Hello friends, hope all of you are safe and staying at home during these days of unusual emergency. We are also locked down for a couple of weeks at home. I am sure we, the whole world together can win over the pandemic COVID 19.

Due to lockdown, we have limited stock in our pantry and also we have to use them wisely. Hence cooking simple food at home with few available ingredients. Also not able to bring fresh bread every day from the grocery. So I am baking bread at home at regular intervals. My family love to have these homemade bread. They are soft, elastic and flavourful. Today I am sharing my bread recipe with you. They are simple to make with very few ingredients. Hope you will try this recipe to make delicious bread during this lockdown period.

What is Tangzhong method

Tangzhong is a Japanese technique that involves cooking a mixture of flour and water to create a slurry that will be later added to the bread dough. A slurry is typically a mixture of equal parts of flour and water used in thickening soups or stews. By precooking some of the flour, the gluten in the flour is allowed to stretch and develop, giving it longer and more elastic strands. Also, the addition of tangzhong slurry increases the amount of water the final bread dough is able to absorb, giving the bread the final softer texture since it is harder to dry out the dough during the baking process.

Recipe of Milk bread

• Preparation time: 3 & 1/2 hour
• Baking time: 30 min
• Serves: 10
• Difficulty level: Easy

Ingredients

• 2 & 1/2 cup All purpose flour + 1/3rd cup more
• 1 teaspoon instant Yeast
• 2 tablespoon Butter + more to brush
• 1/2 cup Milk + 1/2 cup more
• 3 tablespoon Sugar
• 2 tablespoon Milk powder
• 1 teaspoon Salt

Procedure

To prepare the Tangzhong

In a heavy bottom pan, add 1/3rd cup of flour, 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup milk. Whisk everything well, without any lumps.

Place the mixture on heat and keep stirring on medium heat, after a while, the mixture will start thickening. Keep stirring till the mixture thickens well or till the spatula leaves a trail every time you move it through the mixture.

Remove from heat and allow to cool.

To make the dough

In another bowl take half of the prepared slurry, 1/2 cup of milk and whisk together to make a smooth mixture.

In another wide bowl, add 2 &1/2 cup flour, 3 tablespoon sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoon milk powder, and 1 teaspoon yeast. Mix well.

Add in the preared slurry to the above mixture and mix.

Also, add in the slurry and milk mixture prepared earlier.

Mix together and start kneading the mixture till everything comes together.

Next, add in 2 tablespoons of soft butter and knead again to make a soft and elastic dough. It takes 10 to 15 minutes to knead the dough.

Cover the dough with cling wrap and keep in a warm place. I kept the bowl in my microwave (off).

Once the dough has risen double, take out to a working surface and knead again for 4-5 minutes. Sprinkle some flour while kneading to ease the kneading process. Divide into 2 equal portions.

On a lightly floured surface, place one of the parts of the dough, roll into an oval shape of 1/2 inch thickness.

Now fold the dough into 3 parts overlapping each other as shown in the picture.

Repeat the same with the other part of the dough. Place them to 2 greased bread tin of size (8×5) inch.

Cover the tins with cling wrap and keep aside for about an hour to rise the dough to double in size.

I kept them in my oven(off) and I am so happy that the bread dough rises perfectly and touched the grill rack of the oven!

Preheat oven at 180 degrees C for 10 minutes. Brush the top of the bread with melted butter and bake them for about 30 minutes. You can check whether bread is baked or not by knocking the bread with fingers. A hollow sound is an indication that the bread is baked perfectly.

When the bread cools down , demould them and cut in pieces. Enjoy warm with butter or jam or you can make sandwiches also with these soft and delicious bread.

Note: You can follow the same procedure to make whole wheat or multigrain bread. Just add whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose flour.