Buttermilk Bread

Aah...here is simplicity itself, in a loaf of bread. No fancy ingredients, add-ins, chunks, glazes, double-boilers, chopping, grating, shaping, scooping, timing, layering, filling. Just a warm, homey, buttery loaf to go with - or BE - your meal. Serve it with chicken. Make a sandwich. Toast it for breakfast. Whatever. Just enjoy what buttermilk can bring to a recipe that doesn't need anything else.

Buttermilk Bread

1/2 cup plus 2 T warm water

1/2 cup warm buttermilk (70 to 80 degrees)

1 tsp lemon juice

2 T butter

3 cups bread flour

2 T brown sugar

1 tsp salt

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (1 packet)

Add ingredients to your bread machine in the order indicated by manufacturer (mine calls for wet ingredients first, then flour, then other dry ingredients and yeast last.) Choose crust color and press START. Makes one 1.5 lb loaf.

Recipe from Taste of Home Quick Cooking, May/June 2003