I have made milk bread (actually last month was the most recent), also called hokkaido bread. Amazing what the tangzhong method does - fluffy but with texture, and nicely flavorful for a white bread. I use it for dinner rolls, lobster rolls, and thicker slices for rather decadent french toast. Are you going to make it? It just adds that one extra step, and it doesn't really take that long to thicken in the saucepan. I hope you'll post photos of it if you do!

I've posted these photos before:

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Of course, I made the french toast a bit more decadent by adding creme fraiche! LOL!

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when I make the loaves, I make 4 oblong-ish balls, and put those in the loaf pan to rise. Comes out in a unique shape. My very first recipe called for that and for some reason I've never deviated.

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2Many, Your photos inspire me. I like the look of that 4-part bread loaf. Does it pull apart that way?

I’ve made the King Arthur Flour milk bread dinner roll recipe several times. I’ve even used 50% white whole wheat flour with no problems. As 2Many says, it’s a wonderfully soft and fluffy bread but with a good structure. It’s definitely not the same as those fluffy, air-filled Wonder Bread loaves.

I love the flavor and texture. And the roux step is really easy and uncomplicated.

I've also made the KA milk bread recipe more than once. It's nice and soft and fluffy and the grandkids love it. Wait. The grandkids love bread, pretty much all of it, LOL. They were trying to convince me today to make bagels, maybe I can get by with milk bread.

2many, that's beautiful bread!

Annie

FOR THE (TANGZHONG) PASTE,

COMBINE:

¼ cup whole milk

¼ cup water

3 Tbsp. bread flour

FOR THE DOUGH, WHISK:

½ cup cold whole milk

1 egg

ADD:

2 ½ cups bread flour (11 oz.)

2 Tbsp. nonfat dry milk

2 tsp. instant yeast

3 Tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. table salt

4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cubed and softened

BRUSH:

1 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

Milk Bread

For the paste, combine milk, water, and flour in a saucepan; whisk until smooth. Heat over low, whisking constantly, until thick but still pourable, 3–5 minutes; transfer to a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment.

For the dough, whisk paste and cold milk until smooth and mixture is lukewarm. Add egg; whisk until combined. Fit mixer with dough hook.

Add flour, dry milk, and yeast to mixer and mix on low speed until there are no dry bits of flour, 1–2 minutes; let dough stand 15 minutes.

Add sugar and salt; knead dough on medium-low 5 minutes. Continue kneading dough 5 minutes more, adding softened butter, 1 Tbsp. at a time, adding more after each is fully incorporated (scraping down sides of bowl and adjusting dough onto hook as needed). Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface.

Knead dough until smooth and elastic, 30–60 seconds; shape into a ball. Transfer dough, seam side down, to a lightly oiled bowl; cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

See the article How to Make Japanese Milk Bread for step-by-step shaping instruction and photos.

For a milk bread loaf:

Coat a 9×5-inch loaf pan with nonstick spray.

Turn out dough onto counter, gently deflate, and shape into a 9-inch-wide rectangle, then roll into a 9-inch log. Place log, seam side down, in pan. Cover pan and let loaf rest until puffy and rises above top of pan, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350°.

Bake loaf until deep golden brown on top and a thermometer inserted into center registers at least 190°, 30–40 minutes.

Cool loaf in pan 3 minutes; turn out onto a rack, then brush top and sides with 1 Tbsp. melted butter. Let loaf cool completely.

For milk bread dinner rolls:

Coat a 9-inch-round cake pan with nonstick spray.

Turn out dough onto counter, gently deflate, divide into 8 pieces, and shape pieces into balls. Arrange balls, seam sides down, in prepared pan, with one ball in center and others around edge. Cover pan and let rolls rest until they’re puffy and fill out the pan, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350°.

Bake rolls until deep golden brown on top and a thermometer inserted into center roll registers at least 190°, 25–30 minutes.

Cool rolls in pan 3 minutes; turn out onto a rack, then brush tops and sides with 1 Tbsp. melted butter. Let rolls cool completely.

For milk bread clover leaf rolls:

Coat a 6-well jumbo muffin pan with nonstick spray.

Turn out dough onto counter, gently deflate, divide into 24 pieces, and shape pieces into balls. Arrange four balls, seam sides down, in each well of pan. Cover pan and let rolls rest until puffy, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350°.

Bake rolls until deep golden brown on top and a thermometer inserted into centers of rolls registers at least 190°, 20–25 minutes.

Cool rolls in pan 3 minutes; turn out onto a rack, then brush tops and sides with melted butter. Let rolls cool completely.

Mixing cold milk with the hot paste (tangzhong) quickly cools the mixture so you can add an egg without it scrambling.

After mixing in the flour, dry milk, and yeast, allow the dough to rest 15 minutes. This helps with gluten development.

Since fat (butter) makes the gluten strands slippery, wait to add it until the last five minutes of kneading in the mixer.

To develop adequate structure, knead the dough in a mixer 10 minutes before kneading on a surface 30–60 seconds.

You know the dough is kneaded enough when its smooth and elastic (and slowly springs back when pressed).

Since this dough yields a small-crumb bread, you want to gently, but firmly expel the air from the dough prior to shaping into a loaf or rolls.

Kate, yes it does pull apart like that when you put the separate dough ball ovals in and let them rise. No knife was used in the first photo. You can cut the slices thinner (normal size) though. But why would one wish to do that? LOL!

2Many, I can't imagine. LOL

Those pictures look... really good! How critical do you think that 2T of dry milk are? Tough to come by these days, been looking.

FOAS, I just looked, my recipe is different than the one posted above. Uses milk or half & half. Running to the store in a bit, then DH and I have chores to do. I'm on cell phone and it'd take hours for me to type, haha! I'll post it soon as I can if anyone is interested. No dry milk here either.

Thanks 2MD - looks to me like something might be wrong with the flour measurements though. The gram amounts are about double the cup amounts, no?

Japanese challah?

Just kidding. :) Nice enriched bread.

2Many, when you say "bread flour", do you know the protein content? Or can you tell us what you use?

I agree with FOAS. 3 cups of KA bread flour by dip, level, pour is 475g. I just measured last week. That's a standard amount for a single loaf of bread.

I have some cream and some milk that need using, so I may try this next week.

Ha! That's funny :) I can only find white lily bread flour here. I think you'd like it, particularly trying the tangzhong method.

Aaaaaaw, FOAS, so that is why I always need more flour! Good catch. Not sure why the tangzhong ingredients are listed with the directions. I know I did not post them that way. Huh.

I'll make an edit to the flour post. Not sure what happened there.

ETA: I think I know what I did. I think I remember looking online at rough equivalents of grams to cups so I'd know if I had enough flour - I'm better at gaging cups. I think the grams are right, although one always makes adjustments given humidity levels, etc. I'll check when I'm on the pc, though.

Aha! According to the list on Fresh Loaf, White Lily is 11.7% protein, which is 1% less than KA and 0.5% less than Gold Medal bread flours, but similar to my artisan flour which is 11.5%. :)