Homemade Buckwheat Bread

I’m excited about this post because I have very fond memories of helping my grandmothers bake bread in their humble kitchens. I loved watching their wise hands knowingly knead the dough. If I could figure out a way to relive those moments and somehow capture the aroma of freshly-baked bread, I’m certain I would have the answer to the question: “What is the meaning of happiness?”.

There is something serendipitous about the process of taking a few simple ingredients like flour, water, yeast, sugar and salt, and letting the chemistry take over as you watch a beautiful loaf of bread come to life. It really takes very little to create a lot of bread magic. My kids must also have inherited that love-for-bread gene because their eyes bulge and they become little piranhas at the sight of it.

For my simple white bread recipe, I wanted to add something a little more nutritious and decided to go with buckwheat flour. The hero ingredient for this post is buckwheat of course, and I was also fortunate enough to find buckwheat honey which I included in the recipe to replace sugar.

Try it out yourself and be sure to share your pictures online, tagging @prepupbymarina.

Frothy yeast mixture

YIELD 2 large or 4 small loaves

Ingredients:

• HERO: Buckwheat

  • 1 cup buckwheat flour

  • 2 tablespoons buckwheat honey or any liquid honey or sugar

• 2 tablespoons active dry yeast

• 2 tablespoons salt

• 2 cups warm water

• 2 cups water at room temperature

• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter -softened in microwave

• ~6 cups organic all-purpose flour

Instructions:

Combine warm water, yeast, honey, and salt, and whisk together and cover with a kitchen towel. Wait 15-20 mins until yeast activates and becomes frothy. I use a deep soup bowl for this.

Add the yeast mixture to the bowl of your standalone mixer (or any large bowl if you’re using your hands or handheld mixer) and add water at room temperature, unsalted butter and mix with the dough attachment on low-medium setting, slowly add flour while it’s mixing. When finished adding flour, let the mixer mix for another 5 mins or so. The dough should be mixed and still sticky at this point. Transfer the dough to surface covered in a layer of flour to prevent it sticking to the surface (I use a large cutting board for easier cleanup), keep adding all-purpose four to the dough while kneading until you can pick up the dough without it sticking to the surface. Cut the dough in half or quarters and transfer to a parchment paper covered pan. Cover with a kitchen towel and let it rise for 2-3 hours.

Dough should be inflated when it’s ready. Shape dough to resemble bread and slit 3 lines with a knife on top.

Baking magic:

Bake on 420°F for 10 mins, reduce to 400°F for 10 mins, then reduce to 380°F for 26-30 mins or until medium golden brown. Take out of oven and cover with a kitchen towel for ~40 mins or until it softens.

Once cooled completely, wrap twice with plastic wrap the loaves you want to save for later and put in the freezer for future use. To thaw, take out of freezer and leave on counter. Enjoy!