Honey Buttermilk Bread

It's a snowy day, and my kids and I are all home from school. So what else to do on a snow day but bake? It keeps us warm, busy, and well fed - win, win, win! Since we had a bottle of buttermilk on hand, I decided to try a recipe for honey buttermilk bread that I've had for a while. The complete recipe is at the bottom of the blog.

The ingredients you'll need are: yeast, powdered ginger, sugar, buttermilk (or make your own with milk and vinegar), honey, salt, baking soda, flour (bread or all-purpose), and butter.

Start by getting your yeast going: in a large mixing bowl (use the bowl of your stand mixer if you're using one), combine 1 tablespoon (or 1 packet) yeast, a pinch of ginger, and a teaspoon of sugar with 1/4 cup warm (hand washing temperature) water, and let sit for 5 minutes.

While the yeast is foaming away, warm up 2 cups of buttermilk. I zapped mine in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between, for a total of 2 minutes.

Stir in 1/3 cup honey and 1 teaspoon salt, then get your baking soda ready, but don't add it yet!

Once you add it to the buttermilk, it will foam up and make a mess unless you're using a really big measuring cup. So hold the measuring cup over your mixing bowl of yeast, then add 3/4 teaspoon baking soda, stir quickly, and dump it in. (Note: I used a 1/4 teaspoon measuring spoon and added 3 spoonfuls; next time I'd eyeball 3/4 of a 1-teaspoon spoon and add the soda all at once.)

Stir the bubbling mess. (Cackling, "Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble" at this point is optional, but highly encouraged.)

Next, melt 1/4 cup butter on the stove or in the microwave. You want to do this step now so it has a chance to cool a bit before you add it to the dough.

Now, add 3 cups of flour to your buttermilk mixture. If you're using a stand mixer, just set it on low and dump the flour in all at once (cover the mixer with a tea towel to avoid covering your kitchen - and yourself - in flour), and leave it for 3-5 minutes. If you're using a hand mixer, as I did, use dough hooks (if you have them) and add the flour gradually, with the mixer on low or medium-low. I beat it for about 3 minutes, stopping a few times to scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

Once the butter has had the chance to cool a bit, go ahead and pour it in with the mixer on low. Use the rubber spatula to help work the butter into the dough.

Now you can add 3 more cups of flour, 1 cup at a time. If you're using a stand mixer, you can probably just dump it in and let it chug away on low. With my hand mixer, I found it difficult to mix after about the first cup, so I didn't the mixer and worked the rest of the flour in by hand, kneading it right in the bowl. I only worked in about 2-1/2 cups, but the dough seemed to be a good consistency, so I just left out that last half cup.

Once the dough is smooth and elastic, you're ready to let it rise. I rinsed out the bowl I had kneaded it in, sprayed the bowl with cooking spray and put the dough in, smooth side down, then flipped it over so it was coated all over.

I covered it with a tea towel and popped it into the oven on the "PROOF" setting. If your oven doesn't have a proof setting, you can preheat it to its lowest temperature and turn it off (or leave the door ajar, depending on what the lowest setting is), or if you have a gas oven, the pilot line alone will keep the oven at a good proofing temperature. But anywhere warm will do.

Let the dough rise for an hour and a half or so, until roughly doubled in size. Then comes the fun part! Take it out and give it a good punch, right in the center.

Divide the dough into two equal parts with a knife and shape each into a loaf. Spray a couple of loaf pans with cooking spray and arrange the loaves in them, then brush the tops of the loaves with melted butter or spray with cooking spray.

Cover and allow to rise again for about 45 minutes, until the dough reaches the top of the pans.

Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Keep an eye on the loaves, and cover the tops with foil if they start to brown too early. Remove the loaves from the oven and brush the tops with melted butter. Allow to cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then remove from pans (you may need to run a knife around the edge to loosen) and allow to finish cooling on a wire rack. If you prefer softer crusts, cover the loaves while cooling.

Slice and enjoy!