Milk Bread (Cotton Soft) - Milk Bread Recipe - Rasa Malaysia (2024)

FAQs

Why is my milk bread not fluffy? ›

If your milk bread is dense, mostly likely, the dough is under-kneaded. The dough needs to develop enough gluten to expand and become soft and fluffy. A sure way to ensure that the dough is kneaded enough is using the window pane test.

Japan has grown wheat for centuries, but the soft, billowy loaf known as Japanese milk bread is a twentieth-century creature and rare among elevated bread forms in that it is easily mastered by an average home baker.

It has a milky-sweet flavor and a feathery soft texture that tears into wispy strands and melts in your mouth. It has none of the naturally leavened holes or sourdough tang that's prized these days among bread nerds.

What is milk bread's main difference from traditional bread? The only liquid used in milk bread is milk. In most yeast bread recipes, the liquid is usually water. There are also no eggs in most yeast breads.

Add Milk

To make your bread soft and fluffy, another trick used by commercial bakers is replacing water with milk. Milk has fats which make bread softer.

Potato Flakes or Potato Water

Starch helps the dough by trapping the gas from the yeast in the dough and makes the bubbles stronger. This helps the bread to rise and be lighter and fluffier. If you are boiling potatoes, you can use the unsalted water in place of the water in your bread recipe to help out the yeast.

Brioche is a much richer bread than Japanese milk bread. It uses a lot more butter than shokupan dough, giving brioche a sweeter and more buttery taste. Brioche is also made with eggs. This helps give brioche its signature golden color and a denser, chewier texture than shokupan.

It is infused with all the necessary nutritional values that keep the body active and healthy. This bread has a lot of health benefits and ensures less gum disease and tooth loss.

Taste wise the milk bread was slightly sweeter than a regular loaf made with water would be. Buttermilk and yogurt loaves had a slightly more intense flavour with hints of acidity but also sweetness. The sour cream bread had the richest taste and mouthfeel.

How long does milk bread last? ›

Remove the loaf from the oven and cool it in the pan until you can transfer it safely to a rack to cool completely. Store leftover bread, well wrapped, at cool room temperature for 5 to 7 days; freeze for longer storage.

Milk bread was developed in Japan in the 20th century, using tangzhong, a warm flour-and-water paste traditionally used in China to make buns with a soft, springy texture and tiny air bubbles. Surprisingly, milk bread with an incomparable crumb and buttery taste is a snap to make at home, using supermarket ingredients.

Other examples of enriched doughs include brioche, challah, and cinnamon roll dough. (We actually make the FLUFFIEST cinnamon rolls with this recipe as a base—try it!) This Japanese/Chinese style of milk bread also influenced another similar style of bread—Hawaiian Sweet Bread, or Sweet Rolls.

Final answer: The other name for milk bread is 'D pain au lait', a French term translating to 'milk bread'. Although, these types of breads can have different names in varying cultural contexts, and thus may not be completely identical. Challah, pita, and Pullman are distinctly different types of bread.

While underworked dough can simply be fixed by a little more kneading, severely overworked dough cannot be fixed. Instead, the overworked dough will result in a hard loaf that will likely not be eaten. It's important not to overwork your dough and continually check for overworking throughout the kneading process.

There may be several reasons for a dense, cake like texture in bread. It may indicate the kneading wasn't enough for the gluten to develop properly, or the dough was proved for too short a time or the dough may have been too dry. It is also worth checking the flour you used.

The yeast releases carbon dioxide, which fills the dough and increases its volume. Due to the heat, more gas bubbles emerge when this dough is baked. The bread rises and becomes soft and fluffy as the gas leaves.