For the sponge:

The night before, mix the first 4 ingredients in the order given. It will look like oatmeal. Cover the bowl – plastic wrap works best – and put the sponge away in a warm place overnight.

Next morning, the sponge should be light and bubbly. Beat in the salt, sugar, soda, and oil.

Start adding flour, by handfuls or generous sprinkles, turning the mass over and over with your hands or a wooden spoon. Keep adding flour and mixing it in till you obtain a cohesive dough, a little sticky.

Stretch and fold, adding smaller sprinklings of flour, till the dough is smooth. That should be about 10 stretches and folds. Smooth a thin layer of flour over the dough ball, cover it again, and put it away another 2 hours, or until the dough is light again.

Working gently, cut the dough into two. Stretch and fold each half, shaping the loaf you want.

Allow the dough to rise another half-hour to an hour, or until the it’s light and a few blisters are visible under the skin surface of it. Start preheating the oven. Prehead oven to 485 º F, but lower the temp to 370 º F after the loaves are put in the oven.

Decorate the surface of the loaves by giving them an egg-wash, pressing flakes of oats on top.

Bake for 1 hour or until a golden-brown.