Honey Kefir Bread

A little while back I saw a link to this post by The Restless Chipotle on making Honey Buttermilk Bread.  I pretty much avoid breads due to wheat allergies.  Yeah, I cheat once in a while.  So sue me.

There were a few things I needed to tweak for it to work for me. First, because of a rash on my hands (probably from cheating on the wheat products  - but those cookies were good!) I couldn't knead the dough. So it had to be doable in the bread machine.

Second, I didn't have any buttermilk, but I do make my own dairy kefir so I decided to substitute that instead. I purchased my kefir grains from Cultures for Health. They are very helpful, my first attempt at kefir didn't work and they replaced the grains and gave me some excellent advice which ultimately enabled me to get homemade kefir going.

If your kefir is thick you may want to thin it down a bit with some milk to where it has the consistency of buttermilk.

Back to the bread. It's a simple recipe, nothing exotic, and you can go from Zero-Yum in about 3-1/2 hours. Add the following ingredients to the bread pan in the order listed. This is for a 1-1/2 pound loaf.

1 Cup Kefir
2 Tablespoons Coconut Oil
1/4 Cup Honey
1 Teaspoon Salt
3 Cups Flour

Now stop and smooth the flour out over the liquid ingredients to form a barrier between these last two ingredients and the liquid.

1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
2 Teaspoons Dry Yeast

At this point you turn on the bread machine and go take a nap.  :-)  All bread machines I am aware of have a 3 hour cycle.  In 3 hours your bread should be ready, tap it out of the bread pan onto a wire rack and allow to cool 20 minutes before slicing.

It will still be warm, slather on some butter and enjoy!