Can I Use Dried Buttermilk For The Old-Fashioned Sandwich Loaf?

Our answer

NIgella's Old-Fashioned Sandwich Loaf (from COOK, EAT, REPEAT) is a soft loaf with a tender crumb. The loaf uses soured or spoiled milk, but other soured dairy products can also be used, so you could use buttermilk, plain yogurt or sour cream.

The advantage of dried buttermilk is that it has a long shelf life, but for the bread it would need to be be rehydrated. We suspect it would be fine to use the rehydrated product for bread, but several people have commented that they have used plain yogurt successfully for the bread and we would suggest using this as an easier and cheaper alternative to dried buttermilk. NIgella often uses milk mixed with lemon juice (1 tablespoon lemon juice to 250ml/1 cup semi-skimmed/reduced fat or whole milk) instead of buttermilk in other recipes, so this is a handy option if you find it difficult to buy buttermilk.