Rich Condensed Milk Loaf ❤️ Sponge Method ❤️ Not a Drop of Water

🍞Ingredients: Makes two 450g Pullman loaves. Halve all amounts if making one loaf.

🌼Sponge (Chongzhong): Bread flour 350g, milk 235g, instant dry yeast 4g

🌼Main dough: Bread flour 160g, sugar 40g, salt 6g, sweetened condensed milk 90g, egg 50g, milk 65g, milk powder 20g, instant dry yeast 2g, unsalted butter 40g

🍞Instructions:

1️⃣Mix the sponge ingredients into a ball, let it ferment at room temperature until doubled in size (about 1.5 hours), then chill in the fridge for 2 hours. (If you plan to bake the next day in summer, skip the room-temperature rise and put it straight into the fridge overnight.)

2️⃣Take the sponge out of the fridge. At this stage, the interior has a web-like honeycomb structure and feels nice and cold for summer mixing. Tear the sponge into small pieces and mix with all main dough ingredients except the butter.

3️⃣Mix on low speed for 2 minutes, then medium speed for about 3 minutes until it reaches the thick membrane stage. Add the softened butter and continue mixing until it reaches the full windowpane stage (thin, translucent membrane). Shape into a tight ball and cover. Let it rest (continued bulk fermentation) for 30 minutes.

4️⃣Lightly flour your work surface, turn the dough out, divide into six equal pieces, shape into tight balls, cover, and let them bench rest for 10 to 15 minutes.

5️⃣Roll out, coil, and place into the loaf pans. Check out my loaf shaping video post for detailed steps.

6️⃣Proof in a warm, humid spot until the pans are 90% full. Bake at 190°C, tenting with aluminum foil after about 8 minutes. At 15 minutes, lower the temperature to 180°C and bake for another 17 minutes. My oven temperatures and times are for reference only; adjust according to how your oven runs.

7️⃣Tap the pans firmly on the counter right out of the oven to release steam, unmold, and cool on a wire rack.

🌼This method is great when you didn't prepare a sponge the night before but still want a sponge-method loaf on a tight schedule. Chilling the sponge in the fridge for 2 hours keeps the dough temperature well under control, so the dough still feels cool coming out of the mixer bowl. The finished loaf is soft, tender, and has a great feathery shred.

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