Creamy bread

I just came back from a trip to Hong Kong where I acquired a wonderful bread recipe book. I can't wait to make every single thing from this book. It's called Japanese bread bread. When I was in Japan, I absolutely fell in love with Japanese bread. Don't get me wrong, I love my rustic bread once in awhile...but the soft and buttery Japanese bread is a different category all together. I don't think you can even compare the two.

The reason I ended up buying this book in particular is because of this recipe. I saw the picture and the ingredients, and I was drooling at the bookstore. It turned out really well. The little buns are so soft and buttery. Absolutely delicious. The only gripe I have with this book is that it's in Chinese, it also has English translation in the book, but the instructions are not detailed at all. The following is the recipe from the book with a little bit more guidance from me...hope you enjoy it too!

Creamy bread
adapted from the Japanese Bread
total time: 2 hours

250g bread flour
25g sugar
10g milk powder
80g butter
8g yeast
2 pieces egg yolks
100g milk
40g warm water

1. Mix 5g of sugar, yeast and the warm water together. Allow the yeast mixture to rest for five minutes or until it is frothy.

2. Mix the bread flour, 20g of sugar, milk powder together. Combine the milk, frothy yeast mixture and the two egg yolks together. Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and knead the mixture until it is smooth. Add the butter and knead until it is smooth and elastic.

3. Allow the dough to rest for about 30 minutes or until it is double in size. Roll out the dough into a square. Roll up the dough and close the sides by pinching the dough.

4. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

5. Cut the rolls up into 12 equal pieces. Place each piece in a muffin tin. Brush the dough with egg wash and allow the little doughs to rest for 45 minutes.

5. Brush with egg wash again. Bake the rolls for 10 minutes or until the little buns are golden in color.

Notes:

• The original recipe says to roll up the dough, let rise for 30 minutes, and then cut it up. I didn't shape the dough until after the first rise. I'm not sure if this would make a difference, that's normally how it's done in other bread recipes I have used.