Citric Acid Free Classic Milk Bread

Soft, pillowy, and impossibly tender, this milk bread is the kind of loaf that makes you want to tear into it the moment it comes out of the oven. 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. Every single ingredient here is straightforward and naturally free of citric acid, which can sneak into store-bought breads as a preservative or dough conditioner without much fanfare on the label. Butter, whole milk, egg, yeast, flour, sugar, and salt — that's genuinely all you need, and nothing here raises any flags. 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've seen in bakery windows. Brushed with an egg wash before it goes into the oven, the crust turns a deep, burnished brown that looks far more impressive than the effort involved. Let it cool just long enough for the crumb to set, then slice in — it's the kind of bread that needs absolutely nothing on it, though a little butter never hurt anyone.

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