Milk Bread/Buns
Delicious chinese bakery style fluffy milk bread
Equipment
- mixer
- Dough scraper
Ingredients
- 160 ml heavy cream at room temperature
- 250 ml milk at room temperature
- 1 large egg
- 70 grams caster sugar
- 70 grams cake flour
- 500 grams bread flour good quality
- 11 grams instant dry yeast
- 7 grams salt good quality sea salt (grind)
Instructions
- Combine heavy cream, milk, egg, sugar, cake flour, bread flour in a mixer bowl. With the dough hook attachment, mix the dough together on speed 2 for 10 minutes. Whilst mixing in the first few minutes, add in the yeast and then the salt.
- After 10 minutes of kneading, stop the mixer to check if the dough has come together. If not, change the speed to 4 and mix for an additional 10 minutes till dough is well combined.
- Now, the dough is ready for proofing. Take dough out from mixer dough into another glass bowl and cover it with cling wrap and place in a warm spot for 1 - 1.5 hours till dough has doubled in size.
- While waiting for the dough to double in size, let's prepare the loaf pans. This dough comes to an estimated weigh of 1100grams which can easily make two loaves of bread. Half of which is used for milk loaf and the other half for milk buns, or chinese style bakery bread. Line your baking loaf pans or trays with baking paper.
- When the dough has double in size, please perform either the 'poke' test or the 'windowpane' test and if dough is ready to go, punch out the air bubbles from the dough. This is most fun part of making bread, when you start to shape your loaf ready to bake.
- Pour the dough out onto the surface and weigh it, this helps to accurately bake a beautiful loaf. Divide the loaf into two portions so that its easier to manage. Our family loves milk buns - so I usually make a 12 portion milk buns with each bun dough around 40 grams (480grams) and the rest of the dough is divided into 3 equal peices and shaped into a loaf pan. Once they are all shaped, let the dough proof for another hour.
- Preheat the oven to 170 degrees, these loaves are baked for 17-18 minutes till golden in colour. Remove the bread from the pans to cool.
Notes
If you like the chinese style milk bread, the key difference is to brush the risen dough with egg wash before baking it in the oven. Once baked, remove the baked loaves from the oven and brush the buns with sugar water (2 teaspoons of sugar dissolved in 2 teaspoons of hot water). This "syrup" will give the baked loaves or baked buns a beautiful shine and sweetness.