This recipe is for a bread machine. Usually people use less liquid when they make the bread dough by hand.
Ingredients for 2 loaves:
"seeds" 184g
Milk 60g
Whipping cream 60g
Eggs(whites and yolks blended) 86g ( less than 2 large eggs. Rest will be used as egg wash)
Salt 8g
Sugar 86g
Bread flour 540g
Milk powder 9-11g
Instant dry yeast 11g
Unsalted butter 49g
Firstly make the seeds. It is the secret to a soft spongy yet chewy bread. Use the bread flour and water in a 1:5 ratio. For 210g "seeds", you'll need 35g bread flour and 175g water ( it was said that milk or half water half milk was fine, too. But I've never tried milk since the bread has quite strong milk taste for me). Mix it well using a whisker until no flour granules left. Heat up using a microwave oven for 30 seconds and stir well. Microwave for another 30seconds and store again. The dough turns into semisolid and translucent at this time. Cover it up and let it sit in fridge to cool down. You could also do this on the oven top and sir it constantly. I usually do this the night before.
After the "seed" is totally cooled down, add all the ingredients except for unsalted butter into the bread maker. Liquid first, powder later. Make a little hole in the middle of the flour to place instant yeast for read machine. Pay attention to the limit of your bread maker. The listed ingredients is for a 2lb machine. Choose the "dough" function and let bread maker work till it stops for the first time. This takes my bred maker 20 minutes.
Stop the program, add 49g unsalted butter and restart the program of "dough". In my case it will take 90 minutes.
Smooth dough after adding butter:
Make it into whatever shapes you like and let it rise to double the size. I have a toddler at home so I make the bread to fit his size. A simple braid is easy and pretty. You can also make it round and put stuffings you like. This dough is also suitable to make into a toast. But I like the small individual bread better because they are faster to make and never give you thick crust.
Let them rise for the second time till size almost doubled. Keep it in mind that they will keep rising when baking so leave some room in between.
Set up the oven to 355F and brush a layer of egg wash right before baking. I just use the leftover eggs from ingredients. Sprinkle what you like on top to increase flavor: chopped green onions with cheese, cheese, sesame seeds, or pre-soaked raisins. Whatever you like. Bake it at 355F for 15-20 minutes till the surface is golden. I usually put a bowl of water on the lower rack and place the bread on the middle rack to prevent the bread from drying out. This will make your bowl stained and ugly, so don't use those you like!
Update: recently made milk bread with custard stuffing. 355F for 23 minutes. Always place your bread on the middle rack and place a bowl of water on the lower rack to provide humidity.
