Hokkaido Milky Loaf Bread (北海道牛奶土司)

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For me, making breads in a bread machine has almost always been successful because the temperature for bread to rise is controlled. However, a bread baked in the bread machine is usually heavy and not soft enough. So, I was hunting for a good bread recipe.

After reading a post on Hokkaido Bread, I was determined to try out the recipe. In the article, the author has a photo of the bread that is fluffy and soft.

The first time I tried out the Hokkaido bread recipe, it did not turn out well for me. The dough was too watery, almost like a batter. After a long wait for the watery dough to rise, I realized that it may not rise. I thought perhaps the cold milk, cold whipping cream, and cold butter did not encourage the yeast to proof. I felt despair and did not have the patience to diagnose the problem.

Recently, while I was reviewing my blog, looking at the recipes that I would like to try, I decided to give Hokkaido Milky Loaf Bread another try.

Florence’s recipe called for 3g of salt and 3g of dry yeast, these can be converted to slightly less than 1 tsp since 5g is 1 tsp. The recipe only uses egg white. However, don’t try to use the left-over egg yolk to glaze the top of the bread or you will have a hard crust.

In addition to Florence’s recipe, I did the following:

1) heat the whipping cream and milk (regular 2% milk) slightly such that it is warm to touch, just like heating milk in baby’s bottle.

2) dissolve sugar in the milk and whipping cream mixture, add the yeast and wait for the yeast to proof.

After the yeast has “proofed”, I knew that the yeast was active and I felt a little more confident to proceed with the rest of the recipe.

3) following the recipe, the batter still looked watery. However, this time, I wasn’t scared. Slowly, I added more bread flour, a little sprinkle at a time, as the bread machine was turning. Once, I added too much flour and the dough was too dry. I realized it was too dry when I was kneading it after it had risen. Instead of throwing the dough away, I reset the bread machine, added a little water and restart the bread machine to mix the dough again.

4) After the dough has risen to almost double, I removed it from the bread machine and knead it by hand without any additional flour before forming it into two balls to go into the bread baking pan.

If you attempt any bread recipes and has failed in the past, I highly recommend that you read baking911. I am very excited about my accomplishment thus far. The bread is soft and does not smell yeasty.

Some other lessons that I learned from this experience are:

1. the importance of two rises. I will let the bread machine do the kneading after the first rise before I shape the dough into the loaf pan for a second rise. A loaf that has risen too much dries out faster because of the extra air. It also has less flavor. On the flip side, if the dough has not risen enough, the gluten has not formed enough for the bread to expand, so the bread will be heavy.
2. the importance of proper kneading. The rough surface with breaks will allow gases to escape and not achieve the proper fermentation.
3. the importance of a perfect rise. Use a gentle finger touch test on the dough. If the impression made stays, the dough has doubled and is ready. If the indent quickly disappears, it needs a little more time. If the dough smells sour, it has over-risen.
4. the importance of good temperature. Since soft bread recipes usually calls for baking in the oven (instead of the bread machine), I had to figure out the best way to ensure good rise for my dough. A good place for bread to rise is in an unheated closed-door oven, with a pan of boiling water below the shelf of the rising dough.

Other blogs with Hokkaido Milky Loaf Bread recipes are Angie’s Recipe, Happy Home Baking, and Cocoa.

My Portland blogger friend, Eliza also has a fluffy bread recipe, in a roll form, Virginia Light Roll recipe.

Have you baked Hokkaido Milky Loaf Bread or bread that are fluffy yet? Either baked in the oven or in the bread machine? Stay fluffy on the 2nd and/or 3rd day? Feel free to share with me your experiences.

related article: Ham and Corn Taiwanese Bun

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