Milk Loaf

Homemade Milk Loaf

After my first failed attempt at making bread following an internet recipe (see here), I have mainly stuck to the basic bread mix formula (flour + yeast + water), varying only by adding some chocolate to the core of the bread.

Can see the twirl in the loaf?

Encouraged by Happy Home Baker's milk loaf recipe and tempted by my own weakness for sweet, soft bread, I'd bravely ventured out of my comfort zone to make a milk loaf last week.

The cottony soft texture

As usual, the proofing takes very long, no thanks to the climate here, plus the fact that I made this during the evening when it's colder. I started around 5pm and by the time the bread was ready, it was already 10 plus. Just nice for supper... :-p Towards the end, I'd actually put the dough into the oven and turned on the heat to 'defrost' to proof it, otherwise, I think I'll have to wait till mid-night for my bread!

I was kind of worried that history will repeat itself as I'm using the same bread mix flour and adding all kinds of things (milk, butter, sugar etc) into it instead of sticking to its formula. Phew, the bread turned out really well. I thought the dough was a little small when I first put it into the pan. It couldn't even fill up the base. But thankfully, it expanded and when it was baking, it rises over the top of the pan. I was delighted!

The scale that makes a difference

I must also credit some of the success to my newly acquired digital kitchen weighing scale. Now I can measure very precisely 4 grams of yeast :-). It is so convenient, you can use just one bowl and it just measures that weight of the ingredients as you add it and it can even convert to 'oz' for those U.S. recipes.

Fresh and Soft

The aroma of the fresh bread filled the whole house and my MIL commented that it smelled like a bakery! The texture of the bread was soft and cottony. Even after 2 days, the bread is still soft. My MIL gave a feedback that it will be better with less salt. I agree, then you'll taste the sweetness of the bread better.