JMonkey’s Buttermilk and Honey Whole-Wheat Sandwich Bread

Buttermilk and Honey Whole-Wheat Sandwich Bread

Does it make sense to call a loaf “rugged”? Because that’s what would say about this bread: it’s simple and hearty and rugged, like a sandwich bread with character that won’t squish between your fingers like really soft, pillowy breads. I like the bit of twang that the buttermilk lends but at the same time, it’s balanced by the touch of sweetness from the honey, all in a 100% whole wheat loaf of bread.

from this post on The Fresh Loaf, adapted from The Laurel’s Kitchen Bread Book

Ingredients

– Whole wheat flour : 500 g or about 4 cups
– Salt: 10 g or 1.25 tsp
– Instant yeast: 3 g or 1 tsp
– Water: 185 g or ¾ cup + 1 Tbs
– Buttermilk: 185 g or ¾ cup + 1 Tbs*
– Honey: 42 g or 2 Tbs
– Unsalted butter: 14 g or 1 Tbs

*I substituted 185 g of milk with a bit of yogurt mixed into it (and let that stand for about 5-10 min) for the buttermilk.

Overall Formula

– Whole wheat flour: 100%
– Salt: 2%
– Instant yeast: 0.6%
– Water: 38%
– Buttermilk: 38%
– Honey: 8.4%
– Unsalted butter: 2.8%

Directions

Mix: Add the salt to the flour. Mix them thoroughly and then add the yeast, also mixing. Melt the butter and mix it with the buttermilk and water in a separate bowl. Add the water, buttermilk, melted butter and honey to the flour, mixing well until everything is hydrated.

I then kneaded this dough by hand until it was relatively smooth and slightly sticky but not very tacky. This will feel less smooth and a bit wetter than a dough made with all-purpose flour, but I tried to avoid adding more flour at this point because I didn’t want the loaf to become overly dense from using too much flour.

Bulk fermentation: 2 – 2.5 hours at room temperature, with a stretch-and-fold at the halfway mark.

Shaping: I shaped these into two sandwich loaves and placed them into 9″ x 5″ loaf pans (though 8.5″ x 4.5″ would probably be better).

Final rise: until slightly less than doubled.

Bake: 350F for about 50-55 min.

Great for toast, especially with some homemade plum jam.

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I’m sending this loaf to to Susan at Wild Yeast for YeastSpotting, and to JMonkey at The Fresh Loaf for sharing his version of this recipe in the first place. Thanks!

Tags: honey, whole wheat