Thanks to Yippee for her recipe, I managed to do this soft white milk loaf. Obviously I didn't read the instructions properly and end up with 1 loaf of bread which I could have split into 2. Anyhow, I believe I will make this bread again.

I can't find the link to upload the picture here, somehow it disappeared on me occasionally. But here's my link to what I was referring to. I will try again to upload the picture the next time.

www.foodforthoughts.jlohcook.com

As a newbie to baking bread,  sometimes going back to the basics help to boost my confidence that I still can make a decent loaf.  

Here's a recipe for Japanese Milk Loaf,  secret seems to be whipped cream.  

Simple loaf,  a little sweet to my taste,  but generally a good bread to go with cheese and ham and made a good 12 pieces from the loaf to be eaten within 2 days.  

Jenny

http://sites.google.com/site/jlohcook/home/breadmaking/hokkaido-soft-white-bread

Hi,

Our "daily bread" when we lived in Cape Town was a plain ol' white or wheat loaf baked twice a day at our local "Kwikspar" (like a 7-11).   I try to make various milk loaf variations and it is nothing like this bread, which had some of the softness and a little hint of the flavour of a white milk loaf  but a slightly sturdier, springier crumb like a sourdough and without that fine cakey crumb you can get with a milk loaf.  With no perceptible sour taste at all nor much hint of sweetness - just neutral.   The crust is very soft and the loaf looks as if it were baked in a pullman.  It also doesn't dry out, crumble and stale like a normal milk loaf.

My baking consists mostly of sourdoughs (i.e., natural starter) and occasionally a recipe with biga or poolish, so I don't often work with these kinds of doughs.   

Usually, when it comes to 'normal' loaves, I don't often see pre-ferments in a standard soft sandwich loaf so I'm a bit perplexed and about to embark on a quest to mix up these loaves (although in light wheat form, which the trusty Kwikspar also had).  My initial thought was to include starter and a bit of milk or milk powder, perhaps a little oil or butter.  Then my mind started wandering to pate fermentee and my grandmother's description of using a bit of the loaf from the night before when baking daily for her family of 9 kids.  

Anyone out there have experience with this?  Or any thoughts on how to meld the characteristics of these two different loaves?

Perhaps Paul (PMcCool) is out there in cyberspace.za, testing the local fare and can comment on what he thinks makes those breads the way they are.  My son would clean his room daily if I could reproduce chicken pies, nevermind 'Kwikspar bread'.

Thanks!

MommaT