Family-Sized Hand-Kneaded Toast, No Mixer Needed

Ingredients

High-gluten flour......200g

Low-gluten flour......50g

Salt......2g

Sugar......30g

Milk powder......8g

Egg liquid......25g

Water......140g

Yeast......3g

Butter......25g

Steps

1. Mix all the dry ingredients (except yeast and butter) evenly. Mix the whole egg liquid and water into a mixture. Add most of the egg liquid and powder mixture, and reserve some egg liquid for activating the yeast. The mixed dough will be slightly wet, and it doesn’t need to be kneaded at this point. Just place it in the refrigerator for 60 minutes to allow protein and water to fully fuse, creating coarse gluten strands, which will make it easier to develop a 'windowpane' dough.

2. Add the remaining egg liquid to the dry yeast and mix into a paste. This makes it easier for the yeast to be evenly mixed with the dough. Then, knead and punch the dough like making clothes. It will be a little sticky at first, don't worry, continue to knead and punch for about 10 minutes, and the dough won’t be so sticky at hand. At this time, add the softened butter and continue to knead and punch for about 5 minutes, and then develop the 'windowpane' dough. Even if you don’t achieve the most beautiful 'windowpane' dough, and it’s easy to have small holes, it won’t make much difference, as long as the hole is relatively smooth and round.

3. Knead into a ball, cover with plastic film, and ferment for about 1 hour. The fermentation time varies depending on the season, usually within 30-90 minutes. Mainly based on the fermentation after volume expansion, when the volume expands to 2 times, it’s okay.

4. Gently deflate the dough, knead it into a long strip, and divide it into 3 parts. Stretch and fold, and the surface will become smoother. Use the heel of your hand to hold it and roll it into a round. Then, press it flat with your hand and use a rolling pin to roll it into a long strip, and then fold once and three times, and put it aside to ferment for 15 minutes. Continue to roll it into a long strip while pressing and breaking the larger air bubbles. Press one end of the dough a little, and roll it up from the other end, don’t roll it too tightly, 2.5 turns are the most perfect.

5. Put the three doughs a little distance apart into a bread box, then put it into a 38-degree environment for fermentation for 45 minutes, until the bread box is 80% full, and cover it with a lid. If you don’t have a proofing box, you can create a proofing box environment by placing a bowl of hot water in the oven.

6. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and bake for 40 minutes. Take it out of the oven while hot, put it on a wire rack to cool. After cooling, you can slice it or eat it by tearing it off.

- Tips -

1. When resting, if it’s summer, put it in the refrigerator to prevent it from getting too wet because of the high temperature.

2. It’s okay if the dough is sticky, through kneading and punching, it will become smoother.

3. Use egg liquid to activate yeast, it’s easier to mix evenly.

4. If the last fermentation uses oven insulation, the temperature must not be too high, otherwise the yeast will not expand.