Sourdough Oat Bread

In a microwave safe bowl, cook the oats and 225g water until the oats are soft and water is absorbed, about 2 minutes. Let cool slightly.
In a large bowl, add the sourdough starter, flours, and honey. Distribute the warm oats over the flour and then add the remaining 225 grams of water. Using a dough whisk or your hand, mix together all of the ingredients until just uniformly mixed. The dough will be shaggy and not smooth, but shouldn't have patches of dry flour. Do not knead.
Cover the bowl with a wet towel and allow to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Remove the towel and sprinkle the salt over the dough. Work the salt into the dough by squeezing the dough with your hands and then folding the dough into a ball.

Using a plastic dough scraper (or your hand), fold the dough by running the scraper down the side of the bowl, lifting the side of the dough and folding it into the center. Repeat this several times rotating the bowl until you end up where you began.
Cover the bowl with the wet towel and allow to rest at room temperature for another 30 minutes. Repeat this process of folding the dough and resting one more time.
After the second fold, cover the bowl with the wet towel and allow the dough to rest and rise for 8 to 12 hours or until the dough is quite puffy and nearly doubled in size.
Pro Tip: Check the towel frequently to make sure it is still damp. Covering the bowl and towel with a plastic cutting board will help keep the towel from drying out.

Lightly flour your work surface. Use the plastic bowl scraper to ease the dough out of the bowl onto the prepared surface. Dust your hands with flour to prevent them from sticking to the dough. Gently stretch the dough into an 8x10-inch-rectangle, then fold the corners of the dough into the center, keep folding the dough in, until you have a loose ball shape. Pinch the ends together to form a tighter ball.
Brush any excess flour away from the surface and use the side of your hand to pull a tight skin on the dough to tighten the ball shape.

Once the dough is in a smooth ball, let it sit while you prepare the proofing basket.
Pro Tip: giving the dough several minutes to dry out while you prepare the basket will help it develop a skin and prevent it from sticking to the basket. It can sit for about 15 minutes.
Use a tea ball or fine mesh sieve filled with flour to generously dust an 8-inch proofing basket (aka, banneton or brotform).
Pro Tip: The basket needs to be well covered with no bald spots or the wet dough will stick to the basket and distort the shape of your loaf.
Lift the dough from the surface and turn it upside down into the basket. Pinch together the bottom. Place the basket with dough inside a clean 3 gallon-sized plastic bag (I use an unused compost bag or small kitchen garbage bag). Blow some air into the bag so it won’t touch the surface of the dough while it is rising. Clip it shut and allow the loaf to sit on the counter at room temperature for about 1 hour (2 hours if it's cool in your kitchen).
After 30 minutes, preheat the oven to 475°F, with a Dutch Oven or Baking Cloche in the center of the oven.

Remove the dough from the bag. Place a sheet of parchment paper (it needs to be large enough to fit the loaf and have extra space to act as a sling getting it into the baking vessel) onto the surface of the dough and invert the basket. Place the parchment onto the counter and ease the basket away from the dough.
If the dough is sticking in places, very gently reach under the basket and ease the dough away with your fingers.
Once the dough is released, use a lame or serrated knife to score (or slash) the dough. You can do a simple side to side cut or create an art piece. The cuts should be about 1/2-inch deep.
Pro Tip: if you don’t cut the dough at all or the cuts aren't deep enough, the baking bread will crack open in any way it can. The scoring is pretty but also helps the dough rise by giving the dough somewhere to go.

Immediately place the scored loaf in the Dutch Oven or Cloche you are baking in, put on the lid and bake for 30 minutes.
Pro Tip: baking with the lid on traps the steam coming from the moisture in the dough. This steam helps the loaf to rise and gives the bread a shiny crust.
After the 30 minutes, remove the lid and allow the bread to continue baking for another 5 to 10 minutes to get a dark caramel, brown color.
If you are using an instant read thermometer to check the internal temperature, it should read about 200°F.

Remove the loaf from the vessel, peel away the parchment paper and place on a cooling rack. Allow the bread to cool to room temperature, about an hour.
Pro Tip: It is hard to wait for the loaf to cool completely but this is part of the baking process, and your bread will be gummy and seem under baked if you cut it while it is still warm.

After you cut into the loaf, store it cut side down on the cutting board. You want to prevent the end from drying out. Cover the loaf with a clean, dry kitchen towel or store it in the cooled cloche.
Pro Tip: DO NOT COVER A CRUSTY LOAF IN PLASTIC! Plastic will trap steam and make the crust soggy. The only time to use plastic is if you are freezing the loaf.