what I had on hand. What kind of vegan butter do you use?
Hi Kristen – how wonderful to read my recipe was a success for you and your family, this makes me so happy to hear! I typically use either Earth Balance or Miyoko’s European style cultured butter and both work really well! Thanks again for your kind note!
Really good bread. Family loved it. Will become my daily bread. Great rise, nice crumb.
Hi Dottie, thanks so much for the nice review and so happy to learn you and your family liked my bread recipe! Enjoy!
-Sunny
Do you have weight for this recipe? Grams preferred? Thanks, can’t wait to try!
Hi Meghan,
For this recipe unfortunately I don’t but I sometimes use this converter, if you feel inspired to do your own conversions: https://www.convertunits.com/from/dL/to/gram
Hope that’s somewhat helpful and future recipes will always include grams, I promise! This bread is worth making though! 🙂
Sunny
Thank you! I have it on my list to make next!
Hello from Arizona, USA.
Takk skal du ha Thank you very much for the Norwegian Oat Bread. I converted the volume measures to grams and reduced fluids by 25% and got great results. Substituted unsweetened almond milk for the Oatley oat milk. The maple syrup was delightful and we also had good results substituting honey. Great flavors and no one knows it’s vegan.
Hi Jim, thanks for your message and so glad to hear the bread came out well for you! I appreciate the feedback and vel bekomme!
Hi Sunny: Searching for Scandinavian bread recipes, I came upon yours. And then to my surprise Pytt i Panne. My mon used to make that with left overs. I was born in Norway in 1943 during the war, and also lived is Sweden. I miss the food and especially the bread (Danish bread too). My wife is picking up what I need and will make the bread tomorrow. She’s also picking up some smoked salmon or gravlax so we can have smorbrod. Very exciting. My wife is Italian and we both love to cook. Baking will be new for me, but giving it a try. Love your pictures. Makes me homesick for Scandinavia. Hope to hear from you. Going on my five mile walk-run so I can make room for the bread. And hello to all of your followers. And thank you for sharing. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Hi Robert, what a lovely message to receive, thank you so much for taking the time out to write me a message to tell me about your background, so fascinating! Very happy you came across my blog and I hope the bread comes out well for you, would love to hear your feedback! Thanks again and let’s stay in touch! Sunny
Sunny: Me again. The bread turned out amazing, so thank you. I hand-kneaded the dough, which was interesting, but I will use the mixer next time. I did add flax and hemp seeds and a squirt of lemon. I used paper to line the baking pans and found that the top browned really nicely, but the bottom was light brown. It took over two hours to rise because the kitchen was too cold. It is a heavy bread, but really good. I will try a couple of round loaves in a couple of days. Lots of fun. I even lost a pound after my walk-run. Not bad for 78. My wife and I are Vegan-sh and looking forward to trying some of your recipes. Robert
Hi Robert, thanks so much for your note, and glad to hear the bread came out good for you. Typically if you bake it in the lower rack the bottom should also be solidly cooked/similar to the top, but every oven is different so experimenting a bit with it (and also maybe the pans you use) could help. Great to hear you and your wife are open to a vegan diet – I hope to be publishing more content in the coming months, I’m in the process of changing servers so has been a bit quiet but definitely check out my Christmas recipes, there are a bunch from last year! 🙂 Look forward to staying in touch and thanks again for reaching out! Sunny
Sunny: Thank you for the tip on using the lower rack in the oven and pans on baking the bread.
Hei Sunny, i’m writing to you from Finland where we are great fans of oat bread and decided it was high time to make my own! Just a little problem I had with the bar measuring loaves and the dl amounts, which were not changing when sliding the bar towards more loaves – only the cups amount changed. I actually wanted to make just one loaf to try it out.
So i made a confused recipe for the first time but I’ll let you know about the result ! Also for some reason, in my browser I cannot see the actual no of loaves or the Author unless i select them – and they become white. Thought I’d write maybe you can clarify a bit the amounts of
Hi Luana! Many thanks for your message and for letting me know about the issues you are having with my recipe editor. I think my assistant has fixed this now, please let me know if you are experiencing any more problems, really sorry about that and I hope your loaf turned out ok!! Sunny 🙂
What is the exact pan size used ?
Hi Agnes, I used a 2 quart pan that is 9x5x2 inches.
Can you substitute coconut sugar for the maple syrup?
Hi Jim,
Thanks for your question and yes, absolutely!
Happy baking,
Sunny 🙂
Have a copy of recipe. Look forward to making it. Thank you for sharing.
I hope you will enjoy it, would love to hear what you think! 🙂