This section talks about how I developed the recipe. Will update if I ever change up the recipe or notice any weird things as I continue to tinker with it. Huge disclaimer that I am just an amateur home baker, and not even that seasoned of a bread baker. I just went all in on milk bread due to circumstances.

Starting points

The source inspiration recipes are fine in themselves. I have more experience with the Woks of Life recipe and have tinkered with it, from varying milk ratios, flour ratios, etc.

Here are my pros/cons for each:

Woks of Life recipe:

Pros:

• best flavor (this recipe used egg/syrup washes)
• most ingredients can be used in other recipes

Cons:

• does not rise as high (details below)
• more expensive (as of writing this, eggs are ~$8-9/dozen)
• yields 2 loaves’ worth which can be much if you don’t have storage space or people to give it away to

Just One recipe:

Pros:

• best rise
• the one specialty ingredient you need (milk powder) is shelf stable
• yields 1 loaf

Bread baked from the Just One recipe, no modifications. You can see the tin in the background and get an idea of how much rise I achieved!

Cons:

• bland compared to Woks of Life recipe

INGREDIENTS

I’m generally brand agnostic, but if it helps I used King Arthur Bread Flour and Bob’s Red Mill Whole Wheat.

Both recipes originally call for 100% white flours (bread for Just One, AP for Woks of Life). I started adding wheat flour to increase the fiber content for health reasons (welcome to life after 35). Wheat flour usually leads to a denser loaf (science reasons involving gluten development). With that said, I’m extremely chuffed that I achieved a comparable rise to the original Just One recipe, despite using nearly 50% wheat flour. I have never achieved this level of rise with the Woks of Life recipe, even when using 100% white flour. The wheat flour adds a bit of flavor too, which I thought was sorely needed for the Just One recipe.

HYDRATION

I keep emphasising the dough wetness in the recipe because wheat and bread flours require more moisture than AP flour. Although this recipe appears to have the same total ratio of liquid to the original recipe (350 g), my adapted recipe uses Half and Half, which is technically liquid, but does not have the same hydration power as plain water. It also has fats and proteins which will alter the chemistry of the dough.

My first revision attempt to add flavor to the Just One recipe used 100g heavy cream, and the dough only achieved like a ~65% rise compared to the all-water recipe. I remember the dough came together much more easily than the full water version, though it felt tougher or less elastic. I was able to achieve a degree of success with the windowpane test, but the dough tore at the edges. Since I had gotten that translucent thinness, I thought that was okay, but then with my developed recipe, I found that adding a bit more hydration (really just a bit) resulted in a windowpane test that did not tear.

Left: the second proof with the original Just One recipe. This was where the dough was when I started to preheat the oven - it continued to muffin top by the time I started baking.

Right: This was my heavy cream/water attempt with the Just One recipe. Notice how much lower the bread is - I suspect hydration (and possibly salt) impeded the growth.