Milk is a common ingredient in breadmaking. But how exactly does it affect bread dough? And what alternatives are there? Generally, milk is used in sweetened enriched dough like sweet rolls and burger buns. But a regular loaf of white bread can also sometimes be made with milk and no extra fat or sugar. How we use it is up to us after all.
There are a few kinds of milk out there. Most common is of course cow’s milk. There is also buffalo milk which is richer and fattier. Goat’s milk can also be used, but it has an unusual flavour so it may not be for everyone.
For the purposes of this test, I chose three kinds of milk. Full fat cow’s milk, cow’s milk powder. And almond milk just to see how it would compare.
Why use milk at all, you may ask. It adds nutritional value to baked goods. Mainly protein, calcium, and vitamin B12 which are all necessary for a heathy diet.
But we don’t only look for the nutritional benefits when using milk in our bread dough. The fat and lactose in milk help with tenderizing the crumb of the bread making it softer and sweeter. The crust of the bread also gets more caramelization. Be aware that bread made with milk should not be baked at too high of a temperature to prevent it from browning too much too soon.
Why use milk powder? This is mainly practiced in bakeries because milk powder does not perish as quickly as fresh milk does. It is more of a convenience thing. Saying that, the milk powder I used was quite expensive so that convenience does have a higher cost.
There are a few numbers to be considered before we start writing a recipe that contains milk or milk powder. Mainly the fat, sugar, and water content of each.
Read more here ➡ https://www.chainbaker.com/milkeffects/
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Chapters
0:00 Intro
0:51 Milk stats
1:33 Example dough ingredients
2:08 Mixing
4:36 Folding
5:35 Shaping
6:37 Comparing the baked loaves
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