Step-by-Step: Fresh Homemade Whole Wheat Buttermilk BreadFill your home with the aroma of handmade bread. Get some honey and butter and you’ve got a bread party on your hands!

Your task, should you decide to accept it, is to bake this bread then teach someone else how easy and fun it is to bake bread. Host a bread-making party with your closest buddies and watch a movie or have some tea & chat while the bread rises.  Have the kids help make bread during the next slumber party. There are so many awesome ways to share this age-old craft. Pass the secret around…bread making is easy, inexpensive, fun and keeps the handmade tradition alive. So go ahead…I’ll show you the way…

Bake A Loaf, Then Teach a Friend!

Tools Need for Making Bread:
Bread pan
Cooking spray (or butter to grease the rise bowl and bread pan)
Wooden spoon
Large bowl
Measuring cups and spoons
Timer (optional but I think it’s important for kneading)
Plastic wrap
Spray bottle (for a few water sprays, optional but recommended)
Kitchen timer (optional, but recommended)

Whole Wheat Buttermilk Ingredients:
2 T unsalted butter, diced cold
3 T sugar
2-1/2 t active dry yeast
1 t salt
4 T Saco Cultured Buttermilk Blend with Warm Water to equal 1 cup total*
1 c whole wheat flour
2 c bread flour
Note: You can substitute powdered milk or just plain water for the for one cup of liquid. I don’t use fresh milk because of the long rise time but many people do. I’m not advertising this brand of dried cultured buttermilk but I’m not aware of a similar product and I rarely have buttermilk on hand in the fridge so I think this product is cool. 🙂

Summary Directions:
Measure out all ingredients and have them ready to go before starting.
Whisk flour in a large bowl.
Stir in balance of ingredients with a wooden spoon.
Gather the dough bits into a ball.
Set a timer and knead the dough for 10 minutes (no cheating) using the heels of your hands pressing on the counter.
Place the dough ball in large buttered bowl, cover it in plastic wrap and place the covered bowl in the oven with just the light bulb on for 1 hour (no heat).
Remove the puffy dough from the oven and “punch it down” to remove air bubbles.
Remove the dough from the bowl and knead it for about 1 minute.
Roll and shape it into a tube shape the length of the bread pan.
Place the dough roll into the buttered bread pan and place the pan in the oven with just the light bulb on for 1 hour (no heat), spraying it with water during the rise.
Bake at 350 for 25-30 mins, spraying the top of the dough with water during the baking. The bread should be a nice golden brown (interior temperature of 190).

Photo Directions for Breadmaking:

Get all your ingredients out on the counter, measured out and ready to use…

Photo notes: Ooops. I spilled some water (but added it back after these photos were taken to fill the one-cup measuring cut to full. Also, those are little espresso cups holding the sugar and yeast.

Chop up (dice):
2 T unsalted cold butter
Tip: This recipe presumes your warm hands will be warming up the butter during kneading so if you’re using machines, you’ll need to use room temperature butter.

Measure out into one or more little cups:
3 T sugar
2-1/2 t active dry yeast
1 t salt
Tip: Have your ingredients measured so the warm water doesn’t get cold waiting on you to measure. 🙂

Run tap water until it is very warm (comfortably quite warm to the touch, but not hot).

Place into a measuring cup:
4 T dry powdered buttermilk (Saco Cultured Buttermilk Blend)

Add the very warm water to the measuring cup loaded with powdered buttermilk until it measures:
1 cup warm water mixture total (with the powdered buttermilk)

Stir the buttermilk to dissolve it in the warm water.

Whisk the together in a large bowl:
1 c whole wheat flour
2 c bread flour

Add all ingredients to the flour bowl (chopped butter, warm water & dried buttermilk mixture), sugar, salt, yeas) and stir with a wooden spoon.

Your spoon-mixed mixture will look like this…

Gather the dough into a rough ball before taking it out of the bowl to knead it on the counter…

Knead the dough with the heels of your hands on the counter for 10 minutes (setting a timer to be sure).
Tip: I don’t seem to need extra flour to keep the dough from sticking to the counter, but you can sprinkle a little flour on the counter if needed or use a dough scraping tool.

Form a nice, smooth ball of dough.
Tip: it doesn’t have to be perfect. 🙂

Place the kneaded dough ball in a large buttered bowl and spray the top of the bread ball with cooking spray to keep it from sticking to the bowl as it rises…
Tip: I just wash the large bowl I used for the dough prep and use the same one for the rise.

Cover the bowl of dough with plastic wrap and place it in the oven with the light on (without turning on the heat 🙂  )…

The dough that has been rising for one hour should be at least doubled in size…

Remove the plastic wrap and breathe in the aroma of your nice, fresh yeast dough…

Press your knuckles into the gorgeous full dough to remove air bubbles (it will rise again)…

Remove the dough from the bowl and knead it on the counter for about 1 minute and roll it into a tube shape…

Place the dough in a buttered or sprayed bread pan to fit nicely in the pan…

Spray the dough with water and place it uncovered in the oven with just the light on for an hour, returning to the dough a few times to spray it with a little water to keep it moist and stretchy…

Remove the second rise dough from the warming spot after 1 hour.  The texture should be light and lovely…

Preheat the oven to 350 with a rack at center position and place the bread in the hot oven to bake for 25 to 30 minutes until golden brown (interior temperature if you’re using a probe is about 190 degrees).
Tip: If you want to get fancy, you can add about a dozen ice cubes in a baking pan on the lower rack to give the baking bread a little extra moisture (but not necessary). 🙂

For added softness, after the bread has baked and cooled for a bit, brush the top of the warm bread with a little butter…

Your kitchen is now filled with the aroma of fresh-baked bread…

Let it cool for 15 minutes before slicing. Use a sharp knife with lots of back and forth sawing to keep each super-fresh slice perfect…

Now add some butter and honey and you’ve got a bread party on your hands — and in your mouth!

Now teach someone to make this bread! And let me know how it goes. 🙂

Hope you enjoy!

Leslie

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