Buttermilk Bread

I *love* to make my own bread at home. There's just nothing quite as satisfying as your own kitchen filled with that awesome aroma of fresh-baked bread. Lately, I've been dissatisfied with the spongy, dyed-brown 89 cent wheat loaf at the grocery store. Nor would I be happy spending $3 on half as much of the good stuff (which probably still has high-fructose corn syrup in it too, for whatever reason they put that stuff into anything, I'll never know.) So what's the happy medium for a bread-lover like me? Make it!

Many people have trouble parting with the 3-4 hours it takes to make bread from scratch each week, but for someone who really appreciates the art of bread-making, it can be a very fulfilling and relaxing experience to feel the dough come together, sticky between your fingers, and then to knead it back and forth until you're almost hypnotized by the motion, and then the magical swelling like a pregnant belly but so much faster. Plus, I always try to keep my odd culinary senses sharp (like wine tasting, cake decorating, etc. --they won't always come in handy, but often they will!) so weekly bread-making is just good practice for me.

Anyhow, I've been thinking about sourdough lately, but I have no idea where to buy a sourdough starter culture--I just remember this 5-gallon bucket kept in the baking classroom at culinary school; it was full of what looked like sticky flour paste, and you had to "feed it" with more flour, but if you did that it could stay alive for generations. You could cook the same loaves of sourdough as your grandmother made in her time.

So, when I read the recipe in Vegetarian Times magazine for a Buttermilk Boule, and it said that it tasted a bit like sourdough I just had to try it out.

I'm not really sure what the rules are for re-publishing a recipe from a magazine, but here it is anyway, in case you feel compelled to duplicate my experiment without a lot of research to find the recipe from the source. I did a double batch, and formed the dough into hoagie rolls rather than a boule (round) shape.


Buttermilk Boule


makes 1 boule, or 4 large hoagie rolls

1 package dry yeast
1/2 c. warm water
3/4 c. buttermilk
1 1/2 Tb. honey
3 C. bread flour
1 tsp salt
(I would add an egg or some butter to the list, to brush the top before baking; my loaves came out rather ashy looking from the flour, and I think they would look tastier if they were shiny and brown.)





Proof the yeast in the warm water, while microwaving the honey and buttermilk together until warm, but not hot. Preheat the oven to 375 (you don't have to preheat this early, but I find that the extra warmth in the kitchen helps the bread to proof faster.)

Add the buttermilk mixture in with the yeast mixture, and then add salt and bread flour. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic (you know it's done when you hold a small piece of the dough up to the light, and it can be gently stretched between your hands so that you can see the light through it without tearing a hole in the dough.)

Let it rise, covered with a towel until doubled (40 min to an hour) before dividing and shaping the dough. Let it rise again on the baking pan, again covered with a towel.

To prep for baking, brush it with the butter or eggwash, and score the top. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until you can tap on the bottom of the loaf/roll and hear a hollow thump.


Tune in next time to see just what I did with these yummy sandwich rolls....