Buttermilk Whole Wheat Bread (Bernard Clayton)

I've made the Laurel's Kitchen buttermilk bread several times before. It's one of my favourites. This is Bernard Clayton's version of a whole wheat buttermilk bread. Unfortunately, I made it a while ago and then consistently failed to get around to writing up the recipe, so I don't remember much about it. I don't think it stood out as being either particularly good or bad. But that's fine. I've made a lot of different breads over the years. They can't all be stand-outs!

This is an interesting recipe. It uses a both yeast and chemical leaveners and requires only one rise.

Clayton recommends baking this as either one large or two small pan loaves and I honestly don't remember which I did. Looking at the recipe, I feel like it would be pretty skimpy for two loaves, even small ones. So, I'm going to recommend baking it in one large (23x12cm) pan.

Update: I found a photo! I'm pretty sure this is a photo of this bread. In which case, it looks like I did one small loaf and a few dinner rolls.

Buttermilk Whole Wheat Bread

From Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads

Ingredients

• 4 1/2 tsp. active dry (or 3 1/4 tsp. instant) yeast
• 3/4 c. warm water (~40°C)
• 1 1/4 c. buttermilk, room temperature
• ~180g hard (strong/high grade/bread) flour
• ~400g hard (strong/high grade/bread) whole wheat flour, divided
• 1/4 c. unsalted butter or lard
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar or molasses
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tsp. coarse sea salt

Directions

1. If using traditional active dry yeast, sprinkle it over the warm water and set aside for 10-15 minutes. (You can measure out the buttermilk and leave it to warm up during this time.)
   If using instant yeast, it may be mixed directly with the dry ingredients and you may skip this step.
2. Add the buttermilk, white flour, and ~100g of the whole wheat flour to the yeast mixture and beat (either by hand or by machine) for a minute or so.
3. Mix in the fat, sugar, and salt.
4. Sift in the baking powder and mix well.
5. Beat in additional whole wheat flour ~60g at a time.
6. When it becomes stiff, set aside for 5 minutes to allow the wheat bran to absorb more liquid.
7. The dough should be sticky and soft, but if it's too unmanageable, work in a bit more flour by hand.
8. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead with the assistance of a bench/bowl scraper. (It will be too soft to work completely by hand.) Knead for 15-20 minutes.
   Alternatively, use a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook to knead it for ~5 minutes.
9. Round and rest for 5-10 minutes.
10. Meanwhile, grease a 23x12cm (9x5") loaf pan.
11. Shape loaf as desired and place it, seam-side-down, into the prepared pan. Press the dough into the corners of the pan.
12. Cover and set aside to rise at room temperature for ~1 hour.
13. Preheat oven to 220°C (425°F).
14. Bake at 220°C (425°F) until done (~30 minutes).
15. Turn out onto wire rack to cool.