Oats and Cranberry bread

While we Indians have always loved our food, the current fixation with international ingredients that don't cost an arm and leg is quite difficult to find. Those lovely cheeses, hazelnuts are not really for regular cooking. However, one ingredient that is still lots affordable is Cranberry. While it is much more expensive than raisin, I normally keep the dried ones handy as a snack as it does not cloyingly sweet taste that the 'kismis' we get here. I was looking for a recipe that would use a fair amount of this and found this lovely recipe by Dan Lepard Find the Original Recipe here: I made a few minor substitutions and there was a lovely flavourful bread that landed on our breakfast plates today. I liked the bread plain with a cup of tea. But my kids preferred a sweeter version so they topped the slices with chocolate sauce and enjoyed it

Ingredients

75g instant oats, plus extra for the crust (the original recipe calls for rolled oats, I used the quick cooking ones instead)
175g dried cranberries
450g strong white flour (I added 3 tbsp of Vital wheat gluten and topped the rest with maida as I don't get bread flour here)
1½ tsp salt
½ tsp all spice powder
1 tsp sugar
50g unsalted butter
1 tsp instant dry yeast
Oil, for kneading
Method

Put the cranberries in a bowl and add 375ml boiling water. Leave for 10 minutes, then add the instant oats to the mixture and leave it until the mixture is warm.
Mix flour, salt, spice and sugar in another bowl, rub in the butter, toss the yeast through, then add the oats and berries, and mix well. Leave to stand for 10 minutes.
I tipped this mixture into my KitchenAid stand mixer and kneaded the dough for about 5 minutes till the dough started pulling together. Then I covered it with a towel and let it rest. There are two more of this knead and rest cycles. I kneaded for 5 minutes after a 10 minutes interval. I did the final knead by hand. The dough is sticky so its good to oil your hands before kneading the dough. Roll up the dough in an oiled bowl and rest the dough for 30 minutes. I covered with a tea towel.
You will see the dough rising. At the end of 30 minutes rise, shape the dough into a rectangle, roll up tightly and squeeze, seam-side down, into a large, loaf tin. My load tin is non stick so I just coated it with a thin film of oil. Use parchment paper for metal loaf tins. Leave for an hour until risen by half. Heat the oven to 220C (200C fan-assisted). Brush the top of the loaf with water, press on a handful of oats, cut a gash down the middle and bake for 50 minutes.
Tap the bottom of the loaf and when you hear the deep hollow sound, you know that the bread has been baked enough. Cover with a towel and let it cool completely before slicing.

Note: The bread browns very quickly on the top; the original recipe says that its typical for a fruit bread.