Condensed Milk Bread

     The other day I was going through the never ending list of breads that I want to make, asking my husband which one I should tackle this weekend. He settled on condensed milk bread. I am assuming he chose this either because of the picture (the recipe made the bread look very light and fluffy) or maybe just because he heard the milk he got excited... who knows. Either way he ended up choosing the one with one of the most confusing recipes I have ever seen. On top of it all I decide to make a double batch.

    I start off pulling out the first step's ingredients: milk, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, sugar, and instant yeast (There is a recipe card below where you can find the measurements. I mixed the milk, sweetened condensed milk, and the egg thoroughly before I added the sugar and mixed again. The recipe I was following called for instant yeast however I only had activated dry yeast and I did not feel like going to the store so I heated up the mixture until it was warm (I wanted to be very careful to not cook the egg) and then proceeded to gently mix in the yeast and let it sit for 10 minutes. To my relief it did bubble up so I knew it worked. However if you make this I definitely recommend using instant yeast like the recipe calls so you don't risk wasting ingredients if the activated dry yeast does not bubble up. 

    After I recovered from the excitement of my crackpot plan being successful so far I put flour (the recipe calls for all purpose but I used bread flour) and the yeast mixture into my stand mixer with my bread hook and I let it knead the ingredients until they were just combined. I continued to add softened butter in chunks and let it mix for a little longer. I got nervous that I was going to over mix the dough so I took it out of my stand mixer and I kneaded it by hand on a lightly floured surface. There were still a few butter chunks in it but they were getting smaller. 

    While I was kneading the dough I noticed it was super sticky but it toughened up as I kept re-flouring my counter and kneading it more until it was springy and elastic. I found a happy medium between sticky and hard. Since I made a double batch I then split the dough into two balls to let them rise. I coated 2 bowls in olive oil and rolled a dough ball in each bowl so the dough was coated. I then covered each bowl with a towel and let rise for an hour.

     Once an hour(ish) had passed I took a second to admire how much the dough had risen then I took one of the dough balls and split it into 2 halves. I floured my counter again and flattened each half out then rolled them into burritos. I then tucked the edges under and put each burrito in a loaf pan lined with parchment paper. I then took the other larger dough ball and made it into a huge log. I did this because I was curious to see how a different shape would affect the bread and I had run out of loaf pans. I also covered the log and let it rest for 45 min.

       Next I preheated the oven for 350 degrees F. While the oven was preheating I mixed one egg and about 2 tablespoons of milk to make an egg wash and I put that on all of the bread. I then pre-sliced the bread in loaf pans. You can pre-slice the bread before this, either before you start the 45 min timer or before the egg wash. Otherwise you can skip the slicing altogether.

    I baked the loaves for 25 minutes and the log for closer to 30. However I had the log on a lower rack so the specific time will depend on your oven. The bread does grow a considerable amount in the oven so keep that in mind when you are placing things in the oven. The finished bread is super light and fluffy and it has a sweet flavor. While the bread was still hot I melted butter on the log and one of the loaves and I drizzled leftover sweetened condensed milk on the other smaller loaf to make it more of a desert bread.