Milk Bread

Mister Jiu's in Chinatown

I loved this bread! I don't think I've ever had milk bread before, but it was soft and moist, and stayed that way for days, stored at room temperature wrapped in plastic. It's not a rustic, crunchy-crusted bread, but that's not what it's trying to be. A little sweet, lightly enriched with milk and an egg

It really wasn't that hard to make, though I would say using a mixer is pretty important. The dough is very sticky and separated into smaller balls in the bowl at first, but it did come together after 10 minutes of kneading in the machine. I can't imagine how long it might take by hand

Mine fell a bit, perhaps because it over-proofed, but I think trying to turn it out of the pan while it was still hot from the oven didn't help. But honestly, I wouldn't bother trying to make a flatter, square loaf again. In fact, I think these would be perfect dinner rolls. (He says the recipe will make 40 of those!) And it does, indeed, make delicious French Toast.

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:05]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:07]: with heather today we're going to be
[00:09]: making our second recipe from
[00:12]: mr jews in chinatown
[00:14]: the new cookbook from uh brandon ju and
[00:17]: tianlon ho i'm pretty sure i said that
[00:19]: right i don't want to take it out and
[00:20]: look but i'm pretty sure that's right
[00:22]: um
[00:23]: now i have been seeing this all over my
[00:25]: instagram feed and i'd already marked
[00:28]: this to
[00:29]: to make because it was one of the things
[00:30]: that i have pretty much all the
[00:32]: ingredients didn't have to go buy
[00:33]: anything
[00:35]: but also it's bread which usually my
[00:37]: husband makes so we'll see
[00:40]: um we're going to be making milk bread
[00:43]: now
[00:43]: uh
[00:45]: he usually makes it in a pullman pan i
[00:49]: think is what he calls it i've never
[00:50]: seen one but it is a
[00:52]: loaf pan that makes a long loaf with a
[00:56]: lid so it makes a very square
[00:59]: uh
[01:00]: bread
[01:01]: um
[01:03]: we don't have that but that's okay he
[01:05]: includes instructions on how to use
[01:08]: regular loaf pans and what we're gonna
[01:10]: do is put a
[01:13]: baking sheet on top of these
[01:16]: and with it buttered to sort of mimic
[01:19]: that
[01:20]: so that's what we're going to be do
[01:22]: going to be doing and it makes two
[01:25]: loaves if you do that so
[01:30]: that's what we're gonna be making and
[01:31]: i'm looking forward to this it sounds
[01:32]: delicious it seems like he says it's a
[01:34]: very um moist
[01:37]: it has a lot more hydration in it the
[01:39]: bread so it lasts longer it can it can
[01:41]: sort of stand up to waiting a little bit
[01:44]: before you eat it um
[01:46]: he says you can store it at room
[01:48]: temperature for five days or in the
[01:50]: freezer for three months
[01:53]: so that's longer than most
[01:56]: breads last but the reason that it's a
[01:58]: high moisture bread
[01:60]: is this first thing we're going to be
[02:02]: doing
[02:03]: we're going to be making a
[02:05]: tong
[02:06]: tangjong i think i said that right i
[02:08]: looked it up anyway
[02:09]: it is kind of like a starter but we're
[02:12]: going to be
[02:14]: really hydrating some flour
[02:17]: and to do that we're going to cook it so
[02:20]: we're going to start with some whole
[02:21]: milk
[02:28]: and some water
[02:30]: this seems to be a kind of enriched
[02:32]: dough there's not a lot of eggs there
[02:34]: are eggs though and um
[02:38]: also butter that we're putting in the
[02:41]: dough so that seems interesting and then
[02:43]: we have some bread flour
[02:46]: i've measured all of the
[02:48]: dry ingredients by weight because
[02:51]: they're in there and that's just easier
[02:53]: than measuring cups
[02:55]: so we're supposed to
[02:57]: supposed to whisk this
[03:01]: together and then we're going to cook it
[03:04]: on medium heat
[03:06]: he says
[03:08]: until it's bubbly and thickened to a
[03:10]: pudding consistency
[03:12]: uh four to five minutes so i'll let you
[03:15]: know how long that takes us
[03:17]: in just a minute i'm not going to show
[03:19]: you that part because it's pretty boring
[03:21]: but i'll show you what it looks like
[03:23]: when it's done
[03:26]: okay so
[03:28]: to me on my stove this took about
[03:31]: six or seven minutes
[03:33]: um i forgot to start timing immediately
[03:35]: so my editor if he is
[03:38]: watching and paying attention can give
[03:40]: you the exact time here but so now we
[03:42]: need this to cool to room temperature
[03:45]: and so this is what
[03:47]: i'm calling it's pretty it's it still
[03:50]: looks a little thin but as it cools
[03:52]: it'll get thicker and we don't want it
[03:54]: to um
[03:57]: get clumpy so we're going to have to
[03:58]: whisk this every few minutes to make
[04:01]: sure it doesn't get lumpy now
[04:04]: you do uh
[04:06]: need to whisk this constantly maybe not
[04:08]: immediately but as soon as it starts
[04:10]: getting warm you'll definitely need to
[04:11]: whisk it to keep it from getting lost
[04:13]: so i'm going to leave this on my
[04:15]: granite counter tops and whisk it
[04:18]: occasionally
[04:21]: while i prepare everything else
[04:27]: so
[04:29]: we're going to be using a mixer for this
[04:30]: i'm not doing this by hand
[04:32]: and so we're going to
[04:35]: put everything else i've measured
[04:36]: everything else out we don't need
[04:37]: everything else right this minute but
[04:39]: we're going to measure we're going to
[04:40]: put a bunch of this stuff in our mixing
[04:43]: bowl
[04:44]: so this is more bread flour
[04:48]: again
[04:49]: wait
[04:52]: to measure not by volume
[04:55]: there we go
[04:57]: so we're putting
[04:59]: flour we have some plain white
[05:02]: granulated sugar also measured by weight
[05:06]: we have
[05:08]: what else
[05:09]: yeast
[05:10]: it's quite a lot of yeast he calls for
[05:13]: um
[05:14]: instant dry yeast
[05:18]: here we go
[05:19]: and then some kosher salt
[05:26]: there we go and we have to whisk this
[05:28]: together
[05:30]: took a little break to whisk my other
[05:32]: mixture
[05:39]: all right so this is all whisked
[05:41]: together it gets all mixed together
[05:43]: nicely and also breaks up any
[05:46]: clumps that you have and anything there
[05:49]: all right i need
[05:51]: this again but everything has been put
[05:53]: away and we're just waiting for the
[05:56]: tang zhang to cool to lukewarm not
[05:60]: exactly room temperature but lukewarm so
[06:02]: i'm gonna be checking that and whisking
[06:03]: it it shouldn't take all that long the
[06:06]: um
[06:07]: cold granite countertops really help
[06:10]: um
[06:11]: move the heat away so
[06:14]: i'll be checking that
[06:16]: okay
[06:16]: mine is definitely only lukewarm
[06:19]: [Music]
[06:20]: so i'm gonna call that good
[06:22]: it's only been
[06:24]: about six or seven minutes but like i
[06:27]: said the um
[06:30]: stone countertops really help to cool
[06:33]: things down pretty quickly
[06:37]: and we're going to combine
[06:40]: this with our bread flour mixture here
[06:44]: you really want to be lukewarm so you
[06:46]: don't kill the yeast that's in here
[06:48]: because if it's too warm it will
[06:50]: do that so
[06:52]: i'm just gonna scrape all this in here
[07:01]: as well as i can
[07:18]: all right
[07:20]: there we go
[07:24]: over there for now and we're supposed to
[07:25]: mix this with the dough hook
[07:29]: um for about two minutes on low speed
[07:33]: until
[07:35]: moist clumps form so
[07:38]: [Music]
[07:41]: okay
[07:45]: i think that's probably good i'm gonna
[07:47]: give it one more little spin now that
[07:49]: i've
[07:50]: taken things off of the dough hook
[07:57]: okay so now we're adding
[07:60]: egg this is supposed to be at room
[08:02]: temperature i did not plan ahead and
[08:04]: take it out of the refrigerator so i
[08:06]: cheated a little bit and put it in
[08:08]: um
[08:10]: a cup or a bowl of hot tap water
[08:13]: you don't want it too hot you don't want
[08:15]: to cook it but
[08:16]: that helped
[08:17]: raise the temperature so it's not
[08:19]: refrigerator cold
[08:21]: feels maybe a little cooler than room
[08:23]: temperature but not by much so i'm gonna
[08:25]: put this in
[08:28]: try not to get a shadow in there
[08:30]: there we go
[08:34]: and
[08:36]: mix this together
[08:39]: now we're going to slowly pour some more
[08:41]: whole milk i'm gonna turn this off this
[08:43]: also is supposed to be at room
[08:45]: temperature again i did not plan well so
[08:47]: i measured it out gave it about 30
[08:50]: seconds in the microwave so it was a
[08:51]: little bit warmer than room temperature
[08:53]: then but now it's pretty much room
[08:54]: temperature so perfect
[08:56]: so we're going to slowly pour this in
[08:59]: to make a
[09:00]: very wet dough
[09:02]: about a minute he says that's how slow
[09:07]: [Music]
[09:12]: okay
[09:13]: so i'm gonna call this okay for this
[09:15]: step it's very wet there's some extra
[09:18]: wetness on the sides hopefully that'll
[09:20]: all get mixed in as we incorporate our
[09:22]: last ingredient in fact let me go ahead
[09:24]: and
[09:25]: sort of wipe down the sides a little bit
[09:27]: just
[09:30]: now we're going to increase the speed to
[09:33]: medium
[09:35]: and um add
[09:39]: our butter also room temperature
[09:42]: butter um
[09:44]: again i had to beat this up in the
[09:47]: microwave a little bit it has a softened
[09:48]: butter setting which does not melt it
[09:51]: thankfully
[09:52]: i don't use it all that often because
[09:53]: i'm usually pretty good at remembering
[09:55]: the butter but not the eggs or the milk
[09:57]: so
[09:57]: um we're going to add this one piece at
[10:00]: a time these are roughly one tablespoon
[10:02]: pieces
[10:04]: and
[10:05]: at medium speed and
[10:08]: wait until each one incorporates before
[10:10]: we add the next so
[10:13]: [Music]
[10:23]: this one piece doesn't want to get
[10:25]: incorporated so i'm just going to break
[10:26]: it up a little bit more
[10:28]: this is a very wet dough
[10:30]: very wet very sticky
[10:39]: okay
[10:40]: that was supposed to take about five
[10:42]: minutes and we're supposed to continue
[10:44]: mixing until a smooth sticky dough forms
[10:47]: that clears the sides of the bowl about
[10:50]: 10 minutes more
[10:53]: so 10 more minutes approximately here we
[10:56]: go
[10:58]: okay
[10:59]: it's been about 10 minutes and
[11:01]: definitely within the last couple
[11:02]: minutes the dough started coming
[11:05]: together to be sort of one big ball
[11:07]: which is
[11:08]: what i was hoping to see and not
[11:10]: sticking to the side so much it's still
[11:12]: a very sticky dough but what we need to
[11:15]: do now is get as much of the dough off
[11:18]: into one ball at the bottom of the bowl
[11:20]: as we can
[11:27]: he says to scrape down the sides and
[11:30]: so now we're just going to leave that as
[11:32]: is
[11:34]: phew
[11:36]: okay that was tough all right so we're
[11:38]: going to cover this with a clean kitchen
[11:42]: towel
[11:43]: and let it rise until it has doubled he
[11:46]: says about 45 minutes so we'll keep
[11:48]: track of about how long that takes us
[11:51]: um
[11:52]: and we'll be back in about 45 minutes
[11:56]: my milk bread was rising for
[11:58]: 45 minutes i set a timer and that's
[12:01]: exactly what this is looks doubled to me
[12:03]: so we're going to go with it
[12:05]: i've done some preparation in the
[12:06]: meantime i have
[12:09]: buttered the inside of my two loaf tins
[12:13]: and i have also buttered the bottom of a
[12:16]: baking sheet also gave it a quick wash
[12:18]: just to make sure it was really clean
[12:20]: because i don't know how well my helpers
[12:22]: take care of the bottom of our baking
[12:25]: sheets so
[12:26]: and i have
[12:28]: started my oven heating to
[12:31]: 375 degrees you want to have the
[12:35]: racks in the lower third and nothing
[12:38]: above it so if you have
[12:40]: other racks above it you're going to
[12:42]: take those out or find another place for
[12:43]: those
[12:44]: i'm able to fit all of my racks below
[12:47]: that so we're good there
[12:50]: so now i'm going to
[12:53]: oh and
[12:54]: i'm making two loaves
[12:56]: and he says to pat them out into two 10
[12:59]: by 10 squares
[13:01]: instead of that i have i'm gonna do
[13:04]: one 10 by 20 square and so i've made
[13:07]: some
[13:08]: tape marks on
[13:10]: my counter this is 10 inches this is 20
[13:12]: inches so i'm going to make 10 by 20 cut
[13:14]: it in half and then roll it up to make
[13:16]: the
[13:17]: loaves
[13:19]: so i'm gonna do a little bit differently
[13:21]: there just but it shouldn't make any
[13:22]: difference really
[13:24]: so first i'm going to lightly flour
[13:29]: this surface that we are going to use
[13:33]: hopefully won't need any more of this
[13:35]: but we'll see it's a very sticky dough
[13:38]: so he says to punch it down
[13:44]: and it's very sticky and then
[13:47]: transfer it to our
[13:50]: lightly floured
[13:53]: surface
[13:55]: and try to get as much as i can out of
[13:57]: here
[13:58]: because you know why not
[14:01]: so now the plan is to
[14:04]: pull
[14:05]: and stretch right he says
[14:08]: using floured hands pat and stretch the
[14:11]: dough into
[14:12]: the size and shape that we want so
[14:18]: i'm just trying to make sure that it's
[14:19]: not going to stick
[14:23]: and it should end up being about half an
[14:26]: inch
[14:28]: thick once we
[14:30]: get it the right
[14:33]: size
[14:35]: so
[14:40]: oops i'm getting flour all over the
[14:42]: place but that's not the name for me
[14:47]: so i'm going for the inside between here
[14:50]: and here for our
[14:52]: 20 inches
[14:53]: [Music]
[15:07]: the goal is to i should work 10 inches
[15:10]: so
[15:11]: i think we're about right there so i'm
[15:13]: going to
[15:15]: just cut this here
[15:18]: and then
[15:21]: uh
[15:23]: roll the dough tightly
[15:25]: then pinch the seam ends closed so
[15:29]: i'm going to start
[15:30]: with this cut side
[15:34]: and try to roll it
[15:36]: as tightly as i can
[15:51]: pinch the seams closed
[15:55]: pinch the ends
[15:58]: closed
[16:08]: and then
[16:12]: put it seam side down into
[16:15]: the pan pan here
[16:18]: i'm just going to
[16:20]: side down
[16:23]: here we go
[16:24]: and do a good one
[16:27]: [Music]
[16:35]: now uh
[16:37]: we're i'm going to put this
[16:41]: i've got another baking pan just to go
[16:43]: underneath it so that i can
[16:46]: put them
[16:47]: together
[16:48]: very easily
[16:50]: and i have my
[16:53]: towel here this one looks much nicer
[16:55]: than this one but we will see how they
[16:57]: turn out um
[16:60]: and i'm going to cover these with a
[17:01]: towel and i'm going to put them
[17:03]: um in a warm place
[17:05]: as warm as i can get
[17:07]: in my house without going into the
[17:10]: uh proofing drawer
[17:13]: for about 15 minutes they should proof
[17:15]: to about half an inch from the top of
[17:17]: the pan so
[17:20]: we'll see if that happens we'll see you
[17:22]: in 15 minutes
[17:26]: so this has been about 15 minutes and
[17:31]: you know
[17:32]: i don't know
[17:34]: i feel like it has a ways to go yet
[17:37]: um
[17:38]: like we have about an inch to the top
[17:41]: not half an inch so i'm going to let it
[17:42]: go for a little bit longer he says that
[17:44]: if you over proof it punch it down and
[17:47]: redo it i'm gonna let it go i don't know
[17:49]: five more minutes or so and see
[17:52]: if they look better
[17:55]: okay so i gave my bread about another 15
[17:58]: minutes and i think they look more risen
[18:01]: now i look a little bit better so i'm
[18:03]: going to call this done
[18:04]: so at this point it was about 30 minutes
[18:07]: instead of 15.
[18:09]: it depends on your temperature and all
[18:10]: that in your house now we're going to
[18:13]: lightly brush these with some more whole
[18:16]: milk
[18:19]: i think that's good enough
[18:22]: i'm going to put these in the oven i'm
[18:23]: going to put my buttered baking tray
[18:26]: on top and then i'm gonna put my heavy
[18:29]: cast iron uh 12 inch fry pan on it any
[18:32]: heavy oven proof pan will do
[18:36]: we're gonna bake them like that for 30
[18:38]: minutes and then we take the pan off and
[18:41]: let them finish without anything on top
[18:44]: so we take the
[18:45]: cast iron dish and the cast iron frying
[18:48]: pan and the baking sheet off and let
[18:51]: them finish like that he says
[18:54]: about another 15 minutes but until it's
[18:56]: golden brown and you can take the
[18:58]: temperature and it should be about 200
[19:00]: degrees in the center so i will probably
[19:02]: do that just to make sure we're good
[19:05]: but that's it for this part and we will
[19:07]: show you what they look like when they
[19:08]: come out
[19:11]: and let you know what we think in just a
[19:13]: minute
[19:14]: [Music]
[19:25]: on this episode of cooking the books
[19:27]: with heather you watched me make milk
[19:29]: bread from mr jews in chinatown
[19:32]: by brandon ju and tianlon ho
[19:35]: and uh i have never had milk bread
[19:37]: before and i did not have the sort of
[19:40]: specific pan that he calls for
[19:43]: that makes it very square
[19:47]: and i feel like
[19:51]: i probably would have preferred
[19:53]: not putting a lid on it and just making
[19:56]: it a rounded loaf
[19:57]: um because mine didn't end up completely
[20:00]: filling the pan and making it
[20:02]: kind of square it would have been a
[20:04]: little bit
[20:06]: what's that called trapezoidal
[20:08]: but uh
[20:09]: because you know a normal bread
[20:12]: loaf pan is not straight up it kind of
[20:14]: goes out
[20:16]: anyway mine didn't end up completely
[20:17]: filling it and
[20:19]: um
[20:21]: the center the top kind of fell some
[20:24]: which may have been because
[20:28]: i overproofed it i did proof it longer
[20:30]: than he said because it was not as
[20:33]: the there were two there was a timing
[20:36]: and then there was a until it's a
[20:38]: certain amount from the top and
[20:40]: it took a little bit longer for mine to
[20:42]: rise that high so maybe it was
[20:43]: overproofed
[20:46]: maybe my pain was just a little bit
[20:48]: bigger than the amount could fill um and
[20:52]: so it ended up
[20:54]: collapsing
[20:56]: i don't know exactly but if i make this
[20:58]: again i will probably just make it like
[20:59]: a regular loaf with a rounded top i've
[21:01]: seen those i'm sure it'll be absolutely
[21:04]: fine
[21:05]: um
[21:06]: it also might have fallen because he
[21:08]: does have you
[21:09]: take it out of the pan
[21:11]: immediately and so that means and i had
[21:13]: a little problem i guess i didn't butter
[21:15]: my pans well enough
[21:19]: so
[21:20]: i kind of felt like i was
[21:23]: shaking it a lot i feel like when it was
[21:25]: still really hot and i feel like that
[21:27]: helped make it collapse
[21:30]: but all that said the bread was really
[21:32]: delicious
[21:33]: we loved it we had it um
[21:36]: the first day
[21:38]: we
[21:39]: tried it as toast
[21:41]: we tried it as french toast and it does
[21:43]: make incredible french toast like he
[21:46]: says it's it's got an it's it's got it's
[21:49]: not
[21:50]: it's not dense it's light but it's also
[21:53]: kind of sturdy enough to
[21:55]: soak up some egg and not
[21:57]: completely dissolve it was a really
[21:59]: delicious bread and i would certainly
[22:01]: make this again and honestly there's not
[22:04]: even a lot of um
[22:05]: [Music]
[22:07]: proofing time in this i don't know if
[22:09]: that's because
[22:10]: it has a decent amount of sugar in it to
[22:12]: feed the yeast so it doesn't take as
[22:14]: long
[22:15]: to proof
[22:16]: i don't know i'm not the bread person in
[22:18]: my family but it's delicious in fact i
[22:20]: might make
[22:21]: my husband make it next time see if he
[22:23]: does better
[22:25]: but it was fine the way i made it
[22:26]: um
[22:28]: you
[22:30]: once it's out on the rack cool
[22:32]: completely
[22:33]: cut it
[22:34]: and it cuts it slices really well
[22:37]: um you wrap it after it's cooled
[22:39]: completely you can wrap it in plastic
[22:40]: wrap because you're not worried about a
[22:42]: crusty
[22:44]: um exterior on this bread it's not
[22:46]: really supposed to be crusty so
[22:48]: i'm like yoga french bread so
[22:50]: um and it does last pretty long i think
[22:55]: he says
[22:58]: um
[23:00]: at room temperature for up to five days
[23:02]: and i think we went like
[23:04]: we made
[23:06]: some french toast on
[23:08]: maybe the fourth day after we made it
[23:10]: and it was i mean it was still pretty
[23:12]: soft and and it did last a pretty long
[23:14]: time so
[23:16]: um
[23:18]: i'm really glad i decided to make this
[23:19]: this i'm really glad that i've been
[23:21]: seeing it all over my instagram feed and
[23:23]: and decided to make it oh i do think it
[23:25]: would make really good
[23:27]: rolls which is another method that he
[23:30]: has in here another way to you know
[23:32]: shape them and and bake them as
[23:35]: i would definitely do that with these i
[23:37]: think they would be great
[23:39]: so
[23:40]: if i try it i'll let you know how it
[23:41]: goes
[23:42]: but if you enjoyed watching me make this
[23:44]: please give me a thumbs up hit the
[23:46]: subscribe button and come back and watch
[23:48]: me make something else next week