Florida + Oat Soda Bread

My friends and I went to Florida to see this:



(This picture was taken at the airport right after we landed. We spent half an hour in the gift shop ogling at merchandise, that's how excited we were, even after a 6:30am flight.)

First, we took a nap on the beach.



We had a late lunch of fish tacos and crab legs.



Afterwards, we took a stroll on the beach...



...and saw lobster for $10. Never mind that we just ate, we had to have one.



This is one of the many reasons why my friends are my friends.

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Harry Potter land!



We checked out The Three Broomsticks, Ollivander's and Honeydukes, which had this:



"The constipation sensation that's gripping the nation!"

Of course we had to try the Pumpkin Juice and Butterbeer, normal and frozen form.



Mischief managed.

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April has been a hectic month, but have a recipe for oat soda bread. This is easy to make (freshly baked bread in under two hours!) and oh so good. Slathering on butter and some kind of preserve is a must. (I had quince jelly leftover from my time in France, yum.)

Oat Soda Bread
Slightly adapted from 101 Cookbooks

Butter to grease pan
2 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour, plus more for dusting and kneading
3/4 cup kamut flour
2 tablespoons cane sugar
2 tablespoons flax seed meal
1 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons fine grain sea salt
1 3/4 cups buttermilk + 2 tablespoons for brushing
2 tablespoons mixed seeds (sesame, caraway, poppy, etc.)

Preheat the oven to 400°F with a rack in the middle of the oven. Butter and line a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan 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.

Sift the flours, baking soda, sugar, flax seed meal and salt into 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 ball. If your dough is on the dry side, add more buttermilk a small splash at a time. Now ease the dough evenly into the prepared baking pan.

Brush all over the top and sides with buttermilk and sprinkle generously with mixed seeds. Slice a few deep slashes across the top of the dough. Bake for about 30 minutes, then quickly (without letting all the hot air out of the oven), move the rack and the bread up a level, so the top of the bread gets nice and toasted. Bake for another 20 minutes, or until a hard crust forms and the bread is baked through. It will feel very solid and sound hollow when you knock on it. Carefully lift it out of the pan and allow to cool on a wire rack.