My aunt swore by using warm milk for yeast dough and my bread was a brick

She told me 'just warm it on the stove for a minute' when I tried her dinner roll recipe last weekend. The dough never rose properly and the baked rolls were dense and hard. Does warm milk actually kill yeast, or did I just get it too hot?

3 comments

3 Comments

hart.ryan3mo ago

Yeah, the "couldn't hold your finger in it" test is key. My buddy had the same brick-bread thing happen. He used a thermometer and his milk was 130 degrees, which is way too hot. He does the wrist test now, like for a baby bottle, and his bread turns out fine.

skyler_kim1518d ago

Wait, 130 degrees? That's wild lol. I always thought the "warm to the touch" rule meant like barely above body temp, not hot enough to cook an egg. So out of curiosity, how long does your buddy let his milk cool down after heating it up? I feel like that's the hidden step everyone skips. I'll stick my finger in my milk and if I can hold it there for a full 5 seconds without flinching, I know it's probably fine. But I've also had a few loafs come out dense as hell, so maybe I've been lucky. Does he test it at the wrist or actually dunk a finger in now?

thomas_roberts3mo ago

How warm was it? If you couldn't hold your finger in it, it was probably too hot.