Friday, April 16, 2010

Sour Milk Bread

Sour milk isn't always a bad thing; it's actually a decent thing when you're baking. Take, for instance, chocolate cake recipes that call for buttermilk or sour milk, and then people swoon over them. I rest my case.

I didn't have sour milk, just a couple of extra gallons hanging around the fridge the night before the milkman was to deliver. So, wanting to burn through a little milk, I decided to see how sour milk worked in a white bread loaf. I assure you, you do want to try this. It's
light, it has a tiny tang to it, and it's pretty on top of all of that!

SOUR MILK BREAD

1-1/4 cup warm sour milk
3 tsp or 6 tsp yeast*
4 cups flour
1 tbsp honey
2 tsp salt

2 tbsp butter, cut in small chunks
1 egg

Warm the milk to about 120F, and add 1 tbsp lemon juice or vinegar to sour it; let it sit for 5 minutes. Sprinkle the yeast over the milk in either your bread machine pan or mixing bowl, then add the flour and remaining ingredients. Let it mix in the bread machine for the first cycle, or mix and knead according to these directions. Form into two loaves in well gre
ased or oiled loaf pans, and brush the top of each loaf with plain milk. Let them rise until at least doubled in size. Bake at 350F for glass pans or 375F for metal pans for about 25 minutes, or until the desired degree of brownness is achieved. Makes 2 loaves.

As a reminder, I list 3 teaspoons of yeast for people who have time to wait for their bread to rise, and 6 teaspoons to make the process go faster - under an hour. Can you guess which category I'm in?

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. We're supposed to have 40 degrees and rain all weekend; why couldn't that wait until Monday?

18 comments:

Lapdog Creations said...

I think that I must say if you're adding sour milk to my food, plesae don't tell me... :)
(Buttermilk isn't sour, is it??)

Christo Gonzales said...

that takes care of one and a quarter cups what did you do with the other 240 or so odd ounces? this bread does sound so good.

Big Dude said...

The bread looks and sounds delicious - you ae the bread queen.

SissySees said...

Hmmm... A cold, wet weekend would be good for baking, but I think we escape most of the cold rain...

Diane said...

That just sounds delicious, I use a lot of creme fraiche which is is a soured cream containing about 28%butterfat. It is soured with bacterial culture, but is thicker, and less sour than sour cream
Originally a French product, it is now available in many countries.
I love it and it is great in bread recipes. Diane

The Blonde Duck said...

That looks so good. Ben wants to come over and sample a slice...

Pam said...

Sorry you will have rain this weekend... at least you will have this tasty bread to munch on. The loaves turned out beautiful! I think I am ready to try more bread recipes.

Paula said...

Oh my gosh, just this morning, at 7:25 am, I was wondering how to make sour milk. I was making what was supposed to be g/f biscuits for my daughter's breakfast. Welllll, I decided to just use regular milk instead of the sour. Bad decision. They tasted just okay. I missed the tang from sour milk or buttermilk. When I saw your title, my jaw literally dropped! Great minds and all that ... except you actually used the sour milk. I'm hanging my head in shame! :-)

pam said...

You can see how light that bread came out!

Claire S. said...

It's amazing just how many things call for sour milk - that bread looks fabulous - but then your bread always does :-)

tamilyn said...

That is a pretty loaf!

Mickle in NZ said...

A pretty loaf with a very light looking crumb.

I've realised I can use my Mickle "singleton dough method" here:

I'll make up the full amount and when I get to the "divide the dough in two" point I will put one half into a plastic bag, remove as much air from the bag as possible and then freeze it. Uncooked yeasted dough takes up far less room in a wee fridge-top freezer than a baked loaf!! To cook just remove from freezer a few hours before you plan to bake it .... then continue with our Marjie's wonderful recipe.

I'm smiling at jsut the thought of it all!

buffalodick said...

Wow! That bread looks about as good as it gets!

noble pig said...

This sounds wonderful, just yummy. I want to smother it with butter!

Lazaro Cooks said...

Saw your profile on another page. Glad I read your well-written and informative blog. Look forward to following you here. Cheers!

grace said...

i'm all about the speedier option here, clearly. :) excellent use for your excess milk--soft and fluffy bread just makes me happy. :)

Sarah said...

Love the texture. Your picture is great. I can smell the bread from your pic.

Dexter said...

Hey Thor! Watch out for that nail clipping stuff because us full sized doggies have really hard nails. Momma used to clip mine and I did not like it and the vet said that it can pinch and feel funny and that is why I got mad.

Might want to try the vet for your first go at it. They can show you how to use the tools and whatnot. Our vet charges $15 for a nail trim and momma says it is so worth it because it is really a two person job.

Good luck.

Slobbers,
Mango