Oat Soda Bread

2 cups rolled oats (not instant) or 1 2/3 cups oat flour
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting and kneading
1 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 3/4 cups buttermilk, plus more if needed, and 2T. for brushing

Oats or mixed seeds - sesame, caraway, poppy, etc.

Preheat the oven to 400°F with a rack in the middle of the oven. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

To make the oat flour, use a food processor to pulse the rolled oats a few times. Then process into a fine powder - another minute or two. If you are buying oat flour, not making your own, measure out 1 2/3 cups.

Wisk the flours, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the flour and pour in the buttermilk. Stir just until everything comes together into a dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured countertop and knead for 30 seconds or so, just long enough for the dough to come together into a cohesive, ball without many cracks or fissures. If your dough is on the dry side, add more buttermilk a small splash at a time. Now ease the dough ball onto the prepared cookie sheet.

Brush all over the top and sides with buttermilk and sprinkle generously with mixed seeds, flour, or oats, 2 tablespoons or so. Slice a few deep slashes across the top of the dough. Bake for about 45-50 minutes, so the top of the bread gets nice and toasted. The bread will feel very solid and sound hollow when you knock on it. Carefully lift it off the cookie sheet, in a timely fashion, and allow to cool on a wire rack. If you can, let site for an hour to cool before eating... that's if you can wait that long. Enjoy with a good slathering of salted butter.

Makes one loaf.

Prep time: 10 min - Cook time: 50 min

Recipe adapted from 101 Cookbooks