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 tried to make this bread today. The dough remained so sticky even after 15 mins of kneading in my stand mixer and adding 3 extra tablespoons of flour. It’s proofing now and the end results remains to be seen but I am not too confident. I have tried to make this bread about 3 different ways and it just never turns out right.
How is it, Laurene. The buns should be very soft (with soft dough) if the proofing was done right :-)
Hi Judy, I’ve never commented on a recipe before but this milk bread warrants a great big thumbs up and five stars!! I’ve already made this 3 times and the scale measurements mean it comes out perfectly every time. My grandma loves it. Thanks so much for the recipe. – Vancouver, Canada
Yayyy! I have your grandma’s approval :-)
Does this recipe need to be adjusted for high altitude? I live in Denver, CO.
Elevation is 5,280 ft.
Thanks!
Honestly, I don’t know, Susan. Do you usually have to adjust recipes to high altitudes in order to be successful? If so, you’d have to make the adjustment for this recipe too.
MAy i know why my dough turn out too sticky . I added almost five tbsp bread flour
Hi Cheryle, there might be some variation in the measuring tool; you did good :-)
The bread was easy to make, the instructions were pretty simple. I followed all the steps and measured the ingredients down to the grams. The bread itself was good but very lack luster. It has a little less flavor then a classic new york style bakery bread. The bread is a little more harder as well. I don’t think I would use this recipe again, but it was a pretty good experience.
Thank you very much for your feedback, Sally. Sounds like your dough was a little too dry. You can also up the sugar for more flavor.
This was delicious, and gorgeous. We haven’t finished it yet, and I’ve been asked to make it again.
Sounds like you will oblige :-)
I made this by hand (no mixer) and the dough was a joy to knead. Easy recipe and came out great. Thank you very much! I plan to make this again for sure.
Thank you so much for your lovely comment, Jess.
Hi. Can you clarify the oven proofing method? I turn on the oven on proof for 5 minutes and then what? How long do I leave it in there for? Thanks in advance.
Oh. You probably meant to proof it in the oven for 60 minutes.
Hi Lynn, then you turn off the heat, cover the dough and let it proof in the oven with the oven door closed for 1 hour until the dough doubles in size.
Got it! Thank you. It turned out really good!
Good job, Lynn.
How important is the heavy cream? Can it be substituted for something else? What type of milk is required (full fat, skim?) How does it affect the results?
You should use full fat milk, the milk fat gives the bread that buttery taste. You can also try a similar old Shanghai bread recipe which is low calorie.
Do you mean I can replace the heavy cream with full fat milk? or that the milk should be full fat? or both? I plan to use the dough for the pork bun recipe
Nevermind, I just noticed the question in the FAQ
I tried this recipe 3 times n it was a failure every time. Very dense n did not rise I measured carefully, I weighed the ingredients one time but each time I did not get the light fluffy milk bread. So disappointed
I haven’t tried this recipe myself but did you knead by hand? I used to have the same problem (dense dough, didn’t rise) until I mixed the dough and let it rest for 15 mins before kneading. This step is called “autolyzing”. That gives the starches and gluten time to expand and fully absorb the water so you don’t need to add more flour when kneading.
Hi Marie, sorry to hear your frustration. These are the 3 key elements.
1) check to make sure your yeast is still good by trying a new pack of yeast.
2) make sure all the wet ingredients are at room temperature, not right out of the refrigerator.
3) make sure the dough doubles in size after 1st proofing. Depending on the proofing conditions, it can take longer than 1 hour.
Wish you much success :-)
Delicious and easy!
Thank you so much!
Hi there! I’ve made this bread three times with great results. Thank you so much.
A question: The bread seems to not be as soft and fluffy the day after. A workaround is to microwave the bread for about 30-45 seconds.
Would adding tangzhong help with this? If this is a good thing to try, how much tangzhong should I use?
Thanks very much!
Jocelyn
Hi Jocelyn, you should try this old fashion bread, it’s still soft after a couple of days since there is no dairy.
Thanks so much!