Hokkaido Milk Bread

When I was at a food exhibition in HK lately, I saw some sales of Hokkaido milk. Knowing that the milk from Japan would definitely taste good, and that my children will definitely love it, I lugged back 4 one litre tetra paks.

I also recalled that I have seen many bloggers baking "Hokkaido Milk bread". So without hesitation, I searched for the recipe from Florence blog, and found a recipe on Hokkaido Milk loaf. Wanting to know how the milk taste, I had a quarter cup of the milk. It just perks me up! No wonder it's so popular. The milk taste is creamy, thick and tastes very rich. My children also loved the milk very much. Therefore, I had to ration them to one cup per person per day! Otherwise, the three of them can definitely finish four litres in two days! They'll treat it as water to drink!

I tweaked the recipe a bit. When the dough was undergoing its first floor time, it didn't rise much after two hours. I thought it flopped. I proceeded anyway. After the third proofing, it only rise to half the pan loaf. Gee, something must have gone wrong with my recipe. I thought I wouldn't share it if it doesn't turn out well. So I proceeded to bake it anyway.

I was very pleased that after baking, the bread rose till the rim of the bread pan. It rose to twice its size under the heat. I concluded that the bread needs to be stressed before it could "perform". :p I was also very pleased with my galvanised bread loaf pan. I had this bread loaf pan for a long time and I always use it whenever I bake loaf bread. Initially, I regretted spending >$20 for the loaf pan with cover. However, when I started using this loaf pan, I had no regrets. No matter what was inside the loaf pan, the loaf bread will come out nicely when it's being over-turned. No brushing of shortening, oil or flour is required. If you do not have one, I would strongly recommend you to get one if you bake bread loaf often.

Back to the bread loaf. As the top of the loaf was quite dark, I sliced them away. I also prided myself for being able to slice the bread evenly and nicely. It looked like slicing from some bread machine, isn't it? Haha... If only I can do that nicely for my cakes...

The bread is soft and fluffy. The following day, it is still soft and nice. I must qualify that this is not those cotton soft bread that we have. The milk taste is very distinct and you can just eat it on its own. Even my helper commented that the bread is very nice. I was so glad I gave this a try. I might do this pretty soon again, before my children finished up the milk!

Recipe for Hokkaido Milk Loaf, extracted from Florence's blog.

Ingredients:
220g Bread flour
30g Plain flour
3g Salt
3g Instant yeast
35g Fine sugar
52g Egg (1 egg)
133g Hokkaido milk
15g Unsalted butter

Method:
1. Put all the dry ingredients into the mixer and mix well.
2. Add in the liquid ingredients except butter and mix well.
3. Add in butter and knead until smooth and elastic and the dough no more sticking at the side of the mixing bowl.
4. Let it proof for 60 minutes in a clean bowl cover with cling wrap.
5. Flatten the dough and roll it up like swiss roll.
6. Placed it into a loaf pan and proof for another 50minutes.
7. Brush some milk on the surface of the bread dough.
8. Bake at 170C for 30 minutes for uncovered loaf tin.