Buttermilk Bread

The quest for a perfect bread never ends, isn’t it? The best part about bread baking is that there is enough scope for experimentation, be it with various flours or using spices/herbs or vegetables in your bread or making small variations in the liquid ingredients. My research on various breads is still on and while reading some blogs and recipes on pinterest, I came across a buttermilk bread. Also, as I was preparing myself to knead the dough, I came across a post by a friend and wonderful bread maker Namita Tiwari, in one of my facebook group. She had baked a lovely buttermilk bread. As always, most of those recipes asked for bread flour or all purpose flour. Though I admit, I was not fully confident to use 100% whole wheat flour, but I tried to do my best and used 75% whole wheat flour and 25% all purpose flour. And believe me, the result was amazing. The bread was super soft, extremely light and it rose beautifully and the top was very smooth, without any blisters. Please do share your feedback if you try it out. Next in my to-do list would be to make it with 100% wwf 🙂

Ingredients:

• Whole wheat flour 300 gm
• All purpose flour 100 gm
• Salt to taste
• Sugar 1 tsp
• Instant yeast 1/2 tsp heaped
• Buttermilk 200 ml
• Lukewarm water 100 ml plus 1-2 tbsp
• Olive oil 1-2 tbsp
• Butter 1 tsp

Method:

• Dissolve yeast in the lukewarm water, add sugar and stir well. Keep it aside for 10 minutes till the mixture is frothy.
• Mix the flours and salt well. Add the yeast solution and the buttermilk and knead well using the standard stretch and fold method. Knead for atleast 10-12 minutes till the dough is nicely smooth, soft and elastic.
• Place the dough in a well oiled bowl and cover the bowl with a cling film and allow it to rise till it is double in volume. Should take around 50-60 minutes. Refer the picture below, if the indentation remains, the dough is ready to be shaped.

• Transfer the dough on a clean kitchen counter and knock out the gases. Gently knead for a minute or two.
• Roll it out in the form of a rectangle and roll it tightly like a log and seal the edges properly.
• Grease a bread tin ( I used my 9 by 4 inches silicone mould this time ) and gently place the log in the tin and press gently. Apply some oil or milk wash on top and cover it with a dome shaped lid or place the tin in a big plastic cover and allow it rise till it is slightly above the rim of the tin. It took around 20-22 minutes for me.

• Meanwhile preheat the oven at 180-200 degree celsius for around 10-12 minutes.
• Place the bread tin the middle rack of your oven and bake for 30-40 minutes. In case you feel that the top is browning too much, cover the top with an aluminium foil.
• During the last 5 minutes or so, apply some more milk wash on top and bake again of required at a slightly higher temperature.
• Remove the tin from the oven and wait for 2-3 minutes before transferring the bread from the tin to a wire rack.
• Cool it well for atleast 2-3 hours before slicing it. You can cover the bread with a soft and clean towel while it is cooling.
• Serve it with jam or omelette or make sandwiches. Enjoy.