BUTTERMILK OAT BREAD

Steps:

• Stir yeast into warm water, set aside to bubble up.
• Lightly grease a large bowl (for rising), set aside. Lightly grease a loaf pan (preferably pale aluminum), set aside.
• Boil a kettle of water (for rising), then keep on simmer.
• Blend/grind half of the rolled oats into a fine oat flour (easy in a Nutri-Bullet.) Reserve the balance intact.
• Warm the buttermilk and melt the butter, then combine with salt, sugar, honey and the unground oats. (See OPTIONAL below. you may want to reserve 1 rounded Tbsp of rolled oats for the loaf's crust.).
• Add yeast, ground oats and flour; knead until smooth. (For me, that's about 8 minutes with the Kitchen Aid, or 12 minutes by hand.).
• Place dough in greased bowl to rise. Set (uncovered) in closed oven with an open kettle of boiled water. Don't turn on oven. Leave to rise for 1 hour.
• After the hour, reboil kettle of water.
• Form a loaf, place in greased pan. Again, set to rise (uncovered) in closed oven with an open kettle of boiled water. Don't turn on oven. Leave to rise for 1 to 1-1/2 hours.
• Remove dough and kettle from oven. Preheat oven to 350°.
• Bake in preheated oven for approximately 55 minutes total (+/- 5 min), lightly tenting with aluminum foil after 30-40 minutes to keep top from over-browning. The bread is done when its top is golden-brown and its center temperature is 190°.
• OPTIONAL: Just before baking, brush the top of the loaves with an egg white beaten with 1 Tbsp cold water. Sprinkle with 1 rounded Tbsp rolled oats (unground).
• NOTE: If you can't grind/blend the rolled oats, substitute 1 cup oat flour (or any flour) for the 1 cup of ground rolled oats in step #6.
• NOTE: This is my adaptation of a recipe from King Arthur Flour: KAF "Vermont Whole Wheat Oatmeal Honey Bread." The main difference being that I replaced water and whole wheat flour with buttermilk and oat flour. Both recipes use whole rolled oats, but I've doubled it's proportion.