This Asian milk bread recipe is a triumph. I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that for months, we’ve searched, tested, and failed time and time again to nail down a perfect recipe for soft, buttery Asian bakery milk bread. Until this past weekend, that is, when we finally did it.
There are many milk bread recipes on the net, and many of them are quite complicated. No matter how closely I followed many of these recipes, on other food blogs and Chinese recipe sites alike, I was never satisfied with their outcomes. Often, they wouldn’t come out anything like the picture! This futile search went on for about a year. Shameful, I know.
So where did this milk bread recipe come from? All along, it turned out that my cousin Heidi had the perfect recipe. Not only is this the absolutely closest recipe I’ve tried to the real deal Asian milk bread you find in Chinese grocery stores and Chinatown bakery shops, it’s actually remarkably easy.
You just have to put everything in the mixer to make the dough, proof for 60 minutes, knead the dough again, shape it, proof, and bake. No fancy ingredients or complicated steps. The final product, as you can see from our photos, is fluffy, soft, slightly sweet, and golden. What’s not to love about it?
My cousin told me that she’d been making this bread for years: two loaves a week. I can’t believe I didn’t think to ask her sooner. Ah well, all the stars eventually aligned, and I am now dizzy with happiness. Now that this search is over, I am going to start on the next recipe on my ever-growing list. But before I do, I am eager to share this super easy milk bread recipe with you so you can enjoy the fruits of my (mostly unnecessary) labor.
Just so you know, you can use a bread maker to make the dough for this recipe, but I’d recommend that you proof the dough separately, because bread maker’s proofing setting is too hot for this bread.
A few remarks:
- I used 1% milk since that’s what I had on hand, but you can use 2% or whole milk.
- Whether using active dry yeast or instant yeast, this recipe does not require you to activate the yeast in lukewarm water and sugar beforehand. The yeast gets added to the rest of the ingredients in the mixer all at once.
- You’ll want to make the whole recipe which yields two loaves because one loaf will disappear in no time.
- UPDATE: There are many other creative ways to use this great milk bread recipe. Examples of our current recipes that you can make using this milk bread: Cinnamon Raisin Buns, Hot Dog Buns, Chinese Roast Pork Buns, Coconut Buns (Cocktail Buns), Inside Out Coconut Buns and Pork Sung Buns!
You can use all-purpose flour!
We have since extensively re-tested this recipe using just all-purpose flour instead of the mix of cake flour and bread flour. The results are not meaningfully different, so by all means, go ahead substitute both with all-purpose in this recipe, i.e. 4 cups / 570g all purpose flour total.
Asian Milk Bread Recipe Instructions
In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the ingredients in the following order: heavy cream, milk, egg, sugar, cake flour, bread flour, yeast, and salt. Use the dough hook attachment, and turn on the mixer to “stir.”
Let it go for 15 minutes, occasionally stopping the mixer to push the dough together. If you’re in a humid climate and the dough is too sticky, feel free to add a little more bread flour, 1 tablespoon at a time until it comes together.
If you don’t have a mixer and would like to knead by hand, extend the kneading time by at least 5-10 minutes.
After 15 minutes of mixing, the dough is ready for proofing. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and place in a warm spot for 1 hour, or until the dough has doubled in size. I proofed the dough in my oven (I had the oven on rapid proof for 5 minutes, turned the oven off, and then closed the oven door).
In the meantime, grease two baking vessels on all sides with butter. I used a standard loaf pan and a 9-inch round cake pan.
After the hour of proofing, put the dough back in the mixer and stir for another 5 minutes to get rid of air bubbles. Dump the dough on a lightly floured surface, and cut it in half. I made a loaf with one half of the dough by cutting it into 3 pieces and placing them in the loaf pan.
With the other half of the dough, I cut it into eight equal pieces and rolled them with my hands into 8-inch long pieces. Then I folded each “rope” in half and twisted it 3-4 times.
Then, I twisted the entire piece in on itself to make a knot. There’s no strictly right or wrong way to achieve the knot. Just make sure that the dough gets twisted in on itself and the you’re not pulling ends through the knot. It’s should be round in shape with nothing poking out when you’re done.
Once shaped, let the dough proof for another hour.
Position a rack in the middle of the oven, and preheat to 350° F/175°C. Brush the risen dough with egg wash. Bake the loaves for 23-25 minutes.
Remove from the oven to a cooling rack and brush the buns with sugar water to give them a really great shine, sweetness, and color.
To borrow a line from Ina Garten, “how easy was that?”
Milk Bread
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup heavy cream (160 ml, at room temperature)
- 1 cup milk (plus 1 tablespoon; total 250 ml, at room temperature)
- 1 large egg (at room temperature)
- 1/3 cup sugar (75 grams)
- 1/2 cup cake flour (tap measuring cup to avoid air pockets; 70 grams)
- 3 1/2 cups bread flour (tap measuring cup to avoid air pockets; about 500 grams)
- 1 tablespoon active dry yeast (11 grams)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt (7 grams)
- Egg wash (whisk together 1 egg with 1 teaspoon water)
- Simple syrup (optional: 2 teaspoons of sugar, dissolved in 2 teaspoons hot water)
Instructions
- In the bowl of a mixer, add ingredients in the following order: heavy cream, milk, egg, sugar, cake flour, bread flour, yeast, and salt. Use the dough hook attachment, and turn on the mixer to “stir.” Let it go for 15 minutes, occasionally stopping the mixer to push the dough together. If you’re in a humid climate and the dough is too sticky, feel free to add a little more flour 1 tablespoon at a time until it comes together. If you don’t have a mixer and would like to knead by hand, extend the kneading time by 5-10 minutes.
- After 15 minutes of kneading, the dough is ready for proofing. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and place in a warm spot for at least 1 hour, or until the dough has doubled in size. We proof the dough in our oven (We turned on our oven’s rapid proof setting for 5 minutes, turned the oven off, and then closed the oven door).
- In the meantime, grease two baking vessels on all sides with butter, such as 2 standard loaf pans or even a loaf pan and a 9-inch round cake pan.
- After the hour of proofing, put the dough back in the mixer and stir for another 5 minutes to get rid of air bubbles. Dump the dough on a lightly floured surface, and cut it in half. You can make a loaf with one half of the dough by cutting it into 3 pieces and placing them in the loaf pan. With the other half of the dough, cut it into eight equal pieces and make buns. You can really shape the dough however you like. Once shaped, let the dough proof for another hour.
- Position a rack in the middle of the oven, and preheat to 350° F/175°C. Brush the risen dough with egg wash. Bake the loaves for 23-25 minutes. Remove from the oven and brush the buns with sugar water to give them a great shine, sweetness, and color.
I made these awesome, awesome rolls for Thanksgiving and they disappeared as soon as we all sat down at the dinner table (the Pumpkin Asian Milk Rolls too). Everybody wants an encore for our Christmas dinner. Thanks Judy for this must-have recipe! Your whole family is wonderful, and I’m so thankful for your website and your recently released ‘Woks of Life’ recipe book (now in my library :)
Yayyy! So happy :-) Thank you, Rebecca.
Noticen glass dish not tin one do you just use pyrex was great in bread tin done rolls in round cake tin i am doing shanghai today.
Kim! So glad you enjoyed it :-)
This bread is so delicious. I made extra dough while making Char Sui Bao. (Stellar recipe too) Rolled it into little balls in a buttered 13×9 ceramic dish, let it rise and then egg washed and sprinkled with Everything Bagel Seasoning. Life changing! Honestly. I have just eaten 3 buns with my dinner 🙈
SUPERB! Good job, Rhiannon.
These rolls sre amazing! So delicate in texture, with such great flavor. And the touch of sweetness makes it extra special. I can’t wait to try a cinnamon sugar version.
My rolls took twice as long to proof – both times! I’m not sure what I did wrong, hut it got there in the end. I did make sure ingredients were room temp.
Thanks SO much for creating this lovely recipe.
You did good, Jill. You did not do anything wrong.
Thank you for this recipe! I’ve made the hot dog buns with thumbs up from family and coworkers! My kids always request this bread as well. The two loaves do not make it through the day. Crumbs are all that is left on the cutting board by night.
Hahaha… I hear you :-)
I can’t wait to try this recipe. I will use it as part of a birthday gift-meal for my girlfriend and her husband. Is there a point in the bread-making process where I can freeze the dough? Perhaps after the final proofing? Thanks for posting this!
Hi Jill, people have succeeded at refrigerating the dough overnight, but not freezing.
I did freeze the baked rolls, and they were very delish on the reheat. I can’t wait to gift them to my friend. My husband thought they were fabulous, too!
So nice! Enjoy!
Delicious! I have made this bread at least 6 times, turning it into rolls and cinnamon raisin bread. I have gifted it to friends who also love it. It also makes wonderful cinnamon rolls. After the first rise deflate dough and shape into a large rectangle, spread with softened butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Roll. Cut. Bake. Perfect!
Thank you for baking our recipes :-)
Hi! I was wondering if this could be formed into round loaves with chocolate chips added (to copycat the chocolate chip bowls from 85C bakery).
Try it, Bree :-)
Help! I started the first proof but ran out of time to bake it! What can I do? Can it go in the fridge?
Yes, Helen. Cover it before goes in the fridge.