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Shokupan Japanese Milk Bread

Soft, fluffy, and airy, the Japanese Shokupan bread is a welcome addition to anyone's home. The bread goes great with almost anything or can be eaten by itself.
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Prep Time 2 hours 20 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 3 hours
Course baking
Cuisine Japanese
Servings 4

Equipment

  • 1 stand mixer
  • 1 450 g bread loaf pan with lid

Ingredients
  

Tangzhong

  • 90 ml water
  • 18 grams bread flour

Dough

  • 332 grams bread flour
  • 32 grams white granulated sugar
  • 6 grams table salt
  • 5 grams instant yeast
  • 208 ml milk lukewarm
  • 20 grams unsalted butter

Instructions
 

  • To get started, we will create our Tangzhong first.
  • In a small sauce pan, add in your flour and water. Heat the mixture over a stove on low heat, stirring constantly to prevent the mixture from burning and and clumping up.
  • Once the Tangzhong turns into a thick viscous like paste, remove it from the stove and transfer it to a small bowl or dish.
  • Cover it with plastic wrap and let it cool down in the fridge.
  • After the Tangzhong has cooled down, you can start making your dough.
  • In a large mixing bowl, add in your flour, sugar, salt, and yeast. Give it a quick few whisks in the stand mixer then add in your Tangzhong from earlier and milk and continue mixing in the stand mixer.
  • After about 3-4 minutes, add in your room temperature butter and continue kneading the dough for an additional 10-11 minutes.
  • Once the dough has finished kneading, transfer it to a greased large bowl.
  • Shape it into a round ball and then cover it with plastic wrap or a towel.
  • Let it proof in a warm environment for about 1 hour until double in size.
  • Once the dough has finished proofing, transfer it to slightly floured countertop and shape it into a ball.
  • If you find the dough very sticky to handle, you can dust your hands with a bit of flour.
  • Then divide the dough into 2 pieces.
  • Shape each piece into a round ball.
  • Cover it with plastic wrap or a towel and let it rest for 10 minutes to relax the dough.
  • After ten minutes, flatten out each piece of the dough and roll it out.
  • Then grab one end of the dough and fold it about 2/3 of the way towards the opposite side and then wrap the opposite side of the dough and fold it over the rest of the dough so that the dough resembles a long rectangle.
  • Next, grab one end of the dough and start rolling it all the way to the other end of the dough to form a roll.
  • Pinch the ends of the dough to seal it.
  • Repeat these steps for the other piece of dough.
  • Now grease your bread loaf pan with either oil or some butter and then place each piece of the dough inside of the bread loaf pan with the ends of the dough that look like a spiral pointed perpendicular to the sides of the bread loaf pan.
  • Cover the bread loaf pan with plastic wrap or a towel and let it rise one final time in a warm place until the dough is approximately 1cm below the top of the bread loaf pan.
  • Now would also be a good time to preheat your oven.
  • Preheat your oven at 400°F (200° C).
  • Once the dough is about 1 cm below the top of the bread loaf pan, slide in the bread loaf lid to cover the loaf pan and bake the bread for about 35-40 minutes at 400°F (200° C) or until the bread is golden brown at the top.

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