Milk Bread Recipe | Dr. Oetker (2024)

FAQs

What makes milk bread different? ›

Milk bread dough is an enriched dough, which means it has dairy (milk, cream, and/or butter), eggs, oil, and/or sugar added to it. It is softer and richer than regular breads, which are made with primarily flour, water, salt, and yeast.

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.

So it's an artisanal version of a white loaf then? Sort of, but baked with an unusual process. The secret lies in the water-roux technique known as the tangzhong method, in which a small amount of flour is cooked with water or milk to create a base.

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.

Other names for it are Hokkaido milk bread, shokupan, and pai bao. Shokupan translates to "eating bread" or "food bread" or "plain bread"; in Japan the style is considered the standard bread of the country, where it is a common breakfast meal or eaten as a snack. It is carried in many bakeries in Asian countries.

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.

Add Sugar

Adding sugar weakens the gluten structure, absorbs water, and eventually makes the bread lighter and softer. As a result, sugar improves the bread's taste, structure and texture. Yeast also eats up sugar to produce carbon dioxide, which raises the dough and makes bread fluffy.

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.

Use a good-quality bread flour that has a high protein content, as this will give your dough the structure it needs to rise and become light and fluffy. Make sure to use the right amount of yeast for your dough. Too much yeast will cause the dough to rise too quickly, resulting in a denser texture.

Shokupan is a Japanese-style soft bread and is also called milk bread outside of Japan. It is distinctively more delicate and sweeter than regular soft bread like Wonder Bread. You can buy Shokupan at supermarkets in Japan for $1 or so.

What country is known for milk bread? ›

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.

It's now become a requisite on cool restaurant menus, and it's not going anywhere. In fact, its presence is growing. Legend has it that milk bread may have been actually invented by British baker Robert Clarke, who opened Yokohama Bakery in Japan back in 1862.

It's a very similar recipe to Jewish challah bread or brioche but it's just slightly fluffier that both and the reason for this is the roux-like tangzhong 'starter' that does something 'sciency' to the bread.

Hokkaido is a particularly milky type of shokupan, with a sweeter flavour than other milk breads.

Milk bread contains milk in the dough, giving it a softer texture and slightly sweet flavor. White bread is made with refined flour, water, yeast, and salt, resulting in a light and fluffy texture with a mild taste.

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.

The fat and lactose in milk help with tenderizing the crumb of the bread making it softer and sweeter. The crust of the bread also gets more caramelization. Be aware that bread made with milk should not be baked at too high of a temperature to prevent it from browning too much too soon.