Soft and Fluffy Gluten-Free Rice Milk Bread by Kat Lieu
Soft and fluffy gluten-free rice milk bread by Kat Lieu of modernasianbaking.com
Hi friends! This is the fifth loaf of gluten-free milk bread I’ve made, and in terms of aesthetics, it is the most pleasing. It fully resembles, at first glance, a loaf of milk bread or shokupan, without the use of the yudane or tangzhong method, and without any gluten! Milk bread is known to be soft, feathery, subtly sweet, creamy, and light, and I’m so happy with this recipe, as it’s a close sibling to Japanese milk bread that’s made with high-protein flour!
My gluten-free rice milk bread is made with a mix of rice flour and glutenous rice flour and it is egg-free and can be made vegan if you replace the milk with water or any plant-based milk. Use vegan condensed milk or any vegan liquid sweetener. Of course, you can also use sugar instead of a liquid sweetener, but as rice flour tends to be quite drying and liquid absorbing, I opted for a liquid sweetener. If you want, you can add an egg as a binder or 50 g of silken tofu, but it’s not absolutely necessary.
To achieve the aesthetics of this particular g/f milk bread, I recommend you invest in a standard Pullman loaf pan.
Note: This gluten-free dough will only rise once for about an hour and will not require punching down or degassing. There’s no need to overmix or over-knead the dough, as it will resemble more of a thick, pancake batter than a bread flour milk bread dough. In this case, there’s no windowpane test or check. And yes, you can cold-ferment this dough in the fridge overnight and bake it the next day.
What I found worked well was greasing the loaf pan generously, and keeping the dough nice and moist with a tray of hot water in the lower rack. Adding about a teaspoon of milk or water to the top of the bread dough helped keep the top from cracking or drying.
Note that this recipe is inspired by former Subtle Asian Baking moderator, George Lee, who made soft and squishy gluten and vegan milk bread with rice powder made from blended soaked rice.
PS: If you don’t have xanthan gum handy, substitute it with tapioca flour (or tapioca starch, it’s the same thing) or an extra teaspoon of glutenous rice flour. You can also add a teaspoon of rice vinegar to the dough batter if you’d like.
Why should you trust me with milk bread recipes, you ask? Well, as Epicurious puts it, I’ve made hundreds of loaves since 2020 LOL, and well, I’m kinda famous-ish these days for my milk bread. HAHA. Happy baking! xoxoxo, Kat
“Lieu has made hundreds of loaves of milk bread, and, like the authors of Modernist Bread, she does not think tangzhong is necessary in making a successful milk bread. Even without tangzhong, her loaves—which are enriched with whole milk, egg, and butter—are tender and springy, with a soft texture not unlike that of a memory foam mattress. For Lieu the most important thing when making milk bread is making sure the dough is kneaded adequately and reaches the windowpane stage, which is when the dough has developed enough gluten strength that you can stretch it thinly enough for light to pass through it.” -Epicurious.com
Tip: For the pink chai version, follow the directions here on how to make pink chai (you can use plant-based milk for a vegan pink chai latte) and replace the liquid you use in this bread recipe with the pink chai. You may want to add a drop of red food coloring for added pinkness.
Soft and fluffy gluten-free rice milk bread by Kat Lieu of modernasianbaking.com
Soft and Tender Gluten-Free Rice Milk Bread Recipe by Kat Lieu
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
- This dough should be wet and goopy. If you don't have rice flour handy, you can soak about 350 g rice in water for a few hours, then drain it, and blend at high speed until pulverized and powdery.
This bread is a great vessel for butter, peanut butter, honey, jams, and can be toasted. Store in an airtight container and toast for a few minutes the next day. You can also try heating the bread in the microwave. As it is made with rice flour, this bread tends to dry out quicker than my milk bread made with high-protein bread flour. Let me know what you think!
About the Baker
Kat Lieu is the founder of Subtle Asian Baking and this website modernasianbaking.com, and she is the author of Modern Asian Baking at Home. Currently, Kat is a full-time author and recipe developer. Follow her on instagram and check out her blog Phil and Mama.
Here she is seen with a classic bowl cut, seated next to her Ah Ma in Montreal. Circa 1985
