When I still lived in Singapore I greatly enjoyed a specific soft swirl milk bread from a Japanese bakery. It had an amazingly delicious but soft, thick crust, and the crumb was very light, with some uneven holes, but had what I thought was depth of flavour - really the taste of wheat, rather than sugar or butter. This wasn't a typical fast fermented milk bread. I've been wanting to recreate it.
Today I got closer. I increased the hydration to almost 80%, omitted the butter, and brought the sugar down to 1 tablespoon. I went for an extremely slow fermentation for it to build strength - wasn't going to knead that mess! By the end of its 7 hour BF, it was a beautiful and pliable dough. I baked it at a higher starting temperature and lowered it in the second half.
I'm encouraged and will continue to try. The crumb is still not as tender as I want it to be, and the crust is not as flavourful - I think the temperature either needs to go up, or the loaf from the bakery might have been open baked. Nonetheless, it's a good step forward, especially since this is a pretty healthy version (20% emmer, no eggs and butter) and I have yet to get myself a mixer!
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