Small Milk Loaf (150g flour weight)

It was a wet Saturday and my kitchen was running out of bread. Not willing to go out on a wet day, I took out some flours to bake them into a small nice bread - just like the little red hen 🐔
As bread flour has been difficult to procure during the Covid-19 period, I have to substitute most part of the bread flour by plain flour. When can I see the supermarket shelves full of bread flour like before?😢

Yield: One loaf of bread
Pan size: 17.5x10x9 cm 1L pan
Raw dough weight: 306g
Baking temperature: starting from cold oven to 120℃ for 10 minutes, 140℃ for 10 minutes, 160℃ for 8 minutes, 180℃ for 5 minutes, at lower rack of an oven.

Ingredients

Dry ingredient
100g plain flour
50g bread flour
20g raw sugar
2g instant dry yeast

60g milk, cold
10g evaporated milk/milk, cold
10g condensed milk, cold
10g beaten egg
30g water, add as necessary

2g low-sodium salt

20g unsalted butter, softened

Some milk for brushing before baking
Some butter for brushing after baking

Directions

1. Mix all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.

2. Gradually add in milk, evaporated milk, condensed milk, beaten egg, and 25~30g of water. Stir in one direction till all the ingredients come into a sticky lump. Cover and let it undergoes autolysis for 15 to 20 minutes.

3.  Use a hand mixer fitted with dough hook to knead the dough till the dough becomes smoother. Add in the salt gradually while the kneading is still in progress.

4. Add in the softened butter, and continue to knead till the dough is smoother and not-too-sticky to handle.

End of kneading using a hand mixer

5. Perform about 300 sets of "slaps and folds" till reaching window pane.
Click the video to watch the "slaps and folds" process.

6. Shape the dough into a ball, place in a slightly oiled mixing bowl, spray some water, cover with a lid, and let it undergo first proofing for about 75 minutes.

End of 75-minute proofing

 7. Invert out the dough onto a floured work top. Deflate the dough and shape into a ball again. Let the dough rest for 15 to 20 minutes.
Roll out the dough into a flat circle of about 1cm thick, fold in the two left-right wings towards the middle, and roll up the dough into a swiss-roll shape.

Place the shaped dough into a 17.5x10x9 cm 1L pan greased with a thin coat of butter. Spray some water over, cover with a tea cloth. Let the dough proof in room temperature for about 75 minutes, or till reaching the rim of the pan.

End of second proofing

 8. Brush some milk over the top. And bake from a cold oven to 120℃ for 10 minutes, 140℃ for 10 minutes, 160℃ for 8 minutes, 180℃ for 5 minutes, at lower rack of an oven.

End of baking

 9. Remove from oven and transfer the hot bread to a wire rack.

Brush a coat of slightly salted butter over the crust of the hot bread.

Let the bread cool down to room temperature before cutting.

Enjoy the soft nice bread 😋🍞