Layered Garlic Butter Milk Bread Recipe
Just like any other Tuesday evening, you can find me scrolling around on TikTok getting inspired for what to make next in the kitchen. Our family loves garlic bread, like loves loves garlic bread. So, when I stumbled across this creation of Garlic Butter Milk Bread in LAYERS from @bakebynhu, I naturally knew I had to make it. Even though I can’t eat bread and never made it from scratch before, how hard could it be?
I found this recipe simple to make for someone who has never made bread before! Taking the inspo from @bakebynhu by layering her dough to create the shape and texture of the bread, I did a bit more digging on how to create an easy milk bread base. This recipe draws from additional sources with my own tweaks to call it my own, specifically the TikTok from @bakebynhu and Caroline’s Cooking Japanese Milk Bread.
I’ll spare you most of the details and you can dive right into the recipe first. If you wanna hear more about my experience, thoughts, and notes on this recipe, keep reading!
Layered Garlic Butter Milk Bread
Ingredients
Garlic Butter
- ¾ stick unsalted butter Softened at room temperature
- ¼ cup chopped Italian parsley
- ½ cup grated pecorino romano Add more depending on your preference of cheese!
- 2 tbsp minced garlic
Tang Zhong
- 2 tbsp bread flour
- 6 tbsp water
Milk Bread
- 2 ¼ cup bread flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp castor sugar
- 2 tsp instant dry yeast
- ½ cup milk
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 large egg
Instructions
Prep the Tangzhong
- Pour the flour and water reserved for Tangzhong into a small saucepan with the heat turned off
- Mix together with a whisk until the mixture is cohesive and lump-free
- Set the saucepan over medium-low heat and continue whisking slowly to prevent burning
- Once the roux becomes a paste-like consistency, remove from heat and set aside to cool. Think of molasses in terms of fluidity!
Make the milk bread dough
- Preheat the oven to 100F to proof your dough
- Mix the cooled Tangzhong with your egg first to help smooth out the paste before adding in the rest of the ingredients. You can use your hands or a stand mixer to knead the dough.
- Pour in your salt, castor sugar, instant dry yeast, milk, and unsalted butter into the bowl and gently stir in with a whisk.
- Sift the flour into the wet mixture and begin kneading. If the dough looks like it's too wet or sticky, you can add in extra flour 1 tsp at a time.
- Knead until the dough is no longer sticky and form a ball before transferring to a large oiled bowl.
- Cover the bowl with saran wrap and leave it in the oven for an hour and 15 minutes to proof.
Make the garlic butter
- Prepare the garlic butter to layer in between the bread while your dough is proofing
- Mix minced garlic, chopped Italian parsley, and grated pecorino romano in a small bowl
- Using a spatula, incorporate the softened butter into your garlic mix until it looks even. Leave aside in room temperature until your dough is ready.
Assemble and bake the layered garlic butter milk bread
- Preheat the oven to 350F
- Once the dough is ready, it should have doubled in size. Punch the dough to release any gas bubbles and shape it out.
- Prep your clean countertop with a light sprinkle of flour. Roll out the dough gently until the dough is about 1/3 inch in thickness.
- Use a spatula to spread an even layer of garlic butter over the surface of the dough.
- Use a pizza cutter to cut squares out of the dough. Make sure the size your cutting will fit into your loaf pan. It can be slightly smaller as the dough will rise some more during the baking process. If you don't have a pizza cutter, a knife will work as well - dust with flour before hand to prevent the dough to stick.
- Stack each piece of square dough on top of one another, butter side up. Turn the stack onto its side before putting it in an oiled loaf pan.
- Bake the loaf for 35 minutes until golden brown. The butter will create a crispy bottom layer while leaving the inside of the bread moist and fluffy.
- Use a knife to loosen the loaf and put it on a cooling rack before eating.
- You can cut the loaf OR you can tear each 'slice' apart.
Notes
You can watch my entire process on TikTok below!
@kwital first time making bread inspired by @bakedbynu even tho I can’t eat bread #milkbread #garlicbread #homecooking #bakingtiktok #breadtok #bakingrecipe ♬ Sunny Day – Ted Fresco
Even though I couldn’t eat the Garlic Butter Milk Bread myself, I’ll be working on creating a GF version for anyone who also has gluten allergies or sensitivity. What I can tell you is, the kitchen smelled divine for the whole day.
The recipe makes a full loaf and depending on how you cut your slices, you can make 12-16 slices. You will need a pan, preferably a loaf pan, to bake your bread along with measuring cups, bowls, knife, spatula, whisk. The mixing stand and pizza cutter is optional. I would also recommend having a small reserve of bread flour to the side so you can adjust if necessary.
I also used 2 small eggs because we have ridiculously small eggs for some reason, but 1 large egg is more than enough for this recipe.
The first thing you should do is collect all the necessary ingredients and preheat the oven to proof. Having everything measured will speed up the process – I created the recipe instructions in a manner that would save the most time. The cooking and prep process isn’t long but waiting for your dough to rise will take a while.
I can’t wait to start exploring more recipe ideas and creating a GF version too. While it’s been fun cooking for my family, I do get sad not being able to eat my own creations ☹
Leave a comment down below if you’ll be trying this layered Garlic Butter Milk Bread recipe and if there’s anything you want to see me make next! I’d love to hear your thoughts, you can always contact me here too 🙂
