I have just made my second loaf of bread using oat groats, and it’s a hit. Like eating sliced crunchy oatmeal. First, I put the oat groats in the blender, just a few pulses so that some were cut up (it quickly forms a powder), but the bulk of it was still whole. Then in my bread machine, I put three cups of this, along with one cup all purpose unbleached flour. Added about 1 1/2 cups of liquid (I mixed milk and water). Then, just added 3 TBS table spoons of olive oil (butter would be a good substitute), some salt, 3 tablespoons of sugar along with a healthy scattering of golden flax. Add 1 TBS of yeast, and let the machine do it’s work. I may never go back to 100% milled flour. . . Since the bread takes about 3 hours to mix/rise/bake, it has plenty of time to soften up, but not lose its crunch.