Growing up, one of the staple weekend activities in our house was to go to the Asian market to replenish our fridge with bittermelons, salted eggs, Thai basil, and all that other stuff that we could never get from the local suburban supermarket. My mom loved to frequent one in Houston’s Chinatown called Hong Kong Market, and after an hour or so of grocery shopping (at the time, we had several aunts, uncles, and cousins living with us, so there were a lot of mouths to feed), we’d stop at the tiny Chinese bakery across the shopping plaza.
One of the things my mom would always get would be Hokkaido milk bread, though I always just knew it as “Chinese sweet bread.” It’s soft, fluffy, and a little sweet, and we always just ate it toasted with a thin layer of butter or completely plain. I guess the name “milk bread” comes from the use of milk powder or condensed milk, and some versions of the milk bread we’d get would also have swirls of grainy sweet milk mixture rolled in. It’s not as strange as it sounds, I promise!
This particular rendition of Asian milk bread doesn’t have anything swirled in, but I imagine you can easily roll in a cinnamon-sugar-raisin mix if you so please, or even the traditional milk mix (future recipe, perhaps?). The possibilities!
Some notes on making this — you don’t need anything weird! Always a plus to not have to go out of your way for ingredients, as most supermarkets will have what you need for this. The assembly is easy too, though there is a strange method of making the tangzhong. Tangzhong is a slurry of water and flour that’s briefly heated so that it forms a gel-like, which some very brief Google research (very brief) told me helps to create a very moist and tender crumb, with a bit of bounce in it. In short, it’s good for easy, peasy sandwiches! I made a basic turkey sandwich with this immediately when it was cool enough to stop inflicting pain on my hands.
The original recipe noted that you can proof overnight in the refrigerator, but when I tried that, it didn’t really expand at all, so when I baked it, it was this dense, horrible thing. I’m pretty sure this was user error somehow, but when I just proofed it for an hour or so on the countertop instead, things turned out a lot better. In other words, if any of you run into fridge proofing issues too, counter proofing may be the way to go.
I also kneaded using a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment instead of doing it by hand because I can be so supremely lazy that it’s almost a superpower. Just knead it on low-medium and keep an eye on the dough as your mixer works to make sure to turn things off once the consistency looks and feels correct.
Hokkaido Milk Bread
From Two Red Bowls
Yield: 1 loaf
Prep Time: 3 hours, 20 minutes (includes proofing time)
Cook Time: 30-40 minutes
Total Time: 4 hours
For the tangzhong:
- 6 tbs water
- 2 tbs bread flour
For everything else:
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- 1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
- 2 3/4 cups bread flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1 tbs sweetened condensed milk or milk powder
- 2 eggs (1 for dough, 1 for egg wash)
- 2 tbs butter, softened
- splash of milk or water for the egg wash
In a small saucepan, whisk together the tangzhong ingredients. Whisk it over low-medium heat until streaks appear at the bottom of the pan, indicating that it has reached ideal gel-like consistency. Remove it from the heat and let it cool to room temperature.
Heat the milk until it’s warm to the touch (about 110 degrees). Sprinkle the yeast over it and let it bloom until foamy, about 10 minutes.
While the yeast is working away, whisk together the cooled tangzhong, condensed milk or powder, heavy cream, and one egg. Add the yeast mix in once it’s ready.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to this and stir until you can’t stir it anymore. On a well-floured surface, turn the dough out and knead until it feels smooth and elastic. Do not overflour, as the dough should still feel pretty sticky.
Add in pinches of the butter, which will make the dough more pliable and wet. Keep kneading! It will soon feel soft and elastic, about 5 minutes by hand or 2-3 minutes with a dough hook on low if using a stand mixer. Form it into a ball and put it inside a big bowl to proof, and drape a damp tea towel over it. Leave it in a warm area for 1.5-2 hours until it has doubled in size.
Once the dough has doubled, punch it down and divide it into four equal pieces. With each piece, roll it out into a long oval, fold it into thirds like a pamphlet, and then roll it out again. Then roll each oval up like a jellyroll and put it inside a 9 x 4 loaf pan. Do this until all 4 pieces are tucked inside the loaf pan. Let this rise for another hour (covered with a damp tea towel), during which time it should fill out the pan and become quite snug, forming one single big loaf.
Preheat the oven to 350° F. Do the poke test with the loaf to determine when it’s ready for baking — use your ring finger and gently poke part of the bread. It’s ready to go when your finger leaves an indentation that doesn’t immediately bounce back.
Whisk together an egg with a splash of milk or water, and brush the loaf with it. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the top is golden and it sounds hollow when tapped. Cool completely in the loaf pan on a cooling rack before taking it out and slicing.
Make many sandwiches or smear it with some butter/jam/butter-jam? and enjoy!
4 Comments
This looks delicious, Amy! I’m wondering though if bread flour is required, or if normal flour will do? Thanks! :)
October 6, 2014 at 6:06 amThis bread is meant to be springier than most other kinds, and bread flour helps it achieve that because it has more gluten than all-purpose. You can add in a teaspoon of vital wheat gluten to increase the gluten content, but I’m guessing that’s not a thing most people just have in their pantry, haha! I think using all-purpose should be okay, but the resulting bread might be denser. Maybe with AP flour, an overnight proof + kneading longer would be best to really let that gluten develop!
October 6, 2014 at 11:40 amThanks! I will probably wait and pick up some bread flour or vital wheat gluten the next time at the market. I actually did always have the gluten in my pantry back in Florida, but haven’t bought any since our move. All of my recipes lately have just been with regular flour, but I really want to try this one, so I will get the necessary ingredients to make sure it turns out right. :)
October 6, 2014 at 1:06 pmThis is so beautiful!!!! I’m so sorry that the overnight proof didn’t work for you :( but glad that this one did. Thank you so much for letting me know you made it — it means the world to me. I hope you enjoyed it!
October 7, 2014 at 6:42 pm