I often find myself with leftover buttermilk – I use it for various things like ranch dressing, biscuits, etc. but these recipes rarely use the whole carton (I have a hard time finding small containers of buttermilk!) and I hate letting anything go to waste because it sat too long, right? So I might make some breakfast flapjacks with it, or in this case… bread. Yay!
This bread recipe is a keeper – I found it on About.com, written (or posted) by Ms. Elizabeth Yetter. I didn’t change a thing* – and after making it a couple of times, I finally got a perfect loaf! The bread turns out soft, moist, and makes great toast! I slice it thick and slather it with the appropriate accompaniments, such as cinnamon-sugar, orange marmalade… It's a bit fragile for sandwiches but you can do it. Thanks, Ms. Yetter!
(*Except a little bit in process, combining a couple of what I think were unnecessary single steps and I added the wheat gluten).
A couple of bread dough lessons I have learned in general – don’t let it rise too long – and be careful of the temperatures. If it rises too long, the bread will collapse during baking. And... I get better results if the ingredients are room temp or warmer, but not too hot or you’ll kill your yeast critters. You want healthy yeast-beasts.
Ingredients (for one loaf, can be doubled for two):
¾ cup water
1½ TB butter
1⅛ tsp active dry yeast
1 heaping TB wheat gluten*
½ cup buttermilk
1 TB honey
1½ tsp sugar
1½ tsp salt
¼ tsp cider vinegar
3 cups bread flour
Method:
Set your ingredients out to come to room temp. Grease a standard size loaf pan with butter or shortening. When all is ready…
Melt the butter in the water and set aside to cool to about 105 to 110 degrees, but NO warmer. Once the water/butter is the right temperature, mix in the yeast and allow it to proof/dissolve. You should have some yeasty-looking bubbles after a few minutes.
Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, mix the gluten, buttermilk, honey, sugar, salt and vinegar.
Mix the water/butter/yeast into the buttermilk bowl. Once it is mixed well, add all but about ¾ cup of the flour and mix it up until the dough is formed well.
Turn this out onto a cookie sheet or a bread-working surface. You’ll knead this mixture about 7 to 8 minutes, working as much of that remaining ¾ cup flour into it as you can to get a smooth and elastic dough. (Before I start kneading, I fill the used mixing bowl with warm water to soak, and then when the kneading is done I clean and dry it, and oil it to use the same bowl for the rising process.) Turn the dough ball once or twice in the bowl to coat it with oil, then cover and let rise about 1 hour or a little more.
Roll the dough around in your hands to gently collapse it and shape it into a loaf. Place it into the prepared loaf pan and make one long slash down the top with a very sharp non-serrated knife. Lay a piece of Saran wrap loosely over it to cover, and let it rise about 45 more minutes or until about doubled. Mine rises slightly above the top of the pan when it is ready. For about the last 15 minutes of the 2nd rise time, preheat your oven to 375.
Bake the bread about 30 minutes and check the internal temperature to be 190 degrees or a little bit above. Brush the top with some melted butter. Turn the loaf immediately out onto a cooling rack. The cooler it gets, the easier the slicing…
Note on baking time: I placed the risen loaf into a cold oven and let the temp come to 375 with the bread already in there. My loaf was done at 30 minutes using this method. If you preheat, I'd suggest checking it at about 24 or 25 minutes. Once my bread reaches 190 degrees internal temp, I take it out. Your experience may vary, of course...
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| Buttermilk Bread |
(*Except a little bit in process, combining a couple of what I think were unnecessary single steps and I added the wheat gluten).
A couple of bread dough lessons I have learned in general – don’t let it rise too long – and be careful of the temperatures. If it rises too long, the bread will collapse during baking. And... I get better results if the ingredients are room temp or warmer, but not too hot or you’ll kill your yeast critters. You want healthy yeast-beasts.
Ingredients (for one loaf, can be doubled for two):
¾ cup water
1½ TB butter
1⅛ tsp active dry yeast
1 heaping TB wheat gluten*
½ cup buttermilk
1 TB honey
1½ tsp sugar
1½ tsp salt
¼ tsp cider vinegar
3 cups bread flour
Method:
Set your ingredients out to come to room temp. Grease a standard size loaf pan with butter or shortening. When all is ready…
Melt the butter in the water and set aside to cool to about 105 to 110 degrees, but NO warmer. Once the water/butter is the right temperature, mix in the yeast and allow it to proof/dissolve. You should have some yeasty-looking bubbles after a few minutes.
Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, mix the gluten, buttermilk, honey, sugar, salt and vinegar.
Mix the water/butter/yeast into the buttermilk bowl. Once it is mixed well, add all but about ¾ cup of the flour and mix it up until the dough is formed well.
Turn this out onto a cookie sheet or a bread-working surface. You’ll knead this mixture about 7 to 8 minutes, working as much of that remaining ¾ cup flour into it as you can to get a smooth and elastic dough. (Before I start kneading, I fill the used mixing bowl with warm water to soak, and then when the kneading is done I clean and dry it, and oil it to use the same bowl for the rising process.) Turn the dough ball once or twice in the bowl to coat it with oil, then cover and let rise about 1 hour or a little more.
Roll the dough around in your hands to gently collapse it and shape it into a loaf. Place it into the prepared loaf pan and make one long slash down the top with a very sharp non-serrated knife. Lay a piece of Saran wrap loosely over it to cover, and let it rise about 45 more minutes or until about doubled. Mine rises slightly above the top of the pan when it is ready. For about the last 15 minutes of the 2nd rise time, preheat your oven to 375.
Bake the bread about 30 minutes and check the internal temperature to be 190 degrees or a little bit above. Brush the top with some melted butter. Turn the loaf immediately out onto a cooling rack. The cooler it gets, the easier the slicing…
Note on baking time: I placed the risen loaf into a cold oven and let the temp come to 375 with the bread already in there. My loaf was done at 30 minutes using this method. If you preheat, I'd suggest checking it at about 24 or 25 minutes. Once my bread reaches 190 degrees internal temp, I take it out. Your experience may vary, of course...
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