Milk Bread

Directions

1. 1
   Boil the milk, then tip into a bowl and leave to cool, stirring in the cold water to bring down the temperature a bit quicker. When it is gently warm, beat in the yeast and leave for five minutes to dissolve. Melt the butter. Add the flour, sugar and salt to the yeast mix, then pour in the butter. Using your hands, work everything to a rough but evenly mixed dough. (At this point, you can adjust it, adding slightly more water for a softer dough that will bake extra-light, or slightly more flour for a dough that will hold its shape better.) Cover and leave for 10 minutes, then lightly oil a patch of worktop and knead the dough for 10 seconds. Return to the bowl and leave to rise for an hour, if you can giving it one or two brief kneads during that time.Butter the inside of a large loaf tin and shape the dough into either two balls or a rolled-up sausage and place smooth side up in the tin. Leave to rise by half, flour the top, cut a slash down the middle and bake at 180C (160C fan-assisted)/350F/gas mark 4 for 50 minutes. Remove from the tin as soon as it's baked and leave to cool.