Buttered Miso + Sesame Milk Bread

Soft fluffy milk bread with a hint of sesame layered with salty buttery miso filling – an addictive pull apart situation.

Ingredients:

For the dough:

• 500 grams strong bread flour
• 1 + 1/2 teaspoons (10 grams) fine salt
• 1 + 1/3 cups plus 1 tablespoon (340 mls) warm full fat milk
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
• 1 + 1/2 teaspoons active dried yeast
• 4 tablespoons (55 grams) soft unsalted butter, diced

For the filling:

• 2 tablespoons miso paste
• 2 tablespoon melted butter
• 2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds
• 1/8 teaspoon sesame oil
• a few twists of black pepper

– If using metric cups, reduce volume measures by 1 tablespoon for every cup of dry or liquid ingredients – 

Equipment:

• Bowls and spoons
• Large loaf pan greased with coconut or vegetable oil

Directions:

Measure the flour, sugar, salt and sesame seeds into a large bowl, reserving about half a teaspoon of the sugar.

Mix the little bit of sugar into the milk and sprinkle the yeast over it. Leave it until it gets foamy – about 10 minutes.

Add the milk to the dry ingredients and mix to a dough.

Cover and leave the dough in the bowl to rest for 10 to 15 minutes. Tip the dough out and knead until smooth – about 6-8 minutes. It’s quite a stiff dough before the butter goes in so take a break every couple of minutes if you need to.

Add half the butter to the dough.

Knead until the butter is incorporated. It will look terrible for a while. It will split.

Then it will be sticky.

Then it will be fine. Repeat with the second half of the butter. This half will absorb faster than the first. When the dough is smooth and soft pop it back in the bowl and cover. Leave to double in size – about an hour.

Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured bench. Roll the dough out into a large rectangle – about 20 by 30 cm. We don’t want the layers to be too thin or the dough won’t bake through properly in the middle

Mix the miso, melted butter, pepper, sesame oil and sesame seeds to a paste and spread evenly over the dough. It will be a thin layer. We don’t want to add too much moisture – just flavour.

Cut the dough into about 20 small rectangles.

Put your loaf pan on it’s end and start layering the slices into the pan. It’s just easier to keep them from flopping over this way.

Fill to the other end of the pan. You may need to tuck some pieces into corners to fill all the gaps. Try not to stretch or pack the pieces too much – just nestle them in loosely and the dough will expand to fill the tin.

Leave the loaf to double in size.

Heat the oven to 200C (395F). Brush with egg wash and sprinkle the loaf with more sesame seeds if you like.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until the loaf is well browned and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. It may be a little fragile at first because of the layers so be careful turning it out.

Transfer the loaf to a wire rack to cool before peeling off snack sized pieces…

Cook’s Notes:

• Buy a good quality miso with a clean savoury flavour – I like Urban Hippie miso which is made in Nelson, NZ. Once you have it you will find yourself putting it in all sorts of things!
• If you don’t like strong sesame flavour leave out the sesame oil but keep the seeds for a bit of crunch.

 – This bread is best within two days of baking. For longer keeping freeze the loaf and thaw completely before serving – 

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