Buttermilk Bread

I use buttermilk a lot. I like it to drink but mostly I like the vaguely tangy flavor it gives to certain food, like salad dressing and cold summer soups, and the way certain kinds of baked goods, like biscuits and scones, come out so much flakier.

Last week I bought some buttermilk and made a dairy-based Three Cabbage Cole Slaw.

I had lots of buttermilk left, so I got busy and among the foods I made was buttermilk bread.

Big success!

It’s kind of a fluffy white yeast bread, but with a much richer flavor than regular white bread.

We discovered that it’s perfect for tuna fish, egg salad and first-of-summer tomato sandwiches. My husband says he likes it best toasted, dipped into olive oil (plain or topped with tomato).

Other uses? Base for bruschetta. Toasted, instead of pita for dipping into hummus. Spread with orange marmalade. Like that.

Next up for buttermilk —— pudding. Keep watching this space.

Buttermilk Bread

• 1 package active dry yeast (2-1/4 teaspoons)

• pinch of sugar

• 1/3 cup warm water (105-110 degrees F)

• 3 tablespoons butter

• 3 tablespoons honey

• 1 cup buttermilk

• 3-3/4 cups flour (preferably bread flour), approximately

• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt

• melted butter, seeds, etc., optional

Lightly butter a bread loaf pan (about 9”x5”) and set aside. Place the yeast in a small bowl, add the sugar and warm water and mix thoroughly to dissolve the yeast (a small whisk works best). Set aside for about 5 minutes or until bubbly. Heat the butter and honey together over low heat until the butter has melted. Remove from the heat. Heat the buttermilk over low heat for 2-3 minutes or until just warm to the touch. Remove from the heat. Place the flour and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the warm buttermilk, the melted butter mixture and the yeast mixture. Mix and knead the ingredients for 3-4 minutes or until smooth. If the dough is sticky, add some more until the dough is soft but not sticky. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise in a warm place for about 55-60 minutes or until doubled in size. Knead the dough briefly and place it in the prepared bread loaf pan. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Let the dough rise for another 30 minutes. Brush the top with melted butter and scatter with seeds, if desired. Bake the bread for about 35 minutes or until well risen and golden brown.

Makes one loaf

Milk and Honey White Bread

Would you believe — there’s a book entirely devoted to white bread. It’s called, (of course), “White Bread” and has a cover reminiscent of a loaf of packaged Wonder Bread.

I thought the scorn for white bread was something new. But according to the author, Aaron Bobrow-Sprain, apparently there’s been a lot of controversy about this stuff on and off for centuries. Some of it had to do with food safety issues. But some of it had to do with racism (one health advocate apparently thought white bread was “threatening white racial superiority”).

Who knew?

When I was growing up my Mom would buy bakery rye bread and something called “corn bread” which isn’t that yellow, cakey Southern style stuff but more like sour-dough rye bread and was known in Jewish neighborhoods as “Jewish corn bread.” Those were for having with dinner. Or toasting for breakfast. Or for deli sandwiches.

But she bought packaged white bread too. It was the modern thing. The help-the-little-lady convenience food. It was too convenient not to buy. And there weren’t very many choices in packaged bread anyway. Maybe whole wheat, but I didn’t know anyone whose mother bought packaged whole wheat bread.

My mother bought packaged white bread for this reason (which Bobrow-Sprain also acknowledges), and that is, there are certain kinds of sandwiches that just don’t work with rye, corn bread or any kind of fancy artisinal loaves.

Like peanut butter and jelly and mostly, my mother’s fried-to-a-crisp kosher salami with yellow mustard. That salami was hot and sizzling, right out of the pan when she put it on the mustard-slathered slices and when you held the sandwich to take a bite, your fingers would make such deep indentations in the soft bread that sometimes it made a hole in the sandwich. Never mind. That’s the way it was supposed to be with packaged white bread.

I could actually have one of those sandwiches now. It’s been years.

No, decades.

Generations.

I don’t remember when I last bought packaged white bread. 

I do bake white bread though. With one of my help-the-little-lady convenience machines like my KitchenAid mixer and my Cuisinart food processor. With either of those it’s not that difficult to make a good loaf of bread.

I don’t agree with those who say white bread is bland. Sometimes it’s the ingredients on the bread that you want to give a starring role, not the bread itself. Like that fried salami.

So, for any of you who would like to have a good white bread, try this recipe.

Milk and Honey White Bread

• 1 package active dry yeast

• 1/4 cup warm water

• 4 cups all-purpose flour, approximately

• 1/4 teaspoon sugar

• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt

• 2 large eggs

• 2 tablespoons softened butter

• 3/4 cup warm milk

• 2 tablespoons honey

• 1 egg beaten with 1 teaspoon water

Place the yeast and 1/4 cup water in a small bowl. Add 1 teaspoon flour and the sugar. Mix well and set aside for about 5 minutes. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the remaining flour and salt. Add the 2 eggs, butter, milk, honey and the yeast mixture. Blend ingredients thoroughly. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, adding more flour if the dough seems too sticky. Dough should be soft but not sticky. Place the dough in a bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place for about 1-1/2 hours or until doubled in bulk. Punch down the dough, knead briefly and let rise again for 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

Lightly grease a 9” loaf pan. Place the dough inside the pan. Let rise for another 30 minutes. Brush the surface of the bread with the beaten egg. Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden brown and well risen.

Makes one loaf