WHOLE WHEAT SOURDOUGH HOKKAIDO MILK BREAD

Steps:

• Sweet Stiff Levain
• Mix the levain ingredients in a jar or straight-walled container with space for at least 300% growth.
• Press the starter down with your knuckles or a spatula to create a uniform surface and to push out air.
• Let the levain ripen and rise. At a temperature of 76-78°F, it typically takes up to 10-12 hours for this sweet stiff levain to peak. For my starter, I see 3-3.5 times increase in size at peak. The levain will smell sweet with only a mild tang.
• Tangzhong
• In a sauce pan set to medium heat, stir the milk and flour from the tangzhong ingredient list until blended. Cook for several minutes until it thickens, stirring regularly with a spoon or heat-resistant spatula. Let cool in the pan or, for faster results, in a new bowl. The tangzhong should reach 65°C (149°F) but I don't find I need to measure the temperature because I can see when it gelatinizes. You can prepare this the night before and refrigerate it. Ensure it's covered to prevent it from drying out.
• Final Dough Mixing and Bulk Fermentation
• In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the milk (consider holding back 10g of milk if this is the first time you're making this bread or if you skip the vital wheat gluten), egg, tangzhong, salt, sugar, diastatic malt powder and levain.
• Mix with a spatula for a few seconds and also break up the levain into many smaller pieces. Next add the flour and vital wheat gluten. I like to use my spatula to mix until there aren't any dry areas.
• Allow the flour to hydrate (fermentolyse) for 20-30 minutes.
• Mix on low speed and then medium speed until you see moderate gluten development, which may take 5-10 mins.
• Lower the mixer speed to avoid splashing, and then drizzle in the melted butter a little at a time, or alternatively add room temperature butter one pat at a time. The dough may come apart; be patient and continue to mix until it comes together before adding in more butter.
• Once all the butter has been incorporated, increase the mixer speed gradually to medium. Mix at medium until the gluten is well developed, approximately 10 mins. You can rest the dough intermittently during this time if your stand mixer heats up. You should be able to pull a windowpane but it won't be quite as thin as a white-flour windowpane because of the presence of bran in the whole wheat flour.
• This is a good time to add inclusions such as my favorite, black sesame seeds. At this point they don't interfere with the gluten development. If you add inclusions, mix until they are incorporated in the dough.
• On the counter, shape the dough into a tight ball. Place it in a bowl, cover and ferment for 2.5 to 3.5 hours at 82°F. There may be some rise visible at this stage, but don't expect the dough to inflate a lot or double in size.
• At the end of the bulk fermentation, you can immediately proceed to shaping or refrigerate the dough for about 1.5 hours to make it easier to shape. You can also retard the dough overnight, however, you may find that this increases the sourness of your bread. Keep in mind that the final proof will take longer if you chill your dough.
• Shaping and Final Proof
• Prepare your pan by greasing it or lining it with parchment paper.
• Lightly flour the top of the dough. Scrape the dough out onto a clean work surface and divide it into four pieces. I like to weigh them to have equal sized lobes.
• Shape the pieces into tight balls and allow them to rest for 5 minutes.
• Using a rolling pin, roll out each ball into a square and then letter fold it. Turn it 90 degrees and roll again to about 8" long. Letter fold again from the long sides so you have a long narrow dough. Then using a rolling pin, roll flatter, keeping the dough relatively narrow. Next roll up each long piece of dough into a tube with some tension.
• The extra letter fold makes the final rolls shorter and fatter so when they are placed in the pan, they don't touch the sides of the pan. This way the swirled ends can expand unimpeded during final proof and remain visible in the final baked bread. This shaping style is for an appearance preference and optional.
• Arrange the rolls of dough inside your lined pan, alternating the direction of the swirls. This placement allows for greater rise during proofing and baking.
• Cover and let the dough proof for 6-8 hours at a warm temperature. I proof at 82°F. You will need longer than 6-8 hours if you chilled your dough for shaping. I proof until the top of the dough comes to within 1 cm of the top edge of the pan.
• Baking
• Brush the dough with the egg-milk wash and begin preheating the oven to 350°F. Just prior to baking, brush with the egg-milk wash again.
• Bake the loaf for 50 minutes or until the internal temperature is at least 190°F, rotating as needed to get even browning. Shield your loaf if it gets brown too early in the baking process.
• After 50 minutes, lower the oven temperature to 325°F and remove the bread from the pan. Bake an additional 10 minutes with the loaf directly on the oven rack.
• When baking is complete, you can brush the top of the loaf with butter while the bread is still hot to keep the top crust soft.
• Let the bread cool about two hours before slicing. Store it wrapped in plastic or beeswax wrap. This bread can last over a week without staling.