Buttermilk Bread Recipe (Soft White Bread)

This buttermilk bread recipe is easy to make and creates a delicious & soft white bread. Homemade buttermilk bread is great as sandwich bread or toast. Buttermilk adds a mild “tangy” flavor to the bread. As you know, buttermilk is used to make great tasting baked goods such as buttermilk pancakes, buttermilk biscuits… and of course, buttermilk bread.

Beyond its wonderful taste, buttermilk bread has better texture (in my opinion) than many regular white breads. The slight acidity of buttermilk helps to break down gluten. This results in a softer bread than just using milk or water as an ingredient when making homemade bread.

Soft Interior of Homemade Buttermilk Bread

Recipe Sections

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Helpful Tips
• Our Newsletter

While you can knead dough by hand, our buttermilk bread recipe shows you how to make this bread with either a bread machine’s dough setting or an electric stand mixer with dough hook (as these methods are much easier than kneading by hand).

Key Ingredient – Buttermilk

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 Cups – Buttermilk (warm) – 307 milliliters
• 4 Tablespoons – Unsalted Butter (softened) – 57 grams
• 3 1/2 Cups – Bread Flour – 420 grams
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons – White Granulated Sugar – 19 grams
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons – Salt – 7.5 milliliters
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons – Instant Yeast (or Bread Machine Instant Yeast) – 7.5 milliliters

Servings – Roughly 18 slices

Equipment – Measuring cup & spoons, flexible spatula, cutting board, 9×5 bread pan, oven mitts, oven, wire cooling rack and a kneading machine to make the dough (either a bread machine or electric stand mixer with dough hook).

Buttermilk Bread – Straight from Oven BEFORE Basting with Butter

Buttermilk Bread – AFTER Basting with Butter

Instructions

• Creating dough with bread machine
• Or Creating dough with electric stand mixer & dough hook
• Shaping dough & baking bread in oven

FYI – These detailed instructions are designed to help beginners.

Instructions – Creating Dough with a Bread Machine

• Unplug your bread machine.
• Remove the bread pan from the bread machine.
• Pour the buttermilk into the bread pan and then add the other ingredients. Place the instant yeast (bread machine yeast) in last and the yeast should not touch the liquid (until the bread machine is turned on and the ingredients start to be mixed together by the bread machine). Some bakers like to make a small indent on top of the flour to prevent the yeast from spilling into the liquids or mixing with the salt before the machine is turned on.
• Put the bread pan with ingredients back into unplugged bread machine.
• Plug in bread machine. Enter the “Dough” setting on your bread machine and then press the “Start” button.
• When the bread machine has finished making the bread dough, unplug the bread machine.
• Remove the bread pan (with the dough) from the bread machine.
• Now go to the instruction section below on “preparing the dough & baking the bread”. FYI – Ignore the instructions for the electric stand mixer below if you are using a bread machine to make your dough. Skip down to the preparing dough & baking the bread section.

Instructions – Creating Dough with an Electric Stand Mixer with Dough Hook

• Unplug your electric stand mixer.
• Remove the mixing bowl from the electric mixer.
• Insert a dough hook into the electric mixer.
• Pour the buttermilk into the mixing bowl and then add the other ingredients. Place the instant yeast in last and the yeast should not touch the liquid (until the electric mixer is turned on and the ingredients start to be mixed together). Some bakers like to make a small indent on top of the flour to prevent the yeast from spilling into the liquids or mixing with the salt before the machine is turned on.
• Place the mixing bowl back into the electric stand mixer.
• Plug in the electric mixer and use a low speed (i.e. setting 2) to mix the dough. Mix & knead the dough for 7-10 minutes.
• Turn off the electric mixer and unplug machine.
• Remove the mixing bowl from the electric mixer. Pour the dough into a second large mixing bowl that has been lightly “greased” with olive oil, melted butter, cooking spray, etc.
• Optional – Lightly coat the top of dough with vegetable oil in order to prevent dough exterior from drying out.
• Loosely cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for 60-90 minutes until it doubles roughly in size. See tips below for more information.
• After the dough has risen, go to the instruction section below on “preparing the dough & baking the bread”.

Shape Dough & Let Rise in a Bread Pan

Instructions – Preparing the Dough & Baking the Bread

• Sprinkle a little bit of flour onto a large cutting board.
• Remove the dough from the bread pan or mixing bowl and place the dough on the cutting board.
• Press down on the dough with your hands and create a “flattish” rectangle with the dough. The dough should be roughly 1 inch high.
• Roll up the dough into a tight “jelly roll”. FYI – Please see the short instructional videos in the tips section on how to shape the dough if you haven’t shaped bread dough before. It is easier to watch & learn from these short videos versus trying to explain the rolling technique step by step.
• Place the rolled up dough into the bread pan.
• Press down on top of the dough so the edges of the dough press out towards the sides of the bread pan. This should result in little or no gaps between the dough and the bread pan. This helps the bread to turn into a nice loaf shape without any misshapen edges. Make sure that the top of the pressed down dough is roughly level (so one side isn’t much higher than the other).
• Optional – Lightly coat the top of dough with vegetable oil in order to prevent dough exterior from drying out.
• Loosely cover the top of the bread pan with plastic wrap. Set the covered bread pan aside for 60-90 minutes for the dough to rise into a loaf shape. Once the dough has risen 1 – 1.5 inches (2.5 – 3.8 cm) above the rim of the bread pan, the dough should be ready to be placed in the oven. FYI – You want the dough to fully rise during this stage. So don’t try to shorten this rising time. If the dough is still significantly rising while in the oven, you are more likely to see crust/seam cracks or “bursts” in the oven. In addition, the speed of the dough rise will vary in part based on the temperature of your kitchen (i.e. rise faster in the summer & slower in the winter).
• Preheat the oven to 350 F about 20 minutes before you plan to put the dough in the oven. FYI – I like to set my timer to go off 40 minutes after I place the dough in the bread pan. Given variability in the dough rising time, this can be a little early sometimes (but better to be a little early versus being late!).
• Place the bread pan in the (preheated) oven to bake at 350 F for 37-42 minutes. Wear oven mitts when dealing with a hot oven. Place the bread pan in the middle of the oven.
• Rotate the bread pan in the oven after 15-20 minutes (in order to ensure an even browning of the bread).
• After the 37-42 minute baking period has finished, remove the bread pan from the oven. Wear oven mitts.
• Remove the bread from bread pan and place the bread on a wire cooling rack. Wear oven mitts.
• Optional – Brush melted butter on top of the bread with a pastry brush. This “basting” helps to create a more golden & tasty crust.
• Allow the bread to cool down on the wire cooling rack for 1-2 hours before cutting the bread.
• Please read the tips section below for extra information on how to make this recipe successfully & to avoid common bread making problems.

If you liked this recipe, please leave a comment below & give us a 5 star rating. We LOVE to hear from people who have enjoyed our recipes!! Jump to comments section

Other Bread Dad Sections

• Bread Machines – My favorites
• Bread Machine Cookbooks
• Bread Mixes – Ingredient kits
• Bread Tools – Baguette pans, etc.
• Ingredients – Yeast, flour, etc.

Helpful Tips

• The tips below are designed to help bread making “novices” and/or those who haven’t touched their bread machine or electric stand mixer in years.
• Click on our “print recipe” link if you want to print out this recipe. It includes all of the recipe’s ingredients and instructions. However, the recipe print function does not include our tips section. Please read the tips section in order to avoid common recipe problems.
• This recipe is part of Bread Dad’s series on Easy Bread Recipes.

• This buttermilk bread recipe is the “oven version” of our very popular bread machine buttermilk bread recipe. For this recipe, you will create the dough in your bread machine (or electric mixer) and bake the bread IN THE OVEN. In contrast, our bread machine buttermilk bread recipe makes the dough in the bread machine and bakes the bread IN THE BREAD MACHINE.
• Bread machine users – While it is more complex than baking the bread entirely in your bread machine, there are some benefits for making the dough in your bread machine but baking it in your oven. It allows you to eliminate the mixing paddle hole at the bottom of your bread machine loaves, to create a more “normal” loaf shape versus a bread machine “block” shaped loaf and to add fancy bread exteriors (i.e. an egg wash with oat flakes).

• In case you didn’t know, buttermilk has a slightly tangy & creamy taste. It is sort of like a liquidy yogurt.
• Buttermilk is NOT buttery milk. According to Wikipedia, “Traditionally, it was the liquid left behind after churning butter out of cultured cream”.
• Buttermilk is often used to add flavor to breads as well as a means to soften breads because the lactic acid in buttermilk “tenderizes” gluten.
• Remember to shake the buttermilk carton before using. The liquid in buttermilk might have separated and the top half of the carton could be too watery (and bottom half too thick) if not shaken and recombined.

• Visitors – Do you like to use powdered buttermilk or supermarket liquid buttermilk (i.e. buttermilk from a carton) when making buttermilk baked goods? Do you see any difference between the two? Please post your thoughts in the comment section at the bottom of the page.
• You can find buttermilk in most major supermarkets (in the diary section). However, buttermilk is becoming harder to find (as it gets squeezed out by newer “competition” such as soy milk, oat milk, almond milk, etc.). Therefore, if you can’t find buttermilk cartons in the dairy section, you can also use powdered buttermilk. FYI – You can usually find powdered buttermilk at Amazon, King Arthur Baking, Walmart, etc.
• Buttermilk powder is made from the solids left over after evaporating the water out of buttermilk.
• Some people prefer the taste of fresh buttermilk whereas others prefer the ease of powdered buttermilk (i.e. better long-term storage and it is, easier to deal with room temperature water & powdered buttermilk versus trying to heat up refrigerator cold buttermilk). Thanks Ann (one of our amazing visitors) for the info regarding the powdered buttermilk advantages.

• If you want to know some of the science behind buttermilk – According to Wikipedia, “Cultured buttermilk was first commercially introduced in the United States in the 1920s. Commercially available cultured buttermilk is milk that has been pasteurized and homogenized, and then inoculated with a culture of Lactococcus lactis or Lactobacillus bulgaricus plus Leuconostoc citrovorum to simulate the naturally occurring bacteria in the old-fashioned product. The tartness of cultured buttermilk is primarily due to lactic acid produced by lactic acid bacteria while fermenting lactose, the primary sugar in milk. As the bacteria produce lactic acid, the pH of the milk decreases and casein, the primary milk protein, precipitates, causing the curdling or clabbering of milk. This process makes buttermilk thicker than plain milk. While both traditional and cultured buttermilk contain lactic acid, traditional buttermilk tends to be less viscous, whereas cultured buttermilk is more viscous”.
• If you can’t find any buttermilk, you might want to try our recipe for Greek yogurt bread (bread machine dough but oven-baked). It is similar to our buttermilk bread recipe as yogurt bread produces a very soft sandwich bread. Greek yogurt also tends to be a little easier to find in the supermarket.
• Optional – One of our visitors (thanks Ann!!) left a great comment about turning this recipe into a buttermilk onion bread by adding onion flakes or onion powder to the recipe. Depending on how much you love the flavor of onions, I would start with 1 or 2 tablespoons of onion powder/flakes and adjust from there.
• Optional – Or you can turn this recipe into a buttermilk herb bread by adding 1 tablespoon of Italian seasoning (dried herbs).

• If you are having problems shaping your dough, you should watch the “how to” instructional videos below. These are links to bread dough shaping videos on Youtube.
• King Arthur Baking
• San Diego Artisan Bread School
• Father Dominic – a slightly different method versus the videos above
• Don’t worry if you are a beginner and the bread top comes out a little lopsided. The bread will still taste great. It takes a little while for new bakers to learn how to shape a bread consistently. 
• If you like, you can knead the dough by hand. However, kneading dough by hand for 10-15 minutes is too much work for me!!! I prefer the bread machine or electric stand mixer to do the hard stuff.

• How do you know when the dough has risen enough in the second rise (when the dough is in the bread pan)? After letting the dough rise for 60-90 minutes (and when it is roughly 1-1.1.5 inches above the 9×5 bread pan), you can try the “poke test“. Poke your finger into the dough (going in about an inch). If the poke hole rebounds immediately, you need to allow more time for the dough to rise further (it is “under proofed”). If the hole doesn’t come back at all, the dough has risen too much (it is “over proofed”). If the hole slowly fills over 2-3 seconds, the dough is at the right stage of proofing.
• Unfortunately, the temperature of your kitchen can make the timing for this perfect poke result hard to predict (because there is a faster dough rise in hot kitchens and a slower rise in cold kitchens). Experience with “proofing” will make this easier (but it can be a problem for beginning bakers).
• FYI – If the dough is “under proofed” (hasn’t risen enough) when you place it in the oven, the bread is more likely to burst/crack when baked in the oven (as the still rising dough will push against the hardening crust and “burst” at the seams of the crust). Bakers try to get around this issue via testing for the right “proofing” level (i.e. use the poke test), “scoring” breads (slicing the top of the dough so the cracks occur where you want them), adding moisture inside the oven (so the dough doesn’t harden as quickly), using a dutch oven (in order to trap the dough moisture inside the dutch oven container & not spread out into the oven), etc.
• Don’t overproof the dough (let it rise too long). This occasionally happens when someone forgets about the rising dough and comes back hours later to check. Overproofed dough leads to deflated dough as well as flat and/or sunken bread tops. According to Wikipedia, “Overproofing occurs when a fermenting dough has rested too long. Its bubbles have grown so large that they have popped and tunneled, and dough baked at this point would result in a bread with poor structure.”
• If your dough is “over proofed”, you might like to read the King Arthur Baking article “How to save over-proofed dough” as it gives tips on how to save the dough.
• For more information on dough proofing, please read this MasterClass article “Baking 101: What Is Proofing?“.

• Use FRESH ingredients (i.e. flour) for the best results. Ingredients that have been sitting in the pantry for months can become stale or pick up weird smells & flavors.
• Try to keep your ingredients (i.e. flour) in airtight food containers in order to extend their shelf life. Airtight containers also help to prevent ingredients (i.e. flour and sugar) from absorbing moisture from the air. This extra moisture can throw off recipes (as it can disrupt the liquid-to-dry ingredient ratio in the recipe) and shorten an ingredient’s shelf life. They also help to prevent exposure to pests, dust, etc.
• For the best results, you should use bread flour to make this buttermilk bread recipe. If you use all purpose flour, you will have a denser bread (less fluffy).
• Don’t use cold buttermilk because that will inhibit the growth of the yeast. The buttermilk should be lukewarm in temperature. If you use cold buttermilk, your bread may have trouble rising properly. You can use a microwave (for a very short time) in order to warm the buttermilk. However, don’t make the buttermilk too hot as excessive heat can kill the yeast.
• If you are looking for other bread recipes where you can make the dough in your bread machine and bake it in your oven, you should try our recipes for Buttery White Bread, Cranberry Walnut Bread, Flaxseed Bread, Multigrain Bread and Oatmeal Bread.

• This buttermilk bread recipe uses instant yeast or bread machine yeast. It is not based on using active dry yeast.
• Nevertheless, you can also use active dry yeast to make this bread but the active dry yeast must be pre-activated first. This tip is geared towards bakers who are experienced with using active dry yeast.
• Active dry yeast is different from instant yeast & bread machine yeast. Instant yeast & bread machine yeast are added directly to the recipe’s ingredients. In contrast, active dry yeast must be activated in water/milk before being added to a recipe’s ingredients. Many bakers find it quicker to use instant yeast because you just add it to the dry ingredients. With active dry yeast, you need to spend roughly 10 minutes “proofing” (activating) the yeast with a liquid & sugar.
• I decided to make this buttermilk bread recipe without active dry yeast because many bread machine users & novice bakers only have bread machine yeast or instant yeast at home. Moreover, there are plenty of good recipes for buttermilk bread with active dry yeast but not so many white bread instant yeast recipes.

• Cooler home temperatures in the winter can cause rising problems for bread dough. Ideally, your room temperature should be around 75-80 degrees F. Colder winter room temperatures can significantly delay the rise of the dough. You will need to raise the temperature of your kitchen (if you like a cold house in the winter) or find a warm spot for the dough to rise. I often put my dough (covered of course) next to a heating vent in the winter to make sure it is getting enough heat.
• Conversely, dough can rise faster than expected in a very hot kitchen.
• Kitchen humidity can also impact a recipe. A winter kitchen tends to be drier due to your heating system drying out the air. In contrast, a kitchen in the summer can be much more humid. This change in humidity impacts baking as flour can soak up humidity from the air. Therefore, you might have to add 1-2 teaspoons of liquid in the winter if the dough is looking too dry. Or you might have to add 1-2 teaspoons of flour in the summer if the dough is looking too wet. If your kitchen is very dry or humid, you might have to add even a little more (but start with 1 teaspoon at a time until you achieve the right consistency).
• Of course, excessive kitchen humidity or dryness can impact a recipe at any time during the year (not just in the summer & winter)!
• Other factors that can impact the rise of the dough include old or expired yeast, contaminated yeast (i.e. the yeast was left in an open jar & air moisture contaminated it), water that is too cold or too hot, using heavily chlorinated tap water, placing salt next to or on top of the yeast (salt can kill yeast or inhibit its growth), not covering the dough during the rising period (as the exterior of the dough can dry out & limit the ability to rise), etc.

• You should let your bread cool down for 1-2 hours on the wire cooling rack before you cut any slices (or the slices will be “gummy” and not taste as good as expected). Excess interior moisture is released (via steam) during the cooldown period.
• If you have not made bread in a long time, please buy some new bread machine yeast or instant yeast before making your bread. Old yeast can die or lose its potency and this will lead to bread that does not rise properly. Yeast is not likely to be viable if it has been sitting in your pantry for years.
• Once you have opened the container that contains the yeast, the yeast will last longer if you store the bottle in the refrigerator or freezer. Just make sure the bottle is sealed tight (as yeast will deteriorate quickly if exposed to air, moisture and/or heat).

• The flattening & shaping of the dough and the press down of the dough in the bread pan is the “punch down” phase.
• If you don’t do this punch down phase, your bread will have large air pockets (trapped bubbles produced by the yeast). Large air pockets are fine for ciabatta-type breads but not ideal for sandwich bread.
• This bread recipe calls for the use of a 9 x 5 inch bread pan. You can also use a 8.5 x 4.5 inch bread pan but the “crown” of the bread might come out too tall (or overflow) if your yeast is very active.

• It takes roughly 15-20 minutes to preheat most ovens with some variability due to the size of the oven, planned baking temperature (hotter takes longer), etc.
• Optional – Use an oven thermometer as your expected oven temperature may be different than reality. Some ovens can be 25-50+ degrees F hotter or colder than the number you set with your oven dial. An oven thermometer (which usually costs less than $10) is an easy way to measure the actual temperature inside your oven.
• Optional – Use a digital bread thermometer to test if your bread is completely done. The interior temperature of the bread should be 190-200 degrees F. This inexpensive tool can save you from underbaked breads.
• If your oven is not working or you just prefer the ease/speed of a bread machine, you can try our easy Bread Machine Buttermilk Bread Recipe.

• My recipes are based on US ingredient measurements (i.e. US cups & tablespoons). However, as a courtesy to our European visitors, I have also included some very ROUGH European equivalents (i.e. grams & milliliters). Since I rarely use European measurements when baking, please let me know in the comment section below if any of the European ingredient measurements need to be changed (i.e. for XYZ ingredient, milliliters are more commonly used versus the grams information listed in the recipe).
• Always wear oven mitts/gloves when dealing with a bread machine, hot oven, hot bread pan, etc.
• For more easy bread ideas, please check out Bread Dad’s sections for Bread Machine Recipes and Homemade Bread Recipes.
• Did you make this recipe? Did it come out great? We would love to see a picture of your baking masterpiece! Please post a photo of it on Instagram and tag it with @BreadDadRecipes

If you liked this recipe, please leave a comment below & give us a 5 star rating. We LOVE to hear from people who have enjoyed our recipes!! Jump to comments section

More Bread Dad Recipes

• Bread Machine Recipes
• Bread Recipes
• Banana Bread Recipe
• Quick Bread Recipes – Pumpkin bread, cranberry bread, etc.
• Cookie Recipes

Questions & Answers

What does buttermilk do for bread?

Buttermilk helps bread by tenderizing it and adding flavor. The acid in buttermilk softens the gluten in bread. This helps to create a softer white bread versus creating a white bread with milk or water. Buttermilk also adds a unique and slightly tangy taste to bread.

What is buttermilk bread made of?

Homemade buttermilk bread is usually made with buttermilk, bread flour, yeast, salt, butter (or oil) and sugar. It is a very easy bread to make with a bread machine or to bake in the oven.

What does buttermilk bread taste like?

Buttermilk bread has a unique and slightly tangy taste. Moreover, given its softness, buttermilk bread is often seen as a tasty bread to make for sandwiches or as a side dish. If you like “regular” white breads, you will love the taste & extra softness of buttermilk bread.

Reference Sources – Buttermilk Bread Recipe

• Wikipedia, Butter
• Wikipedia, Buttermilk
• Wikipedia, Bread
• Wikipedia, Bread Machine
• Wikipedia, Kneading
• Wikipedia, Stand Mixer

Your fantastic comments motivate us to write more easy & delicious recipes. Also beginning bakers learn a ton from your helpful suggestions, tips and amazing recipe variations. Thank you!

Related Recipes

• Bread Machine Buttermilk Bread
• Bread Machine French Bread
• Bread Machine Italian Bread
• Bread Machine Oatmeal Bread
• Oatmeal Sandwich Bread (oven baked)
• White Bread Instant Yeast (oven baked)

Please leave a comment & recipe rating in the comment box below Thanks!