Hey guys,
Milk bread is something I use to love from Chinese
Bakeries. It's way softer than regular western
bread. Every think of a slice of plain bread
as a treat? I did. If it was milk bread.
This recipe is thanks to a special request
from a viewer so, my dear, I hope you and
your grandma enjoy it.
The first part of making milk bread is creating
a roux of flour and water or milk. I'm using
homemade soy milk.
Once throughly combined, take it to the stove
over medium low heat.
You need to continuously whisk this but I
kind of let it sit too long as I was adjusting
the camera so here it gets a bit lumpy.
But don't worry, we just need to whisk it
smooth!
This mixture is also called Tang Zhong and
was first widely publicized in Yvonne Chen's
book called the 65 degree Bread Doctor which
I can't actually read because it's written
in Chinese. And I can't read Chinese. Even
though my ethnicity is Chinese.
I blame my parents. I wish they forced me
to learn Chinese like the other tiger moms
and dads. Just kidding. I love them, they're
pretty cool, and I was the one that didn't
do her homework and practice. Learn from my
mistakes guys.
You'll whisk and cook for a total of 5 minutes
or until it reaches 149 Farenheit or 65 degrees
Celsius.
If you don't have a thermometer, I encourage
you to get one for really precise results
but don't worry about it too much.
It should look like this when you're done.
Really thick and pudding like.
Now set that aside and let it cool.
In the meantime, heat some soy milk or your
favourite plant milk to about 110 degrees
Fahrenheit or 43 degrees Celsius.
If you don't have a thermometer, just stick
your clean finger in to see that it's fairly
warm but not burning hot. We don't want to
kill the little yeasties that will help our
bread rise.
Sprinkle in your yeast and a teaspoon of sugar.
Wait ten minutes and you should see some bubbly
action! It's aliiiive. But don't worry. Yeasts
aren't animals. You might find it silly that
I have to say that. And you would be correctomundo.
Drop that into a large mixing bowl and add
your cooled tang zhong. It may be warm still
but just as long as it's not hotter than your
yeast mixture, you'll be good.
Add in one egg replacer. I'm using Ener-G
egg replacer powder mixed with water but you
can also use aquafaba or a flax egg. Flax
eggs will weigh down this bread slightly so
you'll have to adjust your expectations if
you choose that.
Then add sugar to sweeten the bread as well
as salt.
Whisk everything together until smooth.
Now we can add all purpose flour. If you have
bread flour, you can use that but I didn't
so I didn't.
Just weighing the flour as it goes in for
the recipe instructions but really, you must
adjust the amount as you go.
Flour can really vary from batch to batch
and brand to brand. Also depending on the
weather or your climate, you'll need different
amounts of flour.
My recommendation is just to add a half cup
to a cup at a time, incorporating it, then
adding more if needed.
The goal is just to get everything to stick
into a dough ball. It will be a stick dough ball.
Once you have that, you can place it on to
a floured surface to knead.
Due to my dominant hand being a bit wonky
lately don't use this as an example of how
to knead bread. But you guys have seen me
knead bread in lots of other videos so I'll
let you reference those for now. Knead just
for a few minutes to develop the gluten. This
will help make a fluffier, lighter bread.
Add more flour as needed but try to add just
the bare minimum to keep the dough slightly
tacky.
Before going to the next step, I'm going to
rest my hands and let the dough rest for ten
minutes.
You don't have to but it makes the next part
easier. That being kneading in the vegan butter.
Start with a half tablespoon. It's bit messy
and weird but go with it. We didn't add the
vegan butter earlier because the fat can interfer
with the development of gluten.
Incorporate that and then add a bit more fat
and keep going.
Now for those of you who are wondering, you
can use coconut oil instead but only use half
the amount. Also if you're avoiding refined
fats altogether, just leave out this step
but do knead the dough until it's smooth and
elastic.
Once all the vegan butter is incorporated,
shape your dough into a ball and place it
back in the mixing bowl. We're going to let
it rise so cover it up with a damp towel or
something like that and put it in a warm,
draft free location for one hour or until
the dough doubles in size.
A good place is in the oven with just your
oven light on. If it's too warm though you'll
get overfermentation and it smells alcohol-ish.
So I left the door cracked open.
This has gotten just a bit bigger than double
in size which is great so now we just divide
it up into three equal portions.
You can use a scale if you want to be exact
but it's not necessary.
Form each piece into a ball. I'm pulling the
drier sides in and this moist cut side will
stay ont he outside. Just makes for nicer
dough balls but again not 100% necessary.
Or even 50% if we're going with percentage
point which have nothing to do with this.
At all.
Once you have all your balls, roll them out
into long rectangle-ish shapes. I'm folding
the sides in so it's more rectangle like than
oval shaped. You want the sides to be the
width of your loaf pan.
Then roll up the dough like a...roll. Or a
fruit by the foot. Man, I used to love those
things. I wonder if they're vegan.
Anyways, continue with the rest.
Before placing the rolls in the pan you're
going to want to grease it pretty well. The
pan I mean, not the rolls. I'm using more
vegan butter but go ahead and use coconut
oil or anything you like. If you want, you
can use parchment paper though the crust is
going to be different.
Then place the rolls in, with the seam down,
cover it with a clean damp towel, and let
it rise until doubled in size.
It's almost risen to double but I've got to
preheat the oven so we'll move this.
It's super important to preheat your oven
when baking, guys. More important than making
sure your socks match in the morning. Which
I guess isn't that important at all. Unless
you school or work has a dress code. Which
I call bs on anyways if they try to dictate
the color of your socks.
But I digress.
Just before baking, brush the tops of the
buns with a mixture of water and syrup. I'm
using maple syrup but feel free to use any
kind you like.
When that's done, save the leftover syrup
wash and pop the buns into the oven for 20
to 24 minutes or until the tops are nicely
browned like this.
Brush on a light layer of the reserved syrup
wash to give these buns a shiny finish and
you're done.
I'm using another pan to turn them on to a
cooling rack and resisting as much as possible
not to dig in right away.
I wish you could smell this because it's amazing.
Milk bread is all about the soft, stretchy,
pillowy texture and I believe this vegan milk
bread has it!
I mean look at this crumb. Just look at it!
Amazing. So delicious. So filled with rainbows
and unicorns but not really since that wouldn't
be vegan.
I hope you give this recipe a try and let
me know what you think. What other bakery
items would you like me to veganize? Let me
know in the comments below and I might make
that one next. Except I think my next bread
recipe has to be a no kneading recipe because
I need to save my wrist.
Thanks so much for watching this video. Please
give it a thumbs up if you liked it and subscribe
for more easy vegan recipes every Friday and
What I Ate Vegan videos on Wednesdays.
Bye for now!
