Welcome to another post about how much I love carbs, and this time I’m gushing about milk kefir bread! Bread comes in so many different varieties, spanning the spectrum from savory to sweet. So whatever the occasion, there’s a type of bread for you! One of my classic favorites is sourdough, and for me, the tangier it is, the better it is! So, when I heard that the flavor of milk kefir bread was very similar to sourdough, I immediately set out on this new bread journey.
I must confess, I’ve always been too lazy to bake bread. Buying packets of yeast always seemed frivolous to me when I already had all the ingredients to bake a fresh batch of cookies (my kitchen is stocked…just never with yeast). However, when I started fermenting milk kefir, I opened up the bread-making possibility that I never had before. Kefir is a SCOBY, a symbiotic culture of bread and YEAST!! Laziness was not an excuse anymore – with all the ingredients at my disposal, I had no choice but to make bread.
So, what is milk kefir bread?
Simply put, milk kefir bread is a delicious loaf of bread made using milk kefir. It’s the lazy man’s sourdough. It’s also a great way to use the milk kefir that’s fermenting like no other in your fridge. Seriously. When I started making milk kefir, they were multiplying like CRAZY, and I was getting more milk than I could drink alone. Never fear! This bread is the answer to all your over-fermenting worries.
Customize to your heart’s content
What I love about baking bread at home is the ability to make it however you want. For me, that means SUPER CHEESY, GARLICKY BREAD. I’ve experimented with a few different mixins into the dough, and I think the best way to consume this bread is as a cheesy, salty, garlicky, tomatoey, rosemary-ey hunk of delicious goodness. Of course, I’ve taken the sweet route before as well and just bombarded the dough with chocolate chips. Awesome, because chocolate, but the savory version was more popular with friends and family. Anyways, the bread is your oyster, so take it, bake it, and make it your own!
A quick note
This recipe can actually make two of these dome shaped breads. I cut the dough in half and put different mix-ins for each half. Double the flavor, double the fun!
Ingredients
- 4 cups of flour
- 2 cups of milk kefir
- 2 tsp of salt
- Cheesy bread
- LOTS OF PARMESAN CHEESE
- Chopped up garlic to your heart’s content
- A dash of garlic powder
- Sliced cherry tomatoes
- Rosemary
- Chocolate bread
- LOTS OF CHOCOLATE CHIPS DUH
Instructions
- Add flour, salt, and milk kefir into a bowl
- Mix until slightly sticky
- Fold in mixins
- Continue kneading until all the flour is mixed in
- Add more milk kefir or water as necessary
- Move dough to baking sheet with parchment paper
- Shape into dome
- Cover with damp paper towel for 12-24 hours
- Preheat oven to 350 F
- Take off paper towel and uncover the risen beauty!
- Reshape into dome if necessary
- Bake it in the oven for 40-50 minutes until golden brown
- Take it out and let it cool (or attempt to eat it immediately because freshly baked bread is AWESOME, but oh so hot. Be careful!)
Awesome post! Keep up the great work! 🙂