Hawaiian Sweet Bread

I was kneading bread yesterday, and I started thinking that my arms would probably look a lot better (read: less flabby) if I baked bread every day.  But then I realized that I'd also have to be eating the bread I made that day, which, I think, would cause some pretty intense weight gain.   Unless, of course, my evil plan of baking bread and delivering it to people came to fruition...

I love bread.  And one bread that I have a particular passion for is Hawaiian Sweet bread.  So, of course, when I saw a recipe for it, I decided that I should give it a try (since King's is SO expensive)... and I just happened to have a can of evaporated milk on hand - I don't know where it came from, I certainly didn't buy it - and I REALLY love Hawaiian Sweet bread...  I will admit that my bread isn't exactly like King's Hawaiian, but it does make up for it in cost.

I was trying to make medium sized sandwich rolls, but they puffed up a lot in my oven, so they definitely could have started out smaller.  Also, the recipe I used lied to me in a couple places, so I'm giving you *my* recipe that has corrections/lazy options included.  I found the recipe online, it said that it was a version adapted from The Food of Paradise, but now I can't find the site, so I can't link to it :P

In response to this post, I expect you all to be extremely sad that you don't live with me or close enough to me to get a sample of this bread...

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Hawaiian Sweet Bread

(I ended up with 8 pretty large rolls, more like small loaves of bread, you could easily make a bunch of smaller rolls - or reduce the recipe)

1/2 cup milk, warmed
1 1/2 packages dry yeast (I have yeast in a jar now, I used 3 1/4 tsp)
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 cup evaporated milk or light cream
5 tablespoons butter
large pinch nutmeg (about 1/4 tsp)
1 cup sugar
4 cups bread flour (I only had all purpose, it worked fine)
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon salt

2 Tbsp melted butter or 1 egg (with a little water) for glazing

Mix warm milk, yeast and 1/2 teaspoon sugar.  Allow to stand until the mixture is bubbly, if your yeast is good and your milk is warm (make sure you don't kill your yeast beasts with too much heat), this shouldn't take long.

In a saucepan, warm the evaporated milk over low heat.  Add the butter, nutmeg, and 1 cup sugar.

Stir until the butter is melted.

Place the flour in a large mixing bowl (I got a large plastic bin for making bread).  Add the eggs, the yeast mixture and the salt.  Add the evaporated milk mixture.

After this step, my dough looked rather soupy (as you can see), so I added flour until it was a nice soft (slightly sticky) dough.

Knead for 15 minutes (this really is a good arm work out).  Allow the loaf to rise in a warm place to double it's size.

Punch it down (yup, with your fist) and let it rise again, I usually move the dough around a little inside the container.

Form into a round loaf, or lots of rolls, and allow to rise one more time.  I put them fairly close together so they'd get those delicious pull apart sides :) 

Preheat the oven to 325F.  Melt the butter, or mix the egg with 1 tablespoon of water and brush the top(s) of your bread.  I think the egg wash would make them a little more glossy when finished, but I didn't feel like cracking another egg.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 40-50 minutes until golden brown (and they sound a little hollow when you tap them.

Remove from heat, let them cool on a rack, and when they're still a little warm, put them in plastic bags so you get that bit of condensation that will keep them moist and squishy.

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And now you can enjoy delicious Hawaiian sweet bread anytime you want :D  Of course, now I have about 1/4 of a can of evaporated milk, and I have no idea what to do with it!  Any suggestions?