Fluffy Milk Bread
I've been playing around with enriched dough lately. I modified my sweet dough formula from here [1], basically replacing 1 egg with milk and decreasing the amount of butter slightly. I should note that I have been Inspired by many recipes and photos for Hokkaido Milk Bread using tangzhong (including Floydm's [2]).
Tangzhong
20g AP flour (I use King Arthur unbleached)
100mL whole milk
Final dough
380g AP flour (about 3 cups)
200mL whole milk
75g granulated sugar (about 6 TBSP.)
50g egg (1 large)
5g instant yeast
5g salt
28.5g butter (2 TBSP.)
all of the tangzhong
This yielded around 850g of dough for me. I cut off and shaped 3 x 200g* portions and arranged in a small loaf pan (25.4cm x 11cm x 7cm).
No egg or milk wash this time because I was feeling lazy. Yes, I realize the irony of that statement given that I was making homemade bread.
I baked at 325F for 30 minutes.
NOTE: I had long suspsected that my oven was running hot, so I finally picked up an oven thermometer. With the oven dial set to 325F, the temperature reading on the deck near the heating element was indeed 325F. But when I hung the thermometer from a rack so that it was roughly around the top of a baking loaf, the temperature reading was 350F. I don't know if this means my oven is at the right temperature or if it's running hot, but I think this bread should probably be baked at 350F. In any case, when I say I baked at 325F, I mean that the oven dial was set to 325F with the intention to achieve an oven temperature of 350F.
* The astute reader will note that I had 250g of dough left. This I formed into 50g balls and baked in muffin tins at 325F for 15 minutes. The top left one was sacrificed for a temperature check. I realized later that I could have just as easily poked the side or bottom of the roll.
(Whoops, a little bit out of focus)
EDIT: June 30, 2013
I made this again, and got some better results (taller, fluffier loaf) in my mom's kitchen where it's warmer.
EDIT July 4, 2013
Additional crumb shot of sliced bread.