Milk in Bread Baking – Understanding Ingredients for the Canadian Baker (2024)

FAQs

What does milk do in baking bread? ›

Not only does it add flavor and richness to the final product, it also serves a number of important functions in the baking process. One of the main roles of milk in baking is to provide moisture. It can help to keep baked goods from becoming too dry and crumbly, and can also add tenderness to the texture.

Using milk instead of water in your yeasted bread is an easy way to add a touch of sweetness, making it ideal for challah, dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls, and hot dog buns. Milk sugars not only add a hint of sweetness but also result in a softer, more uniform crumb and ensure a nicely browned crust.

Adds moisture

The balance of dry and wet ingredients is a fundamental concept that every baker should know. Along with water, butter, and eggs, milk is one of those ingredients that adds the required moisture for the batter to form.

The added protein and sugar from milk powder improves the structure and texture of yeast breads, making them loftier and more tender. It also intensifies the color of the crust, making your breads beautifully bronzed.

In baking, it moistens batter or dough, and adds protein, color and flavor to baked goods. The most common form of milk in baking is non-fat dry milk (NFDM), which is dehydrated skim milk.

Butter or Olive Oil Brush: Brush softened butter or olive oil atop the loaf before baking to add flavor and color. Milk Bath: Brushing a loaf with milk before baking gives the baked bread a tender, golden crust. For a sweet bread recipe, sprinkle with sugar if desired.

The fat and lactose in milk help with tenderizing the crumb of the bread making it softer and sweeter. The crust of the bread also gets more caramelization. Be aware that bread made with milk should not be baked at too high of a temperature to prevent it from browning too much too soon.

Soy, almond, and rice milk are all good options because they're neutral in flavor. You'd be hard-pressed to taste the difference between bread made with regular milk vs. any of these non-dairy milks. Some dairy-free milks have a more prominent flavor (like coconut and cashew milk).

Bread recipes requiring dry milk powder in The Bread Bible, The Baking Bible, and Rose's Baking Basics have King Arthur dry milk powder as their preferred dry milk powder.

besides the nutritional benefits there are a few other good reasons to use egg in breadmaking. It makes the bread lighter and fluffier. The reason for that is the fat in the yolk that inhibits gluten formation just as any other fat would. This results in a looser dough that can expand and puff up more.

What makes homemade bread dry? ›

Leaving the bread in the oven too long will dry out bread. If the bread has finished baking before the minimum time stated in the recipe, the oven temperature may not be correct. To insure the correct temperature each time you bake, always use an oven thermometer. Place it in the center of the oven.

So yes you can, but you would have to adjust the amount and types of liquid and the amount of fat , including any butter, oil ,or egg yolk used in the recipe. You can use powdered milk as a substitute in cooking fairly easily, but baking is chemistry.

The added sweetness and protein helps bread dough rise—particularly enriched dough like brioche. It lends a more tender crumb, and actually helps these breads last longer. High-heat milk powder might be a little trickier to find, but it's certainly worth the search for its impact on baking breads.

The whey in milk can actually prevent yeast from doing its job — causing bread to rise. But scalding milk weakens whey, allowing yeast to work. In fact, scalded milk actually speeds up the rate at which yeast causes bread to rise because yeast starts working more quickly in warm liquids than cool ones.

besides the nutritional benefits there are a few other good reasons to use egg in breadmaking. It makes the bread lighter and fluffier. The reason for that is the fat in the yolk that inhibits gluten formation just as any other fat would. This results in a looser dough that can expand and puff up more.

Yeast can effectively improve the overall quality of commercial fermented milk. The differences in yogurt inoculated and non-inoculated with yeasts are revealed. Arginine biosynthesis and glycerophospholipid metabolism are enriched. Calenduloside G methyl ester can be used as a biomarker.