why do some breads have milk and oil in them
I know there is really no answer to the question of why certain formulae have certain ingredients, but still. I have spent the last month or two making various Hamelman sourdough breads which basically have 4 ingredients - flour, water, starter and salt. Then I decided I wanted to make whole wheat sandwich bread, so I have been reading about that, but when I actually picked one and started baking, I found myself messing around. So I basically used a Hamelman type approach with sandwich bread ingredients. That meant I added a bit of honey, powdered milk, and oil to a sourdough bread, but used starter and sourdough rise times and stretch and folds. and instead of baking in pans, I shaped as batards and cooked panless until crusty. The results were really delicious - totally surprisingly so, since usually my messing around leads to nothing good. So I understand what honey does, but I'm not sure what oil and milk do for bread, and why certain types of bread have them and others don't. Any thoughts on this? Thanks. -Varda