Buttermilk Chive Bread

This easy bread recipe is perfect to use Spring chives.   These very nice loaves are excellent for ham,  egg salad or chicken salad sandwiches and are delicious toasted.  If you want to make 1 loaf in the food processor, click here.

Buttermilk Chive Bread - 2 loaves

  1 ¼    cups  Water -- 110°

  1        cup  Buttermilk -- 110°

  4        Cups  Bread Flour -- 18 ounces

  2        Cups  Flour, All-purpose -- 9-10 ounces

  4        Teaspoons  Instant Yeast -- 2 packages

  2        tablespoons  Sugar

  1        Tablespoon  Salt

     ¼    Cup  Butter -- softened or salad oil

     ¼    Cup  Chives -- snipped

Warm buttermilk and water to 120-125°; do not overheat as buttermilk will curdle. Place dry ingredients (minus 1 cup flour) and very soft butter or oil in mixer bowl.   Turn on mixer to slow and add liquids.   Add remaining flour until dough cleans the bowl.  Turn to speed 2 and mix 2 minutes.  Add chives, change to dough hook and knead 4 minutes.  Let dough rest in covered  bowl in warm place 10 minutes. Turn out of bowl and shape into loaves (about 1# 9 1/2 ounces each) and place in greased 4 1/2 x 8" loaf pans and let rise 25-30 minutes until almost doubled. Preheat oven while dough is rising.  Bake at 400° for 28 minutes. Remove from pan to wire rack, butter top lightly, let cool before slicing.

*If using active dry yeast instead of instant yeast, rising time will increase. I like SAF instant yeast or Fleishman’s instant yeast that I buy at Sam’s Club and freeze until used. Good flavor and much quicker.

*I let bread cool completely and slice. I freeze the loaves in double plastic bags and remove slices as we need them.

April 2011 cost: $1.93 per recipe or 97¢ per loaf.

  "2 Loaves"

Per Serving: 109 Calories; 2g Fat (15.6% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 20g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 4mg Cholesterol; 223mg Sodium.  Exchanges: 1 Grain(Starch); 0 Vegetable; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

I grow my chives in 2 gallon plastic pots; they winter over outside in the pots on the North side of our house, and come back each spring.  They are so vigorous that I usually have to divide them in late summer to share plants with friends and family.