Buttermilk Honey Bread

Now that I have conquered my fear of yeast, I figured it was high time to make some bread. I wanted to make a yummy bread for french toast and I had some buttermilk that I needed to use up. I knew I had seen recipes for buttermilk honey bread floating around, so I googled "buttermilk honey bread for french toast" and a recipe from Allrecipes.com came up, as well as a recipe from Annies-Eats, one of my favorite blogs. Both recipes were similar, so I went with the one from all-recipes, but decided to add an eggwash and poppy seeds, like Annie's recipe suggested, as well as try my hand at braiding the dough. While mine didn't turn out quite as pretty as the one feature in the blog, I definitely wasn't ashamed of my first attempt!

This bread was a breeze to whip up and made the house smell oh, so good while baking. The bread is soft, moist, and very tasty. It's a keeper!

Buttermilk Honey Bread
Yield: 2 loaves
Ingredients:

3/4 cup warm water
1 tbsp. instant yeast
1 tsp. sugar
1 1/2 cups buttermilk, warmed to room temperature
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
3 tbsp. honey, warmed until runny
1 tbsp. salt
6 – 6 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp. milk or cream (for egg wash)
Sesame seeds or poppy seeds for topping (optional)

Directions:
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the water, yeast, sugar, buttermilk, butter, honey, salt, and 4 cups of the flour. Mix on low speed just until a dough has formed. Switch to the dough hook. Continue mixing on low speed, adding the remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time until a smooth dough is formed that clears the sides of the bowl. Continue kneading on low speed until dough is smooth and elastic, about 4-5 minutes. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl, turning once to coat, and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let rise at room temperature until doubled in size, about 60-75 minutes.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and gently punch it down. Grease two loaf pans. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and shape as desired. Cover the loaves lightly with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel and let rise until fully doubled in size, about 45 minutes.

Twenty minutes before you want to bake the bread, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Center a rack in the oven. Just before putting the loaves in the oven, brush the tops with the egg wash and sprinkle with topping, if desired. Place the pans on the center rack and bake about 45 minutes, rotating 180 degrees halfway through the baking time. If the tops brown too quickly, cover loosely with aluminum foil. Remove the loafs immediately to a cooling rack. Let cool completely before slicing.

Source: Buttermilk Honey Bread from All Recipes