Morning Bread Recipe

This morning bread recipe is super simple to make but incredibly soft and airy, making it perfect as a light breakfast or something quick that you can grab before taking off for work or classes. It also goes great with a wide assortment of condiments as well such as a jam.

Introduction

Morning bread or morning milk bread, is a super soft and fluffy milk bread that is usually eaten for breakfast, either by itself or with some jam or butter.

The buns are light & soft, with a hint of sweetness, and have a long shelve life so you won’t need to be in a hurry to finish it all.

This morning bread recipe is perfect for beginners just starting out with baking due to it’s simplicity and not requiring a lot of ingredients, most of which you probably already have lying around the house.

Here’s what you’ll need for this morning bread recipe:

Ingredients

Tangzhong:

• Bread flour 20 grams
• Water 100 ml

Dough:

• Bread flour 290 grams
• White sugar 40 grams
• Table salt ½ tsp
• Instant yeast 5 grams
• Milk powder 6 grams
• Milk 80 ml (room temperature)
• Unsalted butter 35 grams (room temperature)
• 1 Egg (room temperature)
• Egg wash: 1 egg
• splash of milk (approximately 1/2 tsp)

Directions

To make our Tangzhong, in a small sauce pan add in your bread flour + water and cook it over low heat until the Tangzhong becomes a thick vicious like paste, making sure to constantly stir it to prevent it from clumping up and burning.

  

Once we’ve achieved our desired consistency, remove the Tangzhong from the stove and transfer it to a small bowl or dish. Cover it with plastic wrap, making sure to press down on it so that the plastic wrap adheres to the Tangzhong to prevent it from drying out.

   

Store the Tangzhong in the fridge for at least 20-30 minutes to allow it to cool down.

Once our Tangzhong has cooled down, we’re ready to make our dough.

In a large mixing bowl, add in your bread flour, sugar, salt, instant yeast, milk powder, an egg, our Tangzhong from earlier, and milk.

         

Mix everything well together until you no longer see any dry white flour bits left on the dough.

 

Now cover the dough with plastic wrap or a towel and let it rest at room temperature for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, transfer the dough to your countertop, add a little bit of oil to your hands to prevent the dough from sticking to your hands and then flatten the dough with your hands.

 

Add the room temperature butter to the middle of the dough now, and then fold the dough over the butter from all sides.

 

Now knead the butter for a few minutes until the butter has been completely absorbed into the dough.

Afterwards, grab the sides of the dough, lift it up into the air and then slap it down onto your countertop.

 

Then grab the dough with your hands pointed to the side at a horizontal angle, lift the dough up again and slap it back down.

Repeat this process until the dough has become nice and smooth and less sticky.

Then we’re going to knead it by hand for an additional 1-2 minutes.

You can apply the window pane test to see when the dough has been sufficiently kneaded by grabbing a piece of the dough, and stretching it out until it becomes somewhat translucent and light can pass through.

If the dough can be stretched without it tearing then it has been sufficiently kneaded, if not you will need to continue kneading the dough.

Once our dough has been kneaded properly, shape the dough into a round ball, please it into a greased large bowl and then cover it with plastic wrap or a towel and let it proof until 2-3x the size, which should take about an hour or so.

Once our dough has finished kneading, de-gase the dough by punching down on it and then transfer the dough to a lightly floured countertop.

 

Now shape the dough into a round ball and then weigh the dough.

Once done, divide the dough into 10 equal pieces and then start shaping each piece of the dough into a round ball.

To shape the dough into a round ball, use one of your hands to fold the dough downwards towards the center while the other hand, pinches the ends of the dough and rotates it.

Once the dough starts to resemble a ball, pinch the bottom of the dough to seal it.

Then place the dough on your countertop and using the palms of your hands, rotate the dough in a circular motion until it resembles a round ball.

Repeat this process for the other pieces.

Once done shaping the dough, place them onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper.

Cover the dough and let it rise 1 more time in a warm place for about 45-50 minutes.

While the dough is proofing, prepare an egg wash by whisking together 1 egg and a splash of milk together.

  

Once done, set aside.

You can also start preheating your oven at this point.

Preheat your oven to 350°F (180°C)

When the dough has finished rising, we’re going to apply the eggwash to the top of each piece of dough.

Finally bake the bread at 350°F (180°C) for about 15-16 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

Notes:

If you have a stand mixer, you can skip all of the kneading steps and just use the stand mixer for kneading the dough. If you’re using a stand mixer, knead the dough for about 12-14 minutes on the #2 speed.