Hotel Bread (ホテルブレッド)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Stand mixer with dough hook, or strong hands and a bench scraper
• •9 by 4 inch loaf pan, or a Japanese one-kin shokupan pan used without the lid
• •Digital scale
• •Instant-read thermometer
• •Wire cooling rack

Instructions

1. 1

   Mix the dough

   In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, and instant yeast, keeping the salt from sitting in one pile against the yeast. Add the lukewarm milk, cream, and egg. Mix on low speed until no dry flour remains, then rest the shaggy dough for ten minutes. That short rest lets the flour drink before you ask it to stretch, which makes the kneading faster and kinder.

2. 2

   Knead with butter

   Knead on medium-low speed for five minutes, then add the softened butter a tablespoon at a time. The dough will look slippery and wrong for a minute. Let it come back together before adding more, because fat coats flour and slows gluten if it goes in too quickly. Keep kneading eight to ten minutes, until the dough is smooth, elastic, and can be stretched thin enough to let light through without tearing at once.

   This windowpane test is the first secret of enriched bread. If the dough tears early, the butter and cream will give you heaviness instead of softness.
3. 3

   First rise

   Shape the dough into a ball and set it in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover and let it rise in a warm place until doubled, about sixty to ninety minutes. Use the dough, not the clock, as your teacher. When a floured finger pressed into it leaves an indentation that slowly softens but does not spring back at once, it is ready.

4. 4

   Divide and rest

   Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and press out the large gas bubbles with your palms. Divide it into two equal pieces, shape each into a loose round, cover, and rest fifteen minutes. This bench rest lets the tightened gluten relax, so the final shaping can be neat without fighting you.

5. 5

   Shape the loaf

   Lightly grease a 9 by 4 inch loaf pan, or a Japanese one-kin shokupan pan used without its lid. Roll each dough piece into an oval, fold the sides toward the center, then roll from the short end into a snug coil. Set the two coils seam-side down in the pan, side by side. Coiling builds height and gives the crumb its long, soft pull.

6. 6

   Proof the dough

   Cover the pan and let the dough rise until it reaches about 1 inch above the rim, forty-five to seventy minutes. Do not hurry it with harsh heat. A rich dough moves more slowly, and forcing it gives coarse holes and a yeasty smell where you wanted milk and butter.

7. 7

   Butter the crown

   Heat the oven to 180 C or 350 F. Lay the chilled strip of butter straight down the center of the risen loaf. As it melts, it marks the split and feeds the top crust. Bake for thirty to thirty-five minutes, tenting loosely with foil if the crown browns before the loaf is cooked through. The finished loaf should be deep gold and read about 93 C or 200 F at the center.

8. 8

   Cool and slice

   Remove the loaf from the pan at once and cool it on a rack for at least one hour before cutting. Hot bread smells generous, I know, but slice too soon and the crumb compresses under the knife. Tear or cut thick slices once the loaf has settled, so the soft face of the crumb can open cleanly.

Chef Tips

• •Use good milk, cream, and butter. This loaf has nothing hidden, and poor dairy leaves a flat sweetness no amount of kneading can repair.
• •Japanese bread flour gives the most familiar panya crumb, but a strong bread flour with 12 to 13 percent protein works well. If your flour is weaker, hold back a spoonful of milk at first and add it only if the dough feels stiff.
• •Hotel bread is yamagata, the unlidded mountain loaf. If you bake this dough with a lid, you have made a rich kaku shokupan instead, good bread, but a different finished loaf.
• •For a longer-keeping shokupan, use yudane in that recipe, scalding part of the flour with boiling water so the starch pre-gelatinizes. For hotel bread, the dairy is the point, so keep the method straight and clean.

Advance Preparation

• •The shaped loaf can be covered and refrigerated overnight after it begins to rise slightly in the pan. Bring it back to room temperature and let it finish proofing before baking.
• •The baked loaf keeps two days wrapped at room temperature. For longer storage, slice it thickly and freeze the slices, then toast from frozen.
• •Do not refrigerate the baked bread. Cold storage firms the starch and makes the crumb stale faster, which is the very thing this rich loaf is trying to avoid.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 67g)