August 25, 2011 - 4:30pm
Milk reduces loaf shelf life?
I am experimenting with milk instead of water in sourdough using fresh pasturised full cream milk. The bread comes out very moist, very chewy with most delicious aroma.
However, the shelf life seems to be much shorter in side-by-side experiment:
Water based: retains structure until it dries
Milk based: gets a bit crumbly after 48hr
5 days on, the waterbased loaf is hard, but chewy, while the milk based is noticably crumbly with whitish traces if you take a bite. It also looses much of the buttery aroma within 36hrs.
Is this due to continuous fermentation / coagulation of milk?
Is there a way around it without using additives?
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I bake bread two or three times per week. When I have too much milk in the fridge I often use it instead of water. The only difference we've noticed is that the loaves with milk brown faster and deeper.
Scald your milk to denature the protease that attacts the protein, i. e. the gluten. Heating the milk to 190°F (88°C) and holding for 2 minutes should do it. Then cool the milk to 80°F (27°C) before adding it to the dough.
Ford