Hokkaido Japanese milk bread is a dish that many bakers would like to try, especially those familiar with the culture of the eastern country. But hands rarely reach such experiments, culinary experts say. Perhaps this article will inspire you or your loved ones to cook a magnificent homemade bread with a delicate crust.
Those who have tried to cook Japanese milk bread according to the recipe below note that the result is really worth it. It is amazing, its structure will pleasantly surprise you. The dish is truly airy, fluffy and tender, like a cloud.
origin of name
For those who are interested in the history of this wonderful loaf of bread, of course, it is clear what the word “milk” means in the name of the dish (the composition contains milk, including dried milk). But few people know why Japanese bread (the official name in English-speaking resources, Hokkaido, also confuses many).
As it turned out, the preparation of a fragrant and tasteful loaf of bread requires a prescription to add milk to cows grazing in the meadows of Furano in Hokkaido (the name of the Japanese island). Of course, simple European culinary specialists will not be able to get such a delicacy, but replacing it with milk produced in their homeland is quite possible.
Cooking features
The making of Hokkaido Japanese choux pastry is done using a technique called tan joong. The meaning of this method is to heat the liquid and part of the flour to a temperature close to 65 degrees. Thus, gelatinization of starch in flour occurs. The resulting paste is subsequently added to the final dough and helps to achieve greater softness and fluffiness of our baking.
Remarks
The original recipe for Japanese milk bread involves the use of cream at 30 percent fat, but this rule can be neglected. The difference will be as follows: with a fatter product, the dairy bread will turn out to be more fragrant, hearty and high-calorie. Therefore, if for the sake of your taste buds you are ready to sacrifice your figure, you can safely put cream with more fat content.
Training
First, choose a baking dish for Japanese bread. A rectangular one is best - about 10 × 30 centimeters. A loaf prepared according to this recipe turns out to be quite large and weighs about 1 kilogram after cooling. It is delicious to eat tender and fragrant Japanese bread for breakfast with jam or butter with a cup of hot coffee / tea or a glass of milk. The main thing here is not to overdo it.
Ingredients
So, we need the following ingredients for making Japanese bread:
- 650 grams of premium wheat flour;
- 300 ml of milk fat;
- 30 grams of milk powder;
- 200 ml of heavy cream;
- 1 chicken egg;
- 100 grams of granulated sugar;
- some salt;
- 5 grams of fast-acting yeast.
Ready-made pastries are designed for twelve servings. Cooking time is about five hours.
Information for losing weight: the calorie content of the dish is quite high and is 272 kcal per 100 grams.
Step-by-step cooking of Japanese bread "Hokkaido"
If you have regular rather than high-speed yeast, that's okay. You can use dry (take 5 grams - about 1 teaspoon with a slide) or pressed (about 15 grams). These yeasts are not added immediately to the flour - they must first be activated in a warm, sweetish liquid for a quarter of an hour. You can, for example, heat half a glass of milk with a little sugar and dissolve the yeast in this mixture.
So, we take wheat flour, sift it several times. These actions will allow her not only to loosen up and be saturated with oxygen, it is quite possible that you will get rid of unwanted garbage and lumps.
Next, add quick-acting yeast, milk powder, granulated sugar, salt to the flour. Mix everything well with a fork or whisk.
Next, we combine the bulk mixture with liquid components for the dough. We make a hole in the flour and pour warm milk and cream there. Enter the egg there. If you are using pressed or dried yeast, it's time to introduce pre-prepared yeast milk.
Next, you need to knead the dough for at least ten minutes (if 20, even better). After these manipulations, the dough should acquire smoothness, uniformity, tenderness and amazing softness. So, we tighten the resulting mass with cling film (you can just cover it with a towel). Leave to roam in a warm place for two hours. After 50 minutes from the total time, gently knead our dough (this will help to release carbon dioxide from it), then round it and put it back in heat.
After fermentation, the dough should rise well and increase three times in volume. Then you need to divide it into four identical pieces.
We roll each of them and put on the board, which was previously sprinkled with flour. Cover the dough and leave it like that for another twenty minutes.
At this time, the koloboks from the dough should swell. Only then can we proceed to the molding of Japanese milk bread.
So, sprinkle the working surface with flour, roll one bun with a rolling pin in length. You should get a long oval or rectangle in width of the form. There will be no problems with the dough - it lends itself perfectly to rolling.
Next, you need to roll the layer into a tight roll, bending the edges of the dough. Be sure to press the roller to the formation after each revolution (it will help get rid of voids in the finished bread).
The result should be four rolls.
Next, we lay the resulting workpieces in a baking dish, greased with a small amount of butter (so it will lie more evenly, but vegetable can also be used).
The blank is covered with a towel (cling film) and laid aside. She should be infused for an hour and a half. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees.
We put the doubled blank in the oven.
By the way, if you want to get a golden crust, you need to grease the dough with milk (the same can be achieved with egg yolk).
Next, just bake a milk loaf at 175 degrees Celsius for 40-50 minutes.
The result is worth the effort
As a result, we get tall and ruddy pastries with a delicious aroma. After cooking, the bread should be infused for a few more minutes in the form, after which we take it out and put it on the wire rack (to cool).
Completely cooled Japanese Hokkaido bread can be easily cut with a knife. Of course, such baking takes a lot of time. On the other hand, what prevents you from leaving the dough “ripening” and going to do other things?
Bon appetit for those who decided to cook this milk cloud with an airy and fragrant crumb in an ensemble with the finest golden crust! From ordinary products, the result is simply amazing.