Weekend recipes: Buttermilk and Honey Whole Wheat

Another recipe from thefreshloaf.com

Ingredients
Whole wheat flour : 500 grams or about 4 cups
Bread flour : 500 grams or about 4 cups
Salt: 20 grams
Instant yeast: 6 grams
Water: 370 grams
Buttermilk: 370 grams
Honey: 84 grams
Unsalted butter: 28 grams or 2 Tbs

Mixing
Add the salt to the flour. Mix them thoroughly and then add the yeast, also mixing. Melt the butter (or, if you like, work it in later while kneading) and add the water, buttermilk, melted butter and honey to the flour, mixing well until everything is hydrated.

Dough development

Traditional kneading: Let it rise 2 to 2.5 hours in the bulk rise at room temperature.  (I think that was too long.  It more than doubled)

If you’re not retarding the bread, deflate the dough after the first rise with a stretch and fold, and let the dough rise once more before shaping. It’ll take about 1.5 hours or so.  ( I completely missed this step)

Shaping

This dough makes a great sandwich loaf, and I usually bake it in a greased 8.5” by 4.5” bread pan.  Let rise for an hour or so.

Scoring and baking

I scored the dough with a single slash down the center, but it’s not necessary. I baked at 350 degrees F for about 55 minutes.

I might try this again.  The bread came out quite dense, and toasts well.  I might try to add the second rise, and make the first shorter, and see what happens: