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A beautifully soft homemade sandwich bread, with a touch of extra flavor from the buttermilk. This bread is fantastic for sandwiches, toasting, or right out of the oven. With an added ingredient to make it stay fresh longer!
Is there ANYTHING quite like homemade bread? If you ask my younger son, C – the answer is no. C has discerning tastes when it comes to his sandwiches, and prefers his daily peanut butter with strawberry jam to be made on homemade bread. Spoiled much?
Ever since moving to the US, I’ve always disliked commercially made sandwich bread – not because I’m picky, but because it’s SO sweet. I honestly thought it was like eating a donut when I first moved here!
I’ve adapted to many things (refrigerating eggs, calling fresh coriander “cilantro”, and I almost don’t notice the cheese in a can on grocery shelves now) in the 10 years since my move – but bread, well… I’m still not sold. Thankfully, I can make it myself. And I do, often.
I love having my own bread available for whenever I need some vegemite on toast (much more often than you’d think), and I like to bake this bread and freeze slices for whenever I need them.
HOT TIP: The “problem” with homemade breads is they don’t seem to stay fresh long. To combat that, I add a little powdered ginger to this dough – and I get a good 5 days of freshness out of my loaves. You can’t taste the ginger, but because it has astringent properties it also helps keep the bread fresher longer and it deters mold and bacterial growth.
I add the baking soda to make the bread less tangy (from the buttermilk) – but you can leave it out, easily.
USING A BREAD MACHINE – you need a 2lb loaf capacity bread machine to make this dough. Or, simply halve the recipe to suit your needs.
This recipe as written makes 2 full loaves. I also included instructions for those of you who use a bread machine for bread making!
- Don’t forget to butter your tin!
- Before baking, cover the loaves with tinfoil – the tops may burn before your bread bakes fully.
- Don’t sub milk for buttermilk – the buttermilk is what helps the bread to be so soft and squishy and yummy!
- Make sure there is no rack above your bread – this is a tall bread, and it will touch the top! Put these loaves in the middle of the oven.
- For a soft crust, brush melted butter over the loaves shortly after they come out of the oven./
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Soft Buttermilk Sandwich Bread
Ingredients
- 1 Tbs yeast (I use bread machine yeast)
- ½ tsp powdered ginger
- 1 tsp granulated white sugar
- 1/4 cup water (warm)
- 2 cups buttermilk (warm )
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 6 cups bread flour (divided)
- 1/4 cup butter (melted)
OPTIONAL
- Extra butter for brushing on baked loaves
Instructions
Bread Machine:
- Add the yeast, ginger, sugar and water to the bowl of your bread machine.
- Combine the buttermilk, honey, salt and baking soda together and add to the bread machine.
- Add 3 cups of the flour, and put the machine on the “dough” cycle”
- Add the melted butter and the remaining flour.
- Let the machine complete the cycle.
- Remove dough from machine, punch down and divide into 2.
- Shape into loaves, and add to 2 buttered bread tins (or glass pans).
- Cover with a clean kitchen towel and leave somewhere warm for about 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 400F.
- Cover the loaves loosely with tinfoil to prevent browning too fast, and bake for 30 minutes.
- Remove the loaves from the oven and brush with the extra butter (if using)
- Allow to cool completely on a wire rack (covered with a kitchen towel)
- Slice.
- Devour.
Stand Mixer:
- In your mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the yeast, ginger, sugar, and warm water.
- Allow to get puffed up and foamy (about 5 minutes).
- Combine the buttermilk, honey, salt and baking soda together, then add it to the yeast mixture.
- Add 3 cups of the flour and mix until smooth.
- With the mixer on low, add the melted butter and remaining flour.
- Knead on low until the dough becomes smooth and elastic, about 8-10 minutes.
- Remove from mixer, and turn out onto a floured surface.
- Grease a large bowl, and add the dough to the bowl.
- Cover, and rise for 1.5 hours (it needs to double in size)
- Punch down and divide into 2.
- Shape into loaves, and add to 2 buttered bread tins (or glass pans).
- Cover with a clean kitchen towel and leave somewhere warm for about 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 400F.
- Cover the loaves loosely with tinfoil to prevent browning too fast, and bake for 30 minutes.
- Remove the loaves from the oven and brush with the extra butter (if using)
- Allow to cool completely on a wire rack (covered with a kitchen towel)
- Slice.
- Devour.
Nutrition
Disclaimer
Nutritional information is an estimate and provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.
Candace says
Great bread! I cut the recipe in half and used my bread machine for mixing.
Cindy says
Made this bread today and turned out absolutely delicious! I didn’t have ginger so I substituted nutmeg; will be making again. Thanks so much for the recipe
A Gib says
This was so delicious and easy! Thank you for this recipe! Could you pls tell me how you store it? I know you freeze some, but what about the bread you use from day to day? Thanks!
Janna says
My dough could only take 5 cups of flour. Has anyone else used less? Thanks
Ms. Tess says
my family finally loves my baked bread. I used cream of tartar with 2% milk in place of buttermilk and pinch more salt and I will bake it 40 minutes next time and that will perfect it for us. Peace Love
Esther B says
I made the 2 breads and they stalled both!
The second lift I took 1 hour instead of 30 minutes, could that be that?
Kylee says
It could be your yeast? Temperature of your home?
Esther B says
Not really! I made it again in the bread machine with the dough cycle and super beautiful! Really good!
Thank you!
Teresa says
Hello, your recipe sounds amazing and I can’t wait to try the ginger trick. The question I have is in the ingredients you call for 6 cups of flower and in directions you call for 3 cups. I may be missing something.
Kylee says
You add 3 cups of flour, then mix til smooth (step 4) then in step 5 you add the melted butter and remaining flour 🙂
Allison says
Can yogurt be used in place of buttermilk? I have a muffin recipe that does hence the question …
Donna says
Do you think you could halve the ingredients so you could mix, rise, and bake it in a bread maker?
Kylee says
I haven’t tried it! If you do, let me know how it works out?
ROSINA JACKSON says
I really want to try your recipe it seems doable. My one concern is in regard to using commercial buttermilk which sickens me. What do you think of using the lemon/vinegar add-in to milk?
Kylee says
Hi Rosina – I like the flavor of the buttermilk, so you could certainly substitute for the milk/vinegar or lemon juice.
Stella says
I like making bread by hand ,I’m not into the machine thing I enjoy doing things the long time way.
Danielle says
I need a bread machine…I’m sure of it now. I love fresh bread, but bread baking has never been my thing. I need to work on it I guess. The bread machine would sure make it easier! I never knew ginger would help bread keep longer, that’s such an interesting fact! I think I will make a 2018 goal to start making bread.
Kate says
I am definitely trying that ginger trick!