Sweet Milk Bread

Most of the kids develop special liking to a particular food and then it gets very difficult to wean them off from it. My kiddo is very fond of this specific brand of milk bread, and she is so used to it that she finds other breads almost inedible. The advantage of living here in Dubai is that we get so many varieties of almost everything. Big supermarkets have their own bakeries and they produce dozens of kinds of breads, you name the type of bread and you are sure to get it fresh. 

So why am I baking bread when it's so readily available for under 5 Dhs for a large packet.........

It's my kiddos love for milk bread which tempted me to make it for her, and I was really happy with the result. The bread turned out to be very soft and mildly sweet with subtle flavours of cardamom and saffron. And my stubborn kid who always wants her bread toasted loved this bread to the core...she smothered the bread with nutella and enjoyed it warm straight out of the oven.

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour- 3 Cups

Active Dry Yeast- 1.5 Tsp

Saffron- A big pinch 

Milk- 2 Tbsp

Condensed Milk- 1/4 Cup (See notes at the bottom of the post)

Salt- 1 Tsp

Butter- 2 Tbsp

Cardamom Powder- 1/4 Tsp

Luke Warm Water- 1 1/2 Cup Approximately

Procedure:

 Soak saffron in 2 tbsp of warm milk.

In a large bowl take all purpose flour and add salt, cardamom powder and yeast.

Melt the butter and let it cool, once cool add it in the flour mixture.

  Now add in milk infused with saffron and condensed milk.

Add water little by little and make a soft dough by kneading for atleast 5-6 minutes. The dough will be little sticky. Transfer the dough in an oiled bowl and cover with a cling film or damp kitchen towel. Keep the bowl in a warm place and allow it to rise so that it doubles in sizes, this will take around 45 minutes to 1 hour. We have very hot and humid weather here and my dough took around 35-40 minutes to double in size.

Once the dough has risen, punch it back and knead again for another minute or so. Place the dough in a greased loaf pan and cover it. Let it again rest for another 45 minutes.

Brush the top of the dough with little melted butter and keep the risen dough in pre heated oven at 180 Degrees C and bake it for 35-40 minutes or till the crust turns golden brown in colour. Keep an eye during the last few minutes as I did not and  my loaf's crust turned dark brown. When tapped the bread should sound hollow. Invert the bread onto a cooling rack and when it gets little cool, cut it into pieces. 

Notes:  My loaf turned out to be mildly sweet, but for a sweeter version instead of 1/4 cup add in about 1/2 cup of condensed milk and reduce the amount of water proportionately.