Pain-au-Lait & hot dog bread

As the name indicates, the dough is traditionally made with milk (Pain-au-Lait means milk bread). Here I borrowed (but slightly changed) the recipe for Pain-au-Lait Pullman Loaf from 'Bouchon Bakery' - here. Adding cream cheese (to substitute milk) to the dough makes bread super soft! 

Ingredients

3/4 cup water
2 tbsp heavy cream

50g cream cheese, room temperature
1 egg (and extra for egg wash)
1/3 cup butter, room temperature, soften (2 2/3 oz by weight)
1/3 cup white sugar
1 tsp salt
3 + 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1+3/4 tsp active yeast

Steps

1. Place all ingredients in the pan of the bread machine (here) in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select Dough/Knead and First Rise Cycle; press Start. It takes about 45 minutes.

2. When cycle finishes, dough should be smooth and stretchable .

3. Divide dough into 12 balls, about 85g each. Let them relax for 20 minutes, covered with plastic food wrap.

4. Shape in the way you prefer (here, I made 8 dinner rolls and 4 hot dog bread), and place on ungreased parchment paper

5. Cover with clean kitchen towel and put in a warm place (make sure the wet kitchen towel not touching the bread dough! I left them in the oven with the light on and put a layer of wet kitchen towel on the rack above the dough / pan). The proofing or second fermentation takes about 2-3 hours, and the best temperature should be around 70F. 

6. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375F.

7. Brush egg wash and bake in preheated oven for 15-18minutes.