Please give a warm welcome to my friend Ally as our guest blogger today!

For any of you who are fans of Ally at What’s For Dinner?  Ally’s Kitchen on Facebook, you know how amazing Ally is!  Ally’s recipes are so creative and always delicious.  It’s my pleasure to have her here to share her latest recipe with us!

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Ally’s been cooking since JFK was president!  Raising three boys, now men, meant a lot of cooking and during that time of her life, she was known as ‘Dr. Alice’ the psychologist!  Now in her ‘third chapter’ of life, Ally is pursuing her lifetime passion of cooking.  Well-known for her Bohemian spirit, her food reflects this influence as well as her extraordinary zest for life–when she’s not in the kitchen, you might find her hiking the Grand Canyon, doing a 150-mile bike ride for MS, snowshoeing, hiking, camping or in her beloved yoga classes.  She was a Top 100 Contestant on Season 2 of MasterChef, and she’s won cooking contests, including Gallo Family Vineyards, Ocean Spray and Lenox 1-2-3,  and been featured in ‘Taste of Home’ magazine (Nov 2011) and the Vail Valley Magazine (Winter 2012).  Ally’s the kind of girl that just makes you want to run faster and jump higher in life, and her spirit hopefully will infect you, too!  http://www.allyskitchen.com

Steel Cut Oats Cranberry Walnut Peasant Bread

Makes: One Loaf

Preheat:  375 degrees

What you need:

2 pkg active dry yeast

½  cup warm water (120 degrees)

1 cup buttermilk (microwave 15” to take off chill)

½ cup room temperature white wine (I used chardonnay.)

1 tsp sea salt

1/3 cup sugar

½ cup steel cut oats

½ cup dried cranberries

½ cup chopped walnuts

3 ½  cups all-purpose flour (divided reserving about ½ cup for when kneading bread on counter)

1 cup whole wheat flour

What you do:

In a large mixing bowl, combine dry yeast and warm water.  Whisk and blend into a liquid.  Add buttermilk, room temperature white wine, salt, and sugar and blend.  Add steel cut oats, cranberries and walnuts and blend.  Slowly add flour (white and wheat) and blend with large wooden spoon.   The dough will be thick and require some elbow grease to knead.

Use your hands in the mixing bowl to blend/knead everything well for about 3 minutes.  Turn on to a floured surface and knead bread for another 5 minutes.  Shape into large ball.  Coat mixing bowl with cooking spray and place dough ball back in.  Cover and let rise (about double in size) in a warm space for a couple of hours (or more depending upon the temperature).

After rising, punch down, knead another 3-5 minutes.  Shape into loaf, which can be circle, oblong, etc., your choice.  Make slits on top.  Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. (You can also bake in a lightly greased cast iron skillet, pot, casserole, etc.) Bake in preheated 375 degree oven for about 50-55 minutes.  If you want the crust more brown, increase heat to 425 the last 5-7 minutes.  Let bread rest for about 30 minutes before slicing.

Use sharp serrated knife to cut.  Turn bread on its side to slice as it will cut better without tearing up the beautiful crispy top crust.

©2012 Alice D’Antoni Phillips    Ally’s Kitchen

Thank you again Ally for sharing this yummy bread recipe with us!

Please “like” Ally on Facebook at What’s for Dinner? Ally’s Kitchen and at her blog http://www.allyskitchen.com