I love the smell of fresh bread. I especially like crusty bread but when I want the loaf to last an entire week, I prefer making a soft bread.
When I make soft bread, I add in milk, butter and honey.
Milk is a tricky ingredient to use in bread making. I noticed that bread recipes usually call for powdered milk and not fresh milk. I always wondered why. After some research, I found that there's an enzyme in milk that affects the gluten and weakens the bonds.
But, if you boiled the milk it should deactivate the enzyme and your bread should be bigger.
I decided to put it to the test. (Sorry I forgot to take pictures of the other bread)
With milk, I found that it can be a hit or a miss. If I didn't boil it enough it can cause the volume to be smaller. But sometimes it also rises to the amount I want but with bigger gaps inside the bread.
For the last couple of loaves, I used dried buttermilk powder. I found that it rises more consistently and the volume of the bread is generally bigger then the bread make with fresh milk.
I chose buttermilk because it was the "dried" version and not the "instant" version.
Instant milk isn't heated as hot so it may or may not have the enzyme still active.
Dried milk may not be available at the grocery stores. You'll usually find instant milk there rather then dried milk. You can find dried milk online or if you're lucky, there's a local baking goods store that carries it.
When I was looking for dried milk, I found Medallion Milk in Canada.
I emailed Medallion to see if they have any local stores that carries their product they informed me that Bulk Barn carries it. I was very lucky to have someone local that carries dried milk and not just instant so I can use it for my breads. Bulk Barn had dried buttermilk or instant skim milk so I grabbed the buttermilk powder.
I found that using buttermilk added a little sour smell but the flavour is wonderful.
I'll definitely be using the buttermilk powder going forth.
Happy baking.
Categories: Baked Goods
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