Hokkaido Milky Loaf Recipe

How to make it

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• 1. Combine all dry ingredients: flour, salt, sugar and instant yeast in a bowl. Make a well in the center.
• 2. Whisk and combine all wet ingredients: milk, egg and Tangzhong, then pour into the well of the dry ingredients.
• 3. Knead until you get a dough shape and gluten has developed about 10-15 minutes (hand knead), and then knead in the butter.
• 4. If you hand knead like I do, do expect to deal with gooey dough at this stage. You can opt for bread maker if you have one.
• 5. Keep kneading until the dough is smooth, not sticky and elastic. The time of kneading depends on how hard and fast you knead. I used to set the timer to 15 minutes to monitor my kneading time.
• 6. Test if the dough is ready by stretching the dough with two hands. If it forms a thin “membrane” that’s very elastic in texture. That means you have successfully kneaded the dough to a perfect stage.
• 7. If you use bread maker then add wet ingredients into bread maker first, then followed by the dry ingredients. The yeast is the last to add.
• 8. Knead the dough into a ball shape. Place in a greased bowl and cover with a wet towel or cling wrap.
• 9. Let it proof till it's doubled in size, about 2 hours. Use finger to test doneness. Poke in and if finger impression remains, this confirms the dough is nicely proofed.
• 10. The time will vary and depends on the weather. The best temperature for proofing is 28C. You can place a cup of water in microwave and heat at high for 2 minutes to create a warm spot, once done then place the dough in to proof.
• 11. Transfer to a clean floured surface. Deflate and divide the dough into three equal portions. Knead into ball shapes. Cover and let them rest for 15 minutes.
• 12. Roll out each portion of the dough with a rolling pin into an oval shape. Fold 1/3 from top edge to the middle and press. Then fold 1/3 from bottom to the middle and press. Turn seal downward. Roll flat and stretch to about 30cm in length. With seal upward, roll into a cylinder. With seal facing down, place in the loaf tins to have the 2nd round of proofing.
• 13. Brush whisked egg on surface of dough or lightly spray water on the shaped dough. Bake in a pre-heated 180C (356F) oven for 25 minutes, or until golden brown. Transfer onto a wire rack and let cool completely.