Milk loaf

A fragrant milk loaf, the recipe of which will not raise questions even for a novice cook. The baked goods are very tasty: a thin crust, elastic and at the same time tender crumb, which smells pleasantly of milk. Homemade loaf is good with butter and jam under a cup of hot tea.

Products for making these simple baked goods at home are sure to be found in any kitchen. We use the highest grade wheat flour, milk - any fat content, butter - high quality, and about yeast, I wrote in detail below. The finished milk loaf weighs approximately 720 grams.

Ingredients

• Wheat flour of the highest grade (470 grams)
• Milk (250 milliliters)
• Butter (60 grams)
• Sugar (1 tablespoon)
• Salt (1 teaspoon)
• Fast acting yeast (1 teaspoon)

Directions

1. The recipe for a fragrant and tender milk loaf includes the following ingredients: premium wheat flour, milk (I have 2.5% fat), butter (at least 72% fat), granulated sugar, salt (preferably finely ground) and yeast. Tip: you don't have to take fast-acting yeast - just dry (also 1 teaspoon without a slide is 3 grams) or pressed / fresh (you need 3 times more, that is, 9 grams) are perfect. Such yeast is not immediately mixed with flour, but pre-activated in a warm sweetish liquid for 10-15 minutes. In our case, you can slightly warm up half a glass of milk with a tablespoon of sugar and dissolve yeast in this sweet liquid.
2. Sift wheat flour (preferably twice) into dishes suitable for kneading and fermenting dough. Thanks to this technique, it will be saturated with oxygen and possible debris will leave.
3. Add sugar, fast-acting yeast and salt to the flour. Mix everything thoroughly with a fork, spoon or hand so that all dry ingredients are evenly distributed throughout the mixture.
4. We make a hole in flour and pour lukewarm milk into it. The liquid should never be hot, otherwise you just boil the yeast and it will die.
5. At the beginning of kneading yeast dough, you can simply stir all the products with a fork, spoon or hand so that the flour is moistened by absorbing the liquid. With a bread maker or dough mixer, the kneading process is greatly simplified and your work is minimized. Add soft butter and knead the dough.
6. You need to knead the dough with your hands for about 10 minutes and quite intensively. The electric assistant will cope for about 7 minutes. As a result, the yeast dough should become completely homogeneous, smooth, sufficiently soft and tender, elastic and completely non-sticky. Round the dough and put it in a bowl greased with a small amount of vegetable oil (not indicated in the ingredients) so that it does not stick to the dishes during fermentation. We send the dough to heat for 1-1.5 hours or until it increases in volume by 2-2.5 times. Where is the best place for dough to roam and what does a warm place mean? There are several options. First of all, in the oven with the light on (it turns out about 28-30 degrees - the ideal temperature for fermenting yeast dough). Then we tighten the bowl with the dough with cling film or cover it with a towel made of natural fabric (linen is best suited) so that the surface does not wind up and does not become covered with a crust. You can also let the dough ferment in the microwave, in which we first bring a glass of water to a boil. The dough will rise with the door closed, and the glass will stand in the same place. Then the bowl does not need to be closed with anything, since the water will evaporate, thereby maintaining the necessary humidity. Just make sure that no one accidentally turns on the microwave, otherwise the dough will disappear and there will be no milk loaf.
7. When the yeast dough rises well (it fermented for me for 1 hour 15 minutes), becomes even more tender and fluffy, it's time to move on to the molding stage.
8. Lightly sprinkle the work surface with wheat flour (an additional amount is not included in the ingredients, but 1 tablespoon is enough) and spread the dough on it.
9. Gently knead it with your palms on the working surface, after which you can use a rolling pin. Roll out the dough into a layer about 1 centimeter thick.
10. We fold the layer into a rather dense roll. After each revolution, be sure to press the roller against the layer, so that later there are no voids in the finished loaf (that is, large air bubbles). It is also advisable to brush off excess flour with a brush. Do not forget to pinch the seam.
11. Here is such a neat workpiece you should get. We put it seam down.
12. We shift the blank for the future milk loaf onto a baking sheet, which we preliminarily cover with parchment and sprinkle a little with flour. Cover the blank with a film, which must be rubbed with flour so that the dough does not stick, and leave it for 25-30 minutes. The proving time of the future loaf depends not only on the strength of the yeast, but also on the temperature in the room.
13. After about half an hour, the workpiece will noticeably round up. Gently shake the flour off the paper so that it does not burn when baking.
14. With a sharp knife or blade, we make several oblique cuts (about 1 centimeter deep).
15. Lubricate the workpiece with milk, water or a scrambled egg. In advance (20-30 minutes), we did not forget to turn on the oven to warm up by 180 degrees.
16. Bake the milk loaf on a medium level for about 25-30 minutes. Be guided by your oven!
17. Remove the finished milk loaf from the baking sheet and let it cool. When completely cooled down, baked goods weigh 720 grams.
18. Delicate, fluffy and very tasty loaf will pleasantly surprise you with its delicate creamy milk aroma. Cook for your health and bon appetit, friends!