Hokkaido Milk Bread First Attempt

This turned out quite well, although I could definitely have shaped the lobes better than I did.

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Thanks to GrowingStella as I used her recipe with few modifications.

Here is the link to her recipe on TFL.  http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/51372/hokkaido-milk-bread-unreal

Instead of All Purpose Flour and Antimo Caputo 00 flour I used White Unbleached Bread Flour.

I didn’t have whole milk and only had 1% milk and cream so I used 80 g of 1% milk and 70 g of cream.

Because of my timings of when I needed the bread to be ready and the other things I had to do those days, after the dough finished kneading in the stand mixer and passed the windowpane test, I covered it and placed it in the fridge for about 20 hours.  I was a bit worried that this was perhaps a bit too long, but in the end I think it was fine.  In the morning I took it out and shaped the four parts and place them into a buttered 9”x5” loaf pan into my oven with the light on and a cup of boiled water.  This really sped up the final proof considering the dough was cold, it only took about 1 hr and 15 mins to reach about 2 cm above the edge of the loaf pan.

I took the proofed loaf out of the oven and placed it back in the fridge while I heated the oven to 350ºF for 30 mins and then put the dough into the oven.  After baking for about 35 mins the temperature of the bread reached 201ºF so I took it out.

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I later read that the the four sections of dough should have been put into the loaf pan in alternating directions of the swirls.  That is, for example, if the first is put in with the swirl clockwise when looking at it end on, then the next should be counterclockwise, then clockwise the counterclockwise. This apparently will allow the lobes to each rise better.  Not sure if that is true or not since I only read that after the fact so couldn’t test it out.

Anyhow, the crumb was soft, tender, moist and oh so delicious.  I’ll definitely be making this again in the future.

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