Buttermilk bread
Eating buttermilk sourdough is like a spa treatment for your body. The fermentation process occurring during sourdough loaf preparation amplifies in this bread with the buttermilk added. Buttermilk is a fermented food itself. The health benefits of fermented food have been known for thousands of generations before us. It enriches our gut microflora and therefore strengthens our health and immunity. Buttermilk also makes this sourdough unusually soft and tender. The bread is like a beef tenderloin cooked for a very long time in a Dutch oven! It’s yet another bread for which taming the sourdough is worth your time and effort.
Ingredients
The night before baking take your bread starter out of the fridge and revive it with water and flour so that your final amount is 300 g (10.5 oz).
Next morning you will need:
- 250 g (9 oz) starter (put the rest back in the fridge for next baking)
- 100 g (3.5 oz) rye bread flour
- 500 g (17.6 oz) spelt or wheat bread flour (random combination of plain and whole wheat flour)
- a handful of ground flax seeds (optional)
- about 200 g (7 oz) room temperature water
- 250g (9 oz) room temperature buttermilk
- 15 g (0.5 oz) salt
Method
First mix the starter, white flour, butter milk and 150 g of water in a large bowl let and let the autolysis work for 30 minutes to one hour. Autolysis is a process during which flour enzymes are activated and start breaking gluten structures. This improves bread structure and taste.
After the autolysis, add rye flour, salt dissolved in 50 g water and flax seeds. Mix it all in a stand mixer until smooth and elastic. If you mix the dough with a wooden spoon, knead it for 10 minutes until the dough is nicely smooth. Bring the dough up towards you by pulling underneath it, repeating it for about 10 to 12 times. Then move the bowl 90 degrees counter clockwise, and repeat the process. Turn the bowl again and keep kneading it for the required time.
Keep the dough in the same bowl but scrape off the dough that is stuck on the walls of the bowl, make a nice compact mass and cover the bowl with plastic or a wet towel. By doing so you prevent the dough from drying.
Bulk fermentation for 4 to 5 hours.
Wait 45 minutes to an hour and then do stretch and fold procedure. (The S&F technique helps to develop gluten structures in the dough and therefore strengthens the dough and makes it more elastic. S&F will improve your bread inside structure, making it fluffier, with more holes inside.) Wet your hand and lay it underneath the dough, bring the dough up, stretching it as much as it goes, then fold the dough over the top. Move by 90° and proceed the same way, do about 4 S&F in total. Finally, flip the dough upside down. Do 3 times S&F during the bulk proof, every 45 minutes. Then leave the dough to rest until you see that it is ready for the next step.
Wait until the dough doubles its size and there are visible bubbles underneath the surface.
Overnight option: After the last S&F place the bowl in the fridge over night. Cover the bawl with plastic or a wet towel.
Remove the dough from the bow and pre-shape it in a ball. Be gentle because you don’t want to get rid of the nice bubbles that will create desired holes inside the bread.
Let it rest for 15 minutes and then shape the dough properly for the final rise.
Place the dough either in a bread basket or a bowl with cotton cloth inside. The inside of a basket or a bowl has to be sprinkled generously with enough flour so the dough doesn’t stick to the form.
Final proof for one to one and half hour.
Wait for the dough to rise to about 2 cm from the basket’s edge. You recognise that the dough has risen enough by poking it gently with your finger. The poking should not make a hole but the pressed part should smoothly come back up.
About one hour before the dough is fully risen, heat up the oven for 250°C (482°F). Place a metal sheet or a baking stone on the middle rack and another container filled with water (old one preferably because it will be damaged after while but you can keep using it for bread baking) on the very bottom of the oven to keep your oven moisture. Once the dough is risen, open the oven, take out the metal sheet and flip the dough over from the basket onto the sheet or transfer the dough onto a baking stone with a shovel. You can score the bread before putting it in the oven simply with a sharp knife.
Close the door and wait (without opening the door!) 15 minutes. After 15 minutes open the door quickly to let the hot moisture air out, remove the water container and turn the temperature down to 220°C (428°F).
Another approximately 45 minutes and the bread is done. Let it cool on a wire cooling rack and enjoy!
