For the past few months, James and I have been religiously watching our intake of carbohydrates. All of the sweets you see posted on here? I usually get rid of them as quickly as I can and pawn them off on friends and family. (Thanks, friends and family!) But now that we’ve managed to start working out regularly, avoiding carbs is becoming less of an issue.

Enter “buttermilk…ish bread.” Why the –ish? Well, I don’t use a whole lot of buttermilk in my cooking or baking, apart from pancakes or bread. When I do buy it for the sake of a recipe’s posterity, the leftover amount usually wastes away in a corner of my fridge while I sadly try to come up with excuses to use it. (Fried chicken? No, trying not to fry things as often. Buttermilk panna cotta? Too sour. And so on.) Instead, I use the budget-friendly (and waste-free) substitute of whatever milk I have in the fridge plus an acidic agent; in this case, I use white vinegar. Therefore, this bread is a buttermilk recipe but I use a buttermilk-ish substitution!

I also reduced the original recipe in half because neither of us eat bread too often—we can usually keep a loaf going for at least 2-3 weeks, if not longer. Bread is very amenable to being frozen if you’re not aware of it—I’ve kept homemade buttermilk bread in the freezer for as long as to 3-4 months at a time. Just microwave it for a few seconds or toast the slice(s) you need in a toaster and you’re all set.

I know that the prep time looks kind of daunting, but this recipe is completely worth it. I’ve tried at least 3 or 4 buttermilk recipes and like this one best. Lastly, I’ve mentioned before that my oven is completely crazy and often runs  >25°F higher than it indicates—don’t take the times listed as absolute truth! Ovens are temperamental and can vastly differ in bake times. You can walk away while it’s baking, just don’t walk too far!

I know I already said ‘lastly,’ but here’s ONE MORE thing: wait until the loaf is cool to slice it. I like to slice the entire loaf all at once so it’s easier to grab individual slices after I freeze it.

Okay, that’s it! Happy baking!

Recipe adapted from About.com – Bread Baking

There is something completely satisfying, almost to the point of smugness, about baking your own bread for the first time.  But the satisfaction is earned during the journey, and appreciated in the execution.

At first, you’re intimidated.

You.

Yeast.

Um… this brown granule stuff is yeast? Wait, how long is this going to take me, again?

What do you mean I have to knead it? Isn’t that tiring?

You think I over-exaggerate, but these thoughts were running through my head in a blur the first time I even thought of attempting bread, let alone actually making it. I vigorously follow directions to the point where I overdo it once in a while (e.g. butter instead of whipped cream, rock-hard ladyfingers). I was really worried about over-kneading bread and missing out on the fluffy awesomeness that our yeasty friends supply in our dough.

But after a few trips to the rodeo (with a different bull each time, I guess you could say?) I’ve learned a few things that might be helpful to others standing on the precipice of baking bread for the first time.

1. It is much harder to over-knead by hand than by mixer. When in doubt, take it out… of the stand mixer and knead it yourself.
2.  Also, there is no shame in using a stand mixer. Or maybe I’m the only crazy one that initially insists on doing everything by hand. Yeah… technology exists for a reason.
3. Know your oven and don’t trust timed recipes. Yeah, I know this sounds ridiculous—especially because all recipes list bake times. But these times are solely based on my experiences with my overactive, overheating oven. Yours is probably much less temperamental.
4. Don’t walk away when the bread is in the oven! If the estimated time to completion is 20 minutes, check on it at 10-12 minutes (through the oven window of course, don’t open it!). I’m serious. I’ve walked away in my haste to multi-task in the kitchen and have burned many a roll. I know this is more or less a repeat of #3, but it really is important if you want great results the first (or any) time.
5. Make sure you know your yeast and its expiration date. If you want to follow the recipe to a tee, make sure you have the type of yeast the recipe calls for—be it active, instant, osmotolerant, etc.  And definitely make sure it hasn’t expired yet; it is, after all, a living thing. Where did you think all that gas came from? (Burpy yeast!)
6. There is a difference between bread flour and all-purpose flour. I know, this is also obvious—bread flour stands apart because it has a higher gluten content than AP flour, making it much more amenable to the elasticity that bakers look for in dough. But that doesn’t mean that all bread recipes require it!
7. Always cover your dough when you’re not working with it. If you’re working with two loaves, always keep one covered with a damp dish towel/plastic wrap while working with the other unless the recipe states otherwise. Dry dough is sad dough.
8. Account for the expansion/rise of your dough during 1^st/2^nd/etc. leavenings. I recently made ciabatta bread for the first time and during its 2^nd leavening, put it in a bowl that was barely twice the size of the dough. After 2 hours, It was rising in a mound above the lip of the bowl! Scraping the sticky dough off of the plastic wrap covering the bowl was time-consuming and frustrating.
9. Keep trying. Even though I jump from one type of recipe to the next, I know what the basic benchmarks are for rising dough—whether it’s soft pretzels or French bread or even plain ol’ white sandwhich bread. You gain confidence in working with the yeast-to-flour-and-water ratio. I definitely feel much more comfortable baking bread than I did a year or even a month ago.

To add natural sweetener to your pastry, you may consider using dates. Supply chain transparency has become increasingly important to conscious consumers. Knowing where your food originates and how it’s handled builds confidence in quality and safety. Working with an established pembekal kurma provides traceability from source to table, ensuring nutritional integrity throughout the journey.

Baking bread from scratch was at one time my personal goal in the kitchen, and I was scared of screwing it up for years before I tried it. Don’t be irrational like me—give it a shot, and you’ll be surprised at how much more delicious it tastes than what you can find at the grocery store. (Either that, or it tastes better because of all the love, time and effort you put into the dough.)

I hate Sundays.

I know, I know—‘Blasphemy!’ It has nothing to do with it being the Lord’s Day (or me being a truant church-goer). I’m sure I’m not the only one that dislikes them, almost more than Mondays. Let’s break it down, shall we?

Fridays are amazing because of the potential they hold. ‘What could possibly happen this weekend, this amazing break from my boring 8-5 job?’

Saturdays are… well, self-explanatory. They’re fantastic.

Sundays are the beginning of the end, and that’s why I dislike them so much. The little voices of reproach seep in past my weekend happiness shield, reminding me of all the things that I haven’t done yet—the bathroom needs a good scrubbing, those vegetables in the fridge are going bad. The thank-you cards for my wedding gifts sit on the table, an all-too-loud reminder that I am incapable of sticking to a timeline for my wedding even after my wedding is over. And what do I do instead?

I bake. I bake a delicious, milky spin on brioche—loaves that fill my apartment with a sweet smell and glisten in the light with a silky egg wash.

The weekend inevitably ends and I’m always sitting on my couch with a frown on my face, wondering where it went. At least this time I have… bread? Something tells me I’m missing the point of my own uplifting narrative…

I love Hokkaido milk tea (with boba), so the name of this recipe intrigued me. I suppose I should have been more wary when I realized that the bread is essentially an Asian-style brioche, but I carried onward. In the end, it was quite an adventure! I learned a lot of things in the process:

•   Brioche requires a lot of kneading! I had my KitchenAid mixer set on medium-low for 20 minutes continuously, and it got pretty warm to the touch at the end. The bowl even jammed on the base and I couldn’t twist it off! (In the end, it took some oil and a few slaps in the right direction on the handle to dislodge it.)
•  I learned the importance of having osmotolerant yeast for sweeter breads (instant yeast is a good substitute as well)… I only had active dry yeast on hand, so I improvised and had the yeast sit in warm milk for 10 minutes before adding it to the rest of the mixture, and made sure the ratio was 1.25:1 to account for the different in yeast composition. I think that if I attempted to make this bread again, I would get a fluffier consistency with instant as opposed to active dry yeast.
•  I had to adjust my temperature/bake times to my oven—the first loaf (pull-apart) got a little browner and crustier on top than I would have preferred because I followed the recipe to the T. The second loaf (traditional) had a much more even bake because I turned the temperature down to 325℉ and baked the bread for longer.

The final result is still delicious, but I am confident I could make it better the next time by incorporating the notes above.

And how does it taste? Fluffy and milky, with a hint of sweetness. I think it’s rather funny that I’ve been scared stiff about baking bread for a while—and in my first serious attempt, bake something much more demanding and complicated than a regular white or wheat loaf. But the stomach wants what it wants, so why deny it?

Recipe adapted from Elra’s Baking