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Steel Cut Oatmeal Honey Bread is a wonderful hearty, savory bread with a chewy texture. Very easy to make too!

My husband Jack and I are both big fans of steel cut oatmeal and we often enjoy it as a hearty breakfast. So when we came across this recipe for Steel Cut Oatmeal Honey Bread in my mother’s old recipe box – we immediately wanted to try it!
This Steel Cut Oatmeal Honey Bread has tiny bits of the steel cut oats inside, giving the bread a rustic texture that is also super flavorful. It looks very dense – but the baked bread is surprisingly light and chewy! And while there is honey added to the bread dough – it’s not a very sweet bread so you can enjoy this both as a savory loaf, as well as with sweet toppings like jam or honey and butter.

This Steel Cut Oatmeal Honey Bread is very easy to make! The oats first soak in boiling water for about two hours to soften – then that is mixed into a fuss-free batter that includes both milk and honey. It bakes up with a wonderful crust that is easy to slice and serve.
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Steel Cut Oatmeal Honey Bread
Steel Cut Oatmeal Honey Bread is a wonderful hearty, savory bread with a chewy texture. Very easy to make too!
Ingredients
1 cup steel cut oats
1 cup boiling water
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick butter (4 tablespoons)
3 tablespoons honey
1 egg
2/3 cup whole milk
Non-stick cooking spray
Instructions
- Place steel cut oats in a large bowl and cover with the one cup of boiling water. Let sit uncovered at room temperature for 2 hours. Stir once half way through.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a medium bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt.
- In a small microwave safe bowl, melt butter and honey then stir into bowl with oats.
- Beat egg into milk and alternately add milk mixture and flour mixture to large bowl with oats stirring with a wooden spoon as you add each. Do not over mix, just mix to combine wet into dry.
- Generously spray a standard size loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray and scrape the dough into the pan. Using a spatula, smooth out the top then place in oven for 70 minutes (one hour and ten minutes), or until a tooth pick inserted in center comes out clean. The dough is dense so we recommend leaving in for the full 70 minutes.
- As soon as the bread comes out of the oven, remove from pan and cool on a wire rack to cool completely.
- Slice and serve with additional drizzled honey.
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Steel Cut Oats Breakfast Biscotti





Could this be used with leftover steel cut oats rather than soaking the cup in a cup of boiling water??
Hi Becky – Great question! We haven’t tried that ourselves, but I think it would work. Please let us know how it comes out!
Is there any way to adapt this for a bread machine? My oven burns hot and never cooks evenly .
Hi Lisa – I’m sorry – we’ve only made this recipe baked in a loaf pan and we don’t own a bread maker so I’d only be guessing about how to do it. If you try it, please let us know how it comes out!
Hey Martha, I’m looking at making Steel-Cut Oatmeal Honey Bread using your recipe. However, I cannot have eggs (allergic) and I was wondering if you think I might have success removing or replacing the egg in the recipe – What are your thoughts?
Thanks,
– Jeanette
Hi Jeanette – We’ve only made the recipe as written, and unfortunately I don’t have a lot of experience with egg replacements…so I’m not sure I have much advice for you. I’m sorry! If you do try a swap, please let us know how it comes out!
What a great recipe! I was looking for ideas of what to do with steel-cut oats besides just making oatmeal out of them and since I’ve been on a bread-making kick lately, finding this recipe was perfect. The bread turned out wonderfully. Thanks for the recipe! I did make the following adjustments:
*Didn’t have whole milk, so I used 2% and added a splash of cream.
*Didn’t have cooking spray, so I just buttered the pan.
*Used whole-wheat flour and added flaxseeds and chia seeds to up the nutrition factor a little.
Thanks Caro – glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Thanks for the “Valyrian Steel” cut oat bread recipe for a party for the final season of Game of Thrones on April 14. I will make ahead in a House Stark pan, perhaps using maple syrup,. Thanks for a cool recipe for my party!
What a great idea Betsy! 🙂
I made this with the following adjustments because I used what I had on hand:
Rolled Oats/Old Fashioned (worked fine)
Increased butter to 6 tblspns because I only had low fat milk.
All worked fine.
I ate a piece when it came out of the oven and decided that it is basically a slice of a bowl of oatmeal and my imagination went wild! The following morning I toasted a slice and spread ricotta cheese on top and finished off with banana slices, a drizzle of honey and chopped walnuts. Wish I could have posted the photo. It’s a keeper!
Love the toppings you chose Christine! Thanks for the suggestions!
This bread is so good. I did have to make some adjustments. The first loaf I made did not turn out at all. Did not rise. Super dense, but tasty. This loaf is so much better. I have to use gluten free flour. So what I did was add lemon juice to the milk and used 1 cup of milk instead of the 2/3 cup. I also did one teaspoon of baking soda and 1 1/2 of powder. Its perfect!
Thanks Nicholle – Glad you were able to find a gluten free version that works for you!
I just discovered this and made it yesterday. Very delicious bread and very easy to put together
Thanks Jennifer!
Hi Martha!! I’m excited to try your recipe! I just have a quick question – the steel cut oats tat i have on hand are labeled as “quick cook” – are these different than the ones specified in the recipe? Thanks for any help! Since soaking is involved with the oats I don’t want to screw it up!
Hi Meg – The quick cook steel cut oats are different – you’ll want to buy some of the traditional steel cut oats for this recipe. We hope you enjoy the recipe!
I’m lactose intolerance and I’m wondering if I would be able to use almond milk instead of whole milk. If so, would it be better with the plain unsweetened or can I use the sweetened vanilla?
Hi Kathleen – We haven’t tried making this with almond milk ourselves, so I can’t say for sure how it will come out – but certainly give it a try! I think either almond milk flavor will be fine. Please let us know how it comes out with the almond milk!