I think it's probably a bit too much effort for me to do on a regular basis, but I'm glad I tried it. And the resulting bread is delicious! Although I still haven't figured out how to prevent egg-washed breads from sticking to the pan; it was a pain to turn out. No matter what I do, some of the egg always seems to run down the sides and cause the loaf to weld itself to the pan.
Whole Wheat Milk Bread
Slightly adapted from The Fresh Loaf
Ingredients
Sweet Stiff Starter
- 53g hard whole wheat flour
- 24g water
- 18g brown sugar
- 18g ripe/active sourdough starter (100% hydration)
Tangzhong
- 89g milk
- 18g hard whole wheat flour
Dough
- 424g hard whole wheat flour
- 9g gluten flour
- 54g sugar
- 7g salt
- 180g milk
- 1 large egg
- 60g unsalted butter, softened
Glazes
- 1 large egg
- 1 Tbsp. milk
- 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter
Directions
- Feed your starter and make sure it's nice and active.
- Mix the flour, water, sugar, and starter together to make your stiff, sweet starter. It will be like a stiff dough.
- Shape the stiff starter into a ball and place in a covered bowl to ferment. It should double or even triple in size. This will likely take anywhere from 8 to 24 hours.
- In a small pot, combine the flour and milk for the tangzhong and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until thickened. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
- Combine the flours, sugar, and salt for the dough and make a well in the centre.
- Pour milk and egg into the well in the dry ingredients.
- Once the tangzhong has cooled down sufficiently, add it as well.
- Break the stiff starter into several pieces and add it to the wet ingredients in the bowl.
- Begin incorporating the wet ingredients into the dry, working from the centre outward.
- Cover and allow to rest for 5-10 minutes.
- Knead the dough in the bowl for a minute or two.
- Put the softened butter on your work surface and place the dough on top of it.
- Kead the dough, working the butter in as you do.
- Knead for 20 minutes longer. Dough should go from sticky to supple as the gluten develops. A very small amount of water on the work surface can be helpful in keeping the dough from sticking.
- Shape into a ball and place in a covered bowl to ferment at room temperature. This may take anywhere from 6-18 hours depending on the room.
- Grease your pan1 very well (or line with parchment paper).
- On a slightly wet work surface, divide dough into four equal portions and shape each one into a smooth ball. Cover and rest for ~10 minutes.
- Working with one ball at a time, flatten it quite thoroughly and then do a letter fold. Starting from one of the narrow ends, roll the rectangle of dough up jelly-roll style and place it in the prepared pan. Alternate the direction of the spiral for each piece of dough placed in the pan.
- Cover and let rise at room temperature for a few hours (could be anywhere from 2-5).
- Beat the egg with the milk for the glaze and brush the top of the loaf with it.
- Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
- Once oven is preheated, brush the top of the loaf with the egg wash one more time.
- Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 45-50 minutes.
- The original recipe calls for removing the bread from the pan at this point and then turning the oven down to 160°C (325°F) and returning it to the oven, pan-less, for an additional 10 minutes. I skipped this step and I'm happy with my results, but feel free to try it if you like.
- Remove from oven and brush top crust with remaining Tbsp. of butter.
- Set on wire rack to cool.
1 The original recipe calls for a 9"x4"x4" Pullman pan. I don't have one of those, so I used my 8.5"x4.5" loaf pan. It seems to have worked well. Although I probably will try lining it with parchment paper next time though, just to see if that helps with the whole welded egg issue. Back
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