牛奶面包 (Milk Bread)

This is not 湯種牛奶面包 (Tangzhong/water roux milk bread). Apparently many (most?) Chinese bakeries will use a gelatanized roux to help improve the texture and rise of their bread. As far as I can tell, this technique started in Japan and then got popularized throughout Asia. 湯種 is actually a Japanese loan word (which, I guess, is why I can only seem to find it written with traditional characters). That's actually the kanji for "water roux" (yudane), which has been borrowed back into Chinese and given the Mandarin pronunciation tāngzhǒng. Anyway, apparently using the roux is pretty characteristic of many Asian breads. This recipe, however, does not use a roux. It still manages to come out amazingly soft and light and high-rising. Seriously. Really incredibly so. But, if you're looking for a roux-based breaad recipe, this is not it. Just FYI.

Okay, now that that's out of the way, I can continue singing the praises of this bread. It is sweet and light and fluffy and delightful. It is very different from my usual whole grain recipes. But sometimes you just gotta have a sugary white loaf. I'm treating it as dessert and telling myself it's fine.

I think the biggest problem I had with this loaf was getting it out of the pan. I may have been a bit overzealous with the egg wash and it stuck a bit. And the loaf was just so soft and delicate (especially when it was still warm) that it was basically impossible to get it unstuck without some denting, squishing, and tearing sadly.

It's still delicious though!

I'm looking forward to trying this as a component in some other recipes. For now, here's the basic dough.

Hanzi/汉字: 牛奶面包
Pinyin/拼音: niúnǎi miànbāo
English/英文: milk bread

牛奶面包

From Woks of Life

Ingredients

• 160mL heavy (35%) cream
• 250mL milk
• 1 large egg
• 75g sugar
• 570g all-purpose flour, divided
• 11g yeast (instant or active dry)
• 7g coarse sea salt
• egg wash (made from 1 egg + 1 tsp. water)
• simple syrup (optional)

Directions

1. If possible, bring all ingredients to room temperature before starting.
2. Mix milk into cream.
3. Add the egg and mix until well-combined.
4. Add sugar and mix well.
5. Holding back ~80g of the flour, add flour ~70g at a time, mixing well after each addition.
6. Add 70g more flour along with the yeast and mix mostly incorporated.
7. Add the salt and mix again.
8. Spread the last 10g of flour on your work surface, turn the dough out onto it, and knead for 15 minutes.
9. Shape into a ball, cover, and let rise in a warm place for ~1 hour.
10. Knock back, knead for another minute or two, and then divide into two equal portions.
11. Round each portion and rest for ~5 minutes.
12. Grease two loaf pans very well.
13. Shape each portion into a loaf and place one into each loaf pan.
14. Cover and let rise in warm place for ~1 hour.
15. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
16. Brush tops of loaves with egg wash. Don't put too much or brush too close to the sides of the pan or it will weld itself to the pan and be very difficult to remove!
17. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 25 minutes.
18. If desired, brush the tops with simple syrup for extra sweetness and shine.
19. Let rest in pans for 5 minutes.
20. Carefully remove loaves from pans and transfer to wire rack to cool.