Hokkaido Milk Loaf

Nothing beats a loaf of bread fresh out from the oven, especially if it's painstakingly home-baked. The aroma of the fresh bread wafts through the entire kitchen into our noses. Sit down in the comfort of your home and family or friends, prepare freshly brewed tea or coffee; slice the freshly-baked bread and spread with butter, kaya, peanut butter, or anything you fancy or just eat it plain. Simple pleasures ...............

I took this recipe from the Yvonne C's 65°C Tangzhong Bread. The texture is soft and fluffy when it's fresh out of the oven that you would want to eat it plain without any spread. I would say that I can keep this bread for up to a maximum of 3 days. It's best consumed on the day it's baked. It's still okay on the second day, but you may like to spread it with some butter, peanut butter, jam, etc. On the 3rd day, it's best to eat it toasted. Longer than that, the bread will be a little stale and the colour of the bread will no longer be so white.







 

Ingredients

(A)
270g bread flour
43g sugar
4g salt
5.5g instant yeast

(B)
43g eggs

29.5g heavy cream

27g fresh milk

4.5g natural milk essence **
92g tangzhong

 

(C)
24.5g unsalted butter

 

** I can't find natural milk essence. So I just substitute it with 4.5g fresh milk.

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Add ingredients in (A) into a mixing bowl and whisk gently to distribute the ingredients evenly.
3. Add ingredients (B) to above. Start on low speed to mix the dry and wet ingredients. Change to medium speed after the dry and wet ingredients are moistened evenly.
4. Change to low speed and add in ingredients (C) after the above comes together into a smooth dough.
5. Once all the butter has been incorporated into the dough, increase to medium speed and knead until the dough leaves the mixing bowl, becomes smooth and shiny. At this point, do a“window pane” test. Take a small portion of the dough and stretch it thin until you can see light shining through it and the torn edges are smooth. Once it has reached this stage, you can stop.
6. Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and shape it into a round ball. Place it in a greased bowl big enough to hold it.
7. Cover tightly with plastic wrap over the bowl. Let it proof at room temperature for 40 minutes or until doubled.
8. To test if the dough has risen to the right state, sprinkle some flour onto your finger an d dip your finger vertically into the centre of the dough. If the dent you have created stays, it is ready. If the dent bounces back, proofing is not complete yet.
9. Remove the dough from the greased bowl and divide it into 2 equal pieces of 265g each.
10. Shape into round balls and proof them for another 15 minutes at room temperature.
11. Flatten the rounded dough using your palm or a rolling pin to deflate the air. Turn it over and use the rolling pin to shape it into an oval-shaped flattened dough.
12. Along the longer side, make a 1/3 fold down from the top to the centre and seal the folded-down edge.
13. Make another 1/3 fold from the bottom to the centre and seal the folded-down edge.
14. Turn the dough over so that the sealed edges are facing downwards. Use a rolling pin to shape it into a 30 cm long by 10 cm wide rectangle.
15. Starting from the top and with the shorter end facing you, roll it like a swiss roll into a cylindrical shape.
16. Place it into one end of the 20cm x11cm x 11cm loaf tin.
17. Repeat for the other piece of dough and place it in the other end of the loaf tin.
18. Proof for about 40 minutes at 38°C environment, or until it has risen by about 80%.
19. Brush the top of the bread with egg wash and bake at about 150°C top heat and 180°C bottom heat for about 35 minutes.