Bread-Bakers v105.n037.21

Hi Margaret,

Milk has an enzyme that breaks down protein, i.e., gluten. Perhaps 
fresh milk has even more of it.

Try scalding the milk beforehand (hand removing the "skin" on top of 
the milk). That should remove/deactivate the enzyme and improve your bread.

I've read that a little bit of oil in dough helps oven spring. I 
don't know whether the fat in the milk is a good substitute for the 
oil you added previously. At the very least, if you know the 
butterfat content of the milk (typically 3.6%) you can do some 
calculation on how much fat you've added and see if it's similar to 
the amount of oil you've left out.

By the way, you shouldn't just substitute 1 cup of milk for each cup 
of water you omit. Milk only has 87.4% water (regular whole 
milk--don't know about the milk from your cow)! So for each cup of 
water you omit, you need to add 1.14 cups of milk.

Allen