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.
Two remarks:
- I used 1% milk since that’s what I had on hand, but you can use 2% or regular.
- 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’ll need:
- 2/3 cup (158 ml) heavy cream (at room temperature)
- 1 cup, plus 1 tablespoon (total 250 ml) milk (at room temperature)
- 1 large egg (at room temperature)
- 1/3 cup (75 grams) sugar
- 1/2 cup (about 70 grams) cake flour, tap measuring cup to avoid air pockets
- 3 1/2 cups (about 500 grams) bread flour, tap measuring cup to avoid air pockets
- 1 tablespoon (11 grams) active dry yeast
- 1 1/2 teaspoons (7 grams) salt
- Egg wash: whisk together 1 egg with 1 teaspoon water
- Simple syrup (optional): 2 teaspoons of sugar dissolved in 2 teaspoons hot water
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. 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). The dough will grow to 1.5X its original size.
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.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. 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 ¼ cup 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 1 hour. 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). The dough will grow to 1.5X its original size.
- 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.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. 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.
George Chong says
Amazingly simple and yummy recipe! I have made 6 loaves in the last 2 days! My double batch today put a strain on my KitchenAid standmixer but the mixer survived. Since I was running short on time yesterday, after the first proof, knocking it down and mixing it a second time – I refrigerated the dough in the mixing bowl. This morning I knocked it down again, shaped it and let it proof about 1.5 hours at room temperature and not on the proofing mode in my oven. They look perfect just like the first batch I made.
Thank you also for the tip of adding more flour if you live in a humid environment. Since it is a new recipe, I didn’t know how wet the dough should be. I found the dough easy to work with and required no additional bench flour to shape.
It’s a perfect crumb!
Judy says
Both thumbs up!
PHOENIX says
I can’t wait to try. Is it possible to substitute milk instead of heavy cream?
Judy says
You can, but just know that the bread will not be as fluffy.
Teresaq says
I followed your recipe carefully but found that the mixture was far too wet with the quantity of flours in the recipe. I had to nearly double the amount of flour before it would come together. I make all my own bread so am not a novice. It is proving as I type and no doubt will still make lovely bread but I thought you needed to know. At least I will have plenty of bread and I will freeze some. Best wishes – Teresa
Judy says
Thank you for the alert, but it’s hard to pinpoint the problem, because it is a well-tested recipe and I wasn’t in the kitchen with you when you made it! I am sorry that it did not meet your expectations :-|
Jude says
I’m lactose-intolerant but love milk so I use lactose-free milk for drinking and tea. I can’t get lactose-free cream but putting a little less than 1/4 cup butter in a measuring cup and filling to the 3/4 cup mark with slightly warm milk subs nicely for the heavy cream. I’ve made a Chinese milk bread a couple of years ago (it was delicious) that didn’t use cream but had butter in it so it’s likely similar.
Judy says
That’s so great, Jude, thank you so much for your baking tip.