Barley Free Classic Milk Bread

Soft, pillowy, and impossibly tender, this Japanese-style milk bread is the kind of loaf that makes you want to bake every weekend. The secret is the tangzhong — a simple cooked paste of bread flour and milk that gets folded into the dough and gives the finished loaf its signature cloud-like crumb. Butter is worked in gradually during kneading, building a rich, slightly sweet dough that bakes up with a deep golden crust and a pull-apart interior that stays soft for days. For anyone navigating a barley-free lifestyle, store-bought breads can be a minefield since barley flour and barley malt extract sneak into commercial loaves more often than you'd expect. This recipe keeps things clean and straightforward — bread flour, whole milk, egg, butter, sugar, salt, and yeast, with no hidden grains to worry about. The four-roll shaping method creates beautiful definition in every slice and makes the loaf look like it came straight from a bakery window. Let it cool fully before cutting, and then try not to eat half the loaf in one sitting.

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