Set oats in a bowl. Pour boiling water over the oats, stir gently. Let sit for about 20 minutes, the oats will absorb the water.

Pour the cool water and the syrup over the oat mixture and sprinkle the yeast on top. Stir gently.

Measure in the flours and salt, stir until you have a shaggy dough. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 1 hour.

After 45-60 minutes, do a fold: wet your fingers and lift the dough on one side, stretching it as much as you can without tearing it, then fold the lifted dough over the dough in the bowl. Turn the bowl 45 degrees and repeat, stretching and folding. As you stretch and fold the dough will become tighter. Cover and let rest for another 45-60 minutes.

Repeat the dough folding process (it will be less easy to tear now, as the gluten is developing), lifting, stretching and folding it over itself. After 4-6 folds the dough will be a tight ball. Optional: a third fold, lifting and stretching and folding the dough, 45 minutes after the second. The third fold helps the dough develop more structure but it isn’t absolutely necessary.

Leave to rise overnight on the counter. In the morning the dough will have doubled (or more) and be very bubbly.

Butter a standard size loaf pan (5x8.5 or 9 inches) and then oil it.

Stretch the dough and fold it over itself a few times, shaping it into a short, thick log, until you have a taught dough. Oil the top and set it in the loaf pan to rise until it is an inch above the rim of the loaf pan, for about 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 425 F. Once preheated, set a pan (8 or 9 inch square or rectangle cake pan) filled halfway with ice in the oven, off to one side. Next to the ice pan, set the loaf.

Bake for 35 minutes, until the loaf has risen considerably and is deeply golden. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool for about 2 hours before slicing.