[Recipe] Milk and butter enriched bread dough (basic recipe)

This recipe is a bit of a hybrid, using both my sourdough starter for better-tasting results but supplemented with instant yeast for a more consistent rise (my starter is acting a bit lazy). This will yield a small loaf but can easily be scaled up for higher yield. I have successfully used this base recipe for my other enriched bread projects (sausage bun, bread rolls, to name a few). One thing to note is that the recipe, as written, seems to be too small for my stand mixer to knead this properly (using the dough hook attachment) so either knead by hand or scale up the recipe. The part where you incorporate the butter will be very messy but it will eventually result in a sticky dough that is easy to work with.

As mention in the title, this is a basic recipe that can be modified in a number of ways to create different baked goods. This is what I used to make sausage buns, cheese-filled dinner rolls, and even cinnamon rolls (but filled with cinnamon and chocnut mixture). The possibilities are endless.

Enriched sourdough baked in a bread-maker

Ingredients:
300 grams All-purpose flour 
50 grams Sourdough starter 
3 Tablespoons coconut sap sugar (or brown sugar)
200 ml fresh milk (you can use evaporated milk for a more prominent milky taste)
30 grams unsalted butter (softened at room temperature) 
1 teaspoon fine salt 
1 and 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast 

Directions:
Warm the milk slightly and add the coconut sap sugar and the instant yeast (making sure that the heat is not too much to kill the yeast). Set this aside until you see some yeast activity (some frothing).

Weigh the required all-purpose flour in a mixing bowl. Add in the sourdough starter and the milk-coconut sugar-yeast mixture. Mix until the flour is completely hydrated by the liquid. Knead the resulting dough for a few minutes (around 10 minutes by hand) on a lightly floured surface (I use a silicone mat for this) until the ingredients are well blended. Shape it into a ball and place it back in the mixing bowl and cover with cling wrap. Let the dough rise in a warm spot until double in size.

Place the dough in the kneading surface (silicone mat or lightly floured surface) and punch the dough to deflate the trapped gasses. Flatten the dough on the surface with your hand (or a rolling pin if you prefer) and smear the softened butter all over the top. Sprinkle the salt on the butter. Fold dough over the butter repeatedly and knead until the butter and salt are completely incorporated (it will take time to do this and it will be messy at first especially if you are doing this by hand). The dough will become easier to work with and won't stick to your hands. Test the dough by stretching a portion with your fingers to see if it stretches thinly before breaking (sometimes called the windowpane test - I think it is better to watch YouTube videos on how to do this properly instead of explaining it here).

Do the final shape (in this case I just form it into a ball and place it inside a loaf pan) and do a final proofing. After the proofing, the dough should spring back slowly when poked, leaving a small indent on the surface. 

I used a bread-maker for this recipe but for conventional baking, around 150 degrees C thermostat setting with varying time depending on the final shape (I baked mine for 45 minutes in the bread maker) just need to look out for the desired browning. You can brush the top with melted butter if desired.