Hokkaido Milk bread with Tangzhong

 We knead to bake #3 : March 2013 -- Hokkaido Milk bread with Tangzhong

After last month's very difficult to "knead and laminate" recipe of Classic Croissants, this month's bread baking challenge was quite an easy one. Also, I had made this bread twice before. It has a very soft, cotton-like and pillowy in texture. The recipe is quite simple too. Chinese Tangzhong is like french roux... and the bread is Japanese milk bread... quite a fusion of cultures around the world ....isn't it :)  

Another picture.....

Ingredients:

For the tangzhong(water-milk-flour roux)

• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup milk

For the bread dough

• 2 and 1/2 cup of all purpose flour
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp milk powder
• 2 tsp instant yeast
• 1/2 cup milk (and a little more if needed)
• 1/8 cup cream
• 1/3 cup tangzhong (use half of the tangzhong from above)
• 25 gm unsalted butter(at room temperature)

Recipe:

For the tangzhong:

• Mix water and milk in a bowl. Add the flour slowly. Whisk it with a hand whisk and mix it well so that no lumps remain. 

• Take the lump-free mix in a sauce pan. Keep the heat low and keep stirring the mix till it thickens and you see the lines forming.
• If you have a kitchen thermometer, then keep stirring till the temperature reaches 65 degrees (150 degrees f).

• Take out the tangzhong in another bowl and cool it for 2 to 3 hours. Keep it covered with a lid or cling foil.

For the bread dough:

• This dough is very sticky, so it is better to be made by some machine. A hand whisk with the dough attachment or a food processor works well. 
• Put all the dry ingredients in the food processor. Flour, sugar, salt, yeast and milk powder. Blitz it for 10-20 secs, till everything is mixed well.

• Take 1/2 of the above tangzhong in a bowl along with the milk and the cream.
• Mix everything well, with a hand whisk. 
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones in the food processor.
• Start the food processor on low speed and blend till everything comes together in form of a dough.
• Add the butter and process further till you get a smooth and elastic dough. I forgot to add the butter, and I got the dough out....and blended the butter in with my hands... which worked well, as I could then form a non-sticky dough.

• Keep it in a container covered with cling wrap in a warm place and allow it to rise. 

• When it doubles in size, take it out and cut it in 3 pieces.

• Knead the three pieces in smooth balls. Roll each ball out to a longish rectangle and fold as shown in the picture. 

• Put all the three rolls , joint side facing down in a bread tin and allow it to rise for a second time.
• Once the dough rises, and is shaped like a loaf, bake it in a pre-heated oven at 170 degrees for 20-30 mins. 

• It will have a nice golden brown crust and very soft insides. Tap on the crust, if the insides feel hollow take it out and let it cool on the wire rack. 

• Slice and enjoy.....:) We usually grab bites....it has never lasted more than 3/4 hours...... the kids wanna grab a bite every-time they pass the kitchen ...:)

Quantity:

• This recipe makes one loaf (in a 25 cm by 12 cm loaf pan)

Notes:

• Instead of slicing the roll in 3 pieces, you can roll out the dough in a large rectangle and make one big loaf without any joints.

Some pictures of the bread, when I baked it first time last year.... :) 

Too many pictures in this post..... but I loved the texture of the bread....So loved trying to photograph it's softness....