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Pull-Apart Milk Bread Wreath with Japanese Milk Bread (tangzhong)


This recipe gets ripped to shreds online. And not without reason. My best advice to you is to give yourself at 3/4 of a day for this to come together. (The recipe suggests just a few hours.) For me -- and for others, apparently, online -- this dough was sluggish to respond.

Also - this is milk bread. Sort of. So. It will be a completely different texture on the inside as compared to a Western bread. It is denser, but without being dense -- I liken it to Wonder bread, but without being gross. It is extremely pleasant to eat, and a little toothy, which I can like.
So why is it only "sort of" like milk bread? Because milk bread should be made based off of a flour roux -- cooked flour paste. And this version skips that step. Possibly for the worse. Check out recipes for tangzhong to learn more about this missing step. Perhaps incorporating that step would make this easier to work with.

Speaking of working with this dough, in absolutely no way did I get the dough to roll out to the proportions suggested below. At least using the original recipe as printed in Food & Wine. Mine rolled out to maybe 14" long and 10" tall. Very tiny by comparison. I just didn't worry about it and figured that, ounce for ounce, all of the dough was there and it would fill the fluted pan -- which was correct. Still, it is frustrating to try to work the dough out to the size printed, when it just doesn't want to be stretched that far.

Plus, in this pull-apart version, it is also very fun to, well, pull apart. Next time, I might consider treating it like a monkey bread and coating each piece with something savory (think garlic butter) or sweet (think cinnamon sugar). The latter option might be a perfect combination for this bread, especially since it needs so long to rise -- season the slices before assembly, then pop in the fridge for an overnight rise before baking for breakfast.

Pull-Apart Milk Bread Wreath
Food and Wine, November 2019

4 3/4 c bread flour
1/3 c sugar
2 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1/4 oz yeast
1 c whole milk
2/3 c heavy cream
7 T powdered milk
1 egg
1/4 c unsalted butter, melted, divided

Combine flour, sugar, salt, and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Whisk together milk, cream, and powdered milk in a medium bowl. Whisk in egg.

Add milk mixture to flour mixture. Beat on medium-low speed until combined, about 2 minutes.

Fit mixer with the dough hook attachment. Beat on medium speed until dough is smooth, about 10 minutes. (Pull up a section of dough, and stretch as thin as possible. If dough is see-through but does not rip, your dough is complete. If it rips, continue beating until dough can be stretched.)

Lightly grease a large bowl with cooking spray, and place dough in greased bowl, turning to coat. Cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until almost doubled in size, about 1 hour and 30 minutes.




Transfer dough to a work surface; cut into thirds. Flatten each piece, and tightly roll into tubes. Place tubes, seam sides down, on work surface; cover with lightly greased plastic wrap. Let rest 15 minutes.



Working with 1 dough piece at a time, roll into a 20- x 12-inch rectangle on a lightly floured surface. Brush with a scant 11/2 tablespoons melted butter; cut lengthwise into 4 strips, and cut strips crosswise into 6 strips each, making 24 rectangles.






Stack all 24 dough rectangles. Repeat with remaining 2 dough pieces and remaining melted butter. Arrange stacks in a lightly greased tube pan, standing up like little books, allowing gaps between dough pieces.














Cover pan with lightly greased plastic wrap, and let stand in a warm place (80°F), free from drafts, until dough just reaches top edges of pan, about 1 hour. Preheat oven to 325°F. 

Remove plastic wrap, and bake in preheated oven until bread is golden brown and puffed, 35 to 40 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let stand in pan 5 minutes. Remove from pan, and place on a platter. Brush with melted butter, and sprinkle with flaky sea salt.



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