Caffeine Free Classic Milk Bread

Total time3 hr 5 min

Prep time30 min

Cook time35 min

4.6

(8)

Soft, pillowy, and impossibly tender, this milk bread is the kind of loaf that makes you want to tear off a piece before it even finishes cooling. The secret is the tangzhong — a simple cooked paste of flour and milk that gets folded into the dough and keeps every slice moist and cloud-like for days. Since the whole recipe is built around pantry staples like bread flour, butter, eggs, and whole milk, there's nothing here that would raise a flag for anyone avoiding stimulants. No tea extracts, no chocolate, no coffee — just clean, wholesome ingredients doing beautiful work. The dough comes together in a stand mixer, gets shaped into four neat little rolls tucked side by side in a loaf pan, and bakes up into that gorgeous, domed golden top you see in bakery windows. A brush of egg wash right before it goes into the oven gives the crust that rich, lacquered finish. Let it cool just long enough for the crumb to set, then slice in — it's absolutely worth the wait.

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Ingredients

10 servings

For the tangzhong

3 tbsp bread flour
½ cup whole milk

For the dough

2 ¼ tsp active dry yeast (1 packet)
¼ cup warm whole milk (about 110°f / 43°c)
2 ½ cups bread flour
3 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp fine salt
1 large egg
3 tbsp unsalted butter, softened and cut into pieces

For the egg wash

1 large egg yolk
1 tbsp whole milk

Instructions

1
Make the tangzhong: whisk together the 3 tbsp bread flour and 1/2 cup milk in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens into a smooth, pudding-like paste and leaves a trail when you drag a spatula across the bottom, about 3–4 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.
2
Combine the yeast and 1/4 cup warm milk in the bowl of a stand mixer and let stand until foamy, about 5–10 minutes.

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