My world of baking and more.....: Hokkaido Milk Bread

(Adapted from Hokkaido Milk Bread Recipe: Edible Garden)

Till date I have baked several loaves of bread. This bread was by far the softest bread with a subtle sweet taste. One slice of this wonder bread and you will definitely fall in love with it.

Hokkaido milk bread recipe was developed by a Chinese lady called Yvonne Chen. The recipe involves making a starter for the dough using flour and milk. This starter is called Tangzhong. Once this starter has been made, it is one of the main ingredients of the bread dough. The Tangzhong activates the yeast further and makes the bread r-e-a-l-l-y soft.

I got this recipe from the super-talented Nags' blog here.

For making Tangzhong:

Ingredients:

Maida: 1/3rd cup

Milk: 1/2 cup

Water: 1/2 cup

Process (for making Tangzhong)

1. For making the Tangzhong mix the Maida with the milk and water in a pan. Add the Maida gradually so that lumps do not form.

Maida with the milk-and-water mixture

After mixing

2. Next, heat this mixture on medium heat. Make sure you keep stirring the mixture gently so that lumps do not form.

3. After some time you will notice that the mixture has thickened and when you stir you can see concentric lines forming.

4. Take the mixture off the heat. Cool to room temperature. You can use this starter only after 2-3 hours of making it. In case, you plan to prepare the bread dough later, refrigerate the Tangzhong after cooling. This starter keeps well for 2 days in the fridge.

For preparing the bread dough:

Ingredients:

Maida: 2.5 or 3 cups

Sugar: 3 tablespoons

Salt: 1 teaspoon

Active dry yeast: 2 teaspoons

Milk powder: 2 tablespoons

Milk: 1/2 cup

Cream (or milk): 1/8th cup

Tangzhong: 1/3rd cup

Butter: 2 tablespoon

Process (for making bread dough):

1. Add Maida to a deep-bottom bowl.

2. Now add the yeast to this mixture.

3. Add sugar.

4. Add salt. Next add milk powder/dairy whitener. I used Amulya milk powder.

5. Next add half of the Tangzhong mixture. Also, add milk.

6. Now its time to knead the dough. This is a r-e-a-l-l-y sticky dough, so you need to knead patiently, if kneading by hand. I used the dough hook attachment on my stand mixer to knead.

7. Once the dough forms into a shaggy ball, place it on the working surface and start kneading by hand. You cannot add any extra flour while kneading this dough. Adding extra Maida will spoil this dough. Instead I kept adding butter (as mentioned in the Ingredients) gradually while kneading.

5. After about 10 minutes of kneading, your dough is ready. To test whether the dough is really ready or not, pinch a section of the dough and pull it upwards. The dough will stretch in a thin membrane and a circular hole will form as shown in the image. If the hole is not circular, your dough is still not ready.

6. Grease a deep-bottom bowl and dunk the dough ball inside it.

7. Cover and keep undisturbed for an hour.

8. After an hour, the dough will have doubled in size. Now, divide the dough in six equal balls. Take one ball and using the rolling pin, roll it into a chapatti about 1/4th inch thick. My chapatti is not exactly round! :)

9. Now fold two ends of the chapatti on one top of the other as shown in the image.

10. Fold the dough into a roll as shown in the image.

11. Make five more rolls and place them side by side in the bread tin. (If you have more dough make more rolls). Cover and let it rise once again for 45 minutes. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C for 10 minutes. Brush the dough will milk and bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

12. After 30 minutes, grill the bread for 5 minutes using the Grill option. Take the bread out of the oven. Your gorgeous milk bread is ready.