Fluffy, airy, melt-in-your-mouth Japanese milk bread rolls with the added tang of sourdough.
Sourdough Leavener
Ingredients:
40 g active sourdough starter
40 g whole milk
40 g bread flour
15 g sugar
Mix sourdough starter, milk, bread flour, and sugar until well combined. Cover with plastic and let rise at room temperature or slightly warmer for 3-5 hours (I place mine on top of the oven with oven turned to 300 degrees F so the surface is warm).
Tangzhong
Ingredients:
100 g whole milk
20 g bread flour
Whisk milk and bread flour in a small saucepan. Whisk on medium heat until mixture starts to thicken (you can remove from heat the moment you see it begin to bubble, and continue whisking for a minute. You will feel it thicken.). Pour into a bowl and cover tangzhong with plastic wrap (plastic should hug the tangzhong directly to prevent skin from forming as it cools). Cool in fridge for at least 1 hour.
Milk Bread Dough
Ingredients:
310 g bread flour
20 g sugar
50 g whole milk
Sourdough leavener (after rising 3-4 hours)
Tangzhong (after cooled in fridge 1-2 hours)
70 g eggs 1 egg + 1 egg yolk
50 g cream cheese
1 tsp salt
25 g salted butter, room temperature and in chunks
Using dough hook, mix all ingredients on medium in stand mixer EXCEPT butter. When dough forms (doesn’t have to be perfect), cover with plastic and let sit for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, mix again on medium and add butter chunk by chunk. Continue mixing for 15 minutes and then check to see if dough is stretchy enough (you should be able to stretch dough into a very thin sheet without it breaking; when it breaks, it should break in a circle shape as shown in picture below). If dough is not stretchy enough, mix another 5 minutes and check again until ready.
Place dough in a lightly greased, clean bowl, cover with plastic, and let rise for 2-3 hours at room temperature or slightly warmer. Then, place in the fridge for 6-8 hours (this is called cold-proving).
Remove dough from the fridge and cut into 12 or 16 identical pieces (more pieces = smaller rolls). I use a digital scale to get identical dough pieces, but you can eyeball it if you don’t have one. Roll dough pieces into balls using the palms of your hands and place evenly spaced in a baking pan (I use 9X9inch (23X23cm). Cover and let rise at room temperature or slightly warmer for 5-8 hours (dough should nearly double in size).
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Brush top of dough rolls with whisked egg. Bake 25-30 minutes. Brush top of bread with melted butter when done.
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