Sourdough Hokkaido Milk Bread

A very weird and interesting thing. It’s out there, it exists. I decided to seek it out because I wanted to make more fluffy milk bread and didn’t want to have fed my starter so diligently for nothing. So I used my starter for this. Lazy people can’t let their actual efforts of anything go to waste you know.

Video recipe; written recipe

Night before:

Start by making a “stiff starter" and let it age overnight:

• 20g sourdough starter @100% hydration

• 20g water

• 50g flour

Also, make a tangzhong:

• 40g (bread) flour

• 200g water

• Whisk together to combine with no lumps, then whisk over medium heat until it begins to thicken, then switch to spatula and scrape until it’s a thick paste.

• can make this right before mixing, but it has to cool before use

Morning of:

1. In the bottom of the mixer, add:

   • 125g milk, room temp

   • 1 egg

   • 90g stiff starter (from above)

   • 240g tangzhong (from above)

2. Add dries to bowl on top of the wet:

   • 300g bread flour

   • 30g sugar

   • 6g nonfat milk powder

   • 6g salt

3. Knead with dough hook for several minutes, until dough is completely evenly hydrated.

4. Incorporate 50g room temperature butter.

5. Knead on medium speed until dough is shiny and smooth and one clean mass tearing away from the bowl, and is nice and stretchy, 5-10 minutes.

6. Proof in a warm place until doubled. According to the video, it takes about 8 hours. While it does take a little longer than instant yeast, mine took only about 3.5hrs to almost overproof.

7. Shape into loafs, or whatever you’d like. Typically milk bread is shaped into individual logs that proof together into a loaf (see video), but you can make buns or just one big log. I think the tear apart suits the dough proofing better for this style though.

8. Proof again before bake. According to the recipe, it takes 4 hours and proofs to 3x its size before baking. I went with what felt right. After 2ish hours (which is a long time still), and they looked on the verge of overproofed, but weren’t quite so huge, but I baked them anyway.

9. Brush with egg wash.

10. Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes. Cool out of loaf pan on rack.

So this recipe didn’t work super well for me. Maybe I should have cooked my roux more (it is a pretty loose roux to begin with) but I had to add a ton more flour to it to achieve a consistency that wasn’t paste. I never had it in a non-sticky mass, and as a result I had to work in a little extra strength and flour my surfaces a lot while shaping. It turned out okay still, I think, just not as rich and silky. But very fluffy.

Maybe too fluffy?

Pulled apart a 3-piece round min loaf

pulled apart the loaf

this monstrosity of an egg sandwich

Most recipes I’ve tried yield a pretty delicious, soft Asian white bread. But they never look like the pictures of the fluffy fluffy airy bread you see floating around online. Then again, they really never look like that in a real bakery, and those taste amazing.

This dough was on the verge of overproofing the whole time. It did have the very open fluffy structure. I think to support it, the bread has to have a lot of strength, and you are trading softness for chewiness in order to support air. I don’t think it’s worth it.

Verdict:

A fourth mini square loaf not pictured
Peep the hectic prep of steak dinner in progress

This bread is very airy and light, but a little chewier than regular milk bread. It also had a pretty pronounced tang, which I enjoyed, but again isn’t the hallmark of milk bread. And I think the yeast ate all the sugar, so I’d have to add at least 2T more. Not sweet enough as it is.

I would make this as a sandwich loaf if I wanted to have a nice tangy sandwich loaf for something specific. But as far as milk bread goes, it’s not really suitable for milk bread in Asian applications. And it’s a lot of work.

Maybe I should make it again and try to cook the roux more. But again, it’s a lot of work and time to invest, so it might be a while.

A fun way to use starter though!