Buttermilk Bread; an easy recipe.

I recently shared some tag sale finds with you.  Among them was a cookbook called The Art of British Cooking, published in 1965.  It seemed appropriate on this rainy day that I try the Buttermilk Bread recipe.  I've had a bit of buttermilk left over from some delectable buttermilk waffles and I wanted to use it up. The book says "This is delicious and easily made.  If buttermilk is not available, use sour milk, or fresh milk with a teaspoon of creme of tartar added to the milk before stirring into the flour."

 I was a little worried at first...the recipe called for a pound of flour.  Thankfully, The Joy of Cooking has a "weights and measures" section that comes in handy at times like this.  There it was; one pound of flour equals four cups.

You'll need 4 cups of flour (I used all purpose), 1 teaspoon of baking soda, 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 cup of buttermilk.  Start by mixing the dry ingredients together.  I like to use a fork for this.

 

Slowly add the buttermilk and mix to a slightly elastic dough.  Divide in two, put on a lightly floured bowl and shape to a round about 6 inches across.  Place them in a greased pan.  I chose to use my very large cast iron skillet.  They both fit into it very nicely.

The book says to mark the top with a cross and bake for 20 - 30 minutes in a moderate to quick oven.  I set my oven to 350 degrees and baked them for approximately 30 minutes. 

They smelled wonderful coming out of the oven!  The cookbook suggest making the dough into small rolls also.  I'll try that next time.  I would guess that you'd get about a dozen rolls out of the batter.

The rain had picked up so it was a cozy afternoon for warm bread and strawberries with cream.

This is heavy cream.  You can use light cream or even half and half if you prefer.  Milk is a bit too thin.

 A little butter on my bread and it made a delightful lunch!

Someone was watching me; shall I set another plate?

I'll be sharing more recipes from the The Art of British Cooking periodically.