Japan Soft Bread Recipe

Japanese milk bread is unlike any other bread out there. Extremely soft, fluffy and flakey texture that is a product of the tangzhong method. The first time I tried making it I failed terribly, but after a few tweaks to the recipe it is now perfect. I will be going through two ways to make this recipe. One will be to make the perfect dinner rolls, and the other will be to make the softest loaf of bread.

The only difference between how the dinner rolls are made vs a loaf is in the second proofing portion. You will need to portion them into different weights and also shape them differently.

Soft

Shaping: After you have separated them into 75g pieces, you will want to shape them into balls, making sure you create surface tension so that they are smooth looking.

Japanese Milk Buns With Step By Step Photos

Portions: For the loaf method, you will need to separate our dough into three equal pieces which will end up being about 250g.

Shaping: After you have separated the dough into 3 equal pieces, first flatten into a rectangle, then fold the long ends towards the middle, and finally roll it up from the short side. Make sure to seal and tuck the dough on the bottom. This will create a thick roll of dough which we place into our loaf pan to proof in.

Tangzhong method: The tangzhong method uses flour, water, and milk, cooked down into a paste like substance which is then added as a dough ingredient. You want to cook it down until you can pick all of it up in a spoon. What this does is make the bread softer and more springy. This is an essential step and you definitely don’t want to skip it. Even after a few days, my bread is still really soft and springy.

Shokupan Recipe (fluffy Japanese Milk Bread With Tangzhong)

Active dry yeast/instant yeast: With active dry yeast you will need to activate it in lukewarm before using. Alternatively, you can use instant yeast which does not require any activating. However, I would still add the 2 tbsp of water to maintain hydration level.

Softened butter: Make sure your butter is softened, not melted and be patient when mixing the butter in. When you initially try to add the butter, the dough will break, but after a couple minutes, you will see the butter incorporate into the dough better.

Before you get started with the recipe, I want to say that I would highly recommend using weighted measurements instead of volume. It is much more accurate and can save you a headache.Tried and True! The best Shokupan Japanese milk bread recipe. Shokupan is the soft & fluffy authentic Japanese milk bread made using the Yudane method! Discover the method with easy to follow instructions!

Super Soft Milk Bread, No Stand Mixer Required

! It’s thedelicious, softandfluffywhite bread loaf that you can get in Japan. The golden brown crust and soft white inside make it irresistible. It is amazingly fluffy and stays moist for longer than ordinary bread because of the Yudane method.

” method. The Yudane method makes the bread pillowy soft and fluffy and also keeps the bread from drying out quickly. This is because the heated gelatinised starch in the flour keeps the moisture inside the bread.

Yudane is made by mixing bread flour and hot boiling water. Adding hot boiling water gelatinises the starch. The gelatinised starch not only allows the starch to take in more water, but also increases the sweetness of it. Therefore by adding Yudane to a bread dough (the yudane method), you can make soft, moist and sweeter bread which lasts longer.

Japanese Condensed Milk Bread Recipe

We need to deduct 20% of total flour ingredients to make Yudane. So to make 1 standard loaf size dough, we need 250 x 0.2 = 50g bread flour. Yudane flour to water ratio is generally 1:1, but I found it is easier to make yudane with 1:08 ratio. Then simply add hot boiling water (should be above 194°F/90°C) and combine them with a wooden spatula. The ideal combined dough temperature will be around 122°F/50°C. When it is cooled down, wrap with a sheet of plastic wrap and leave it on the kitchen bench or in the fridge.

You need to gather bread flour, milk, sugar, unsalted butter, Salt and Yudane that you made the night before. Some ingredients will be further explained as I have received many questions about this.

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For making fluffy Japanese milk bread, we need to use bread flour that contains around 12% of protein. I use Japanese brand Nisshin flour. You can use all-purpose flour but all-purpose flour has around 10% protein content therefore the bread will not rise as high as the shokupan made with bread flour.

Japanese Milk Bread Recipe How To Make The Softest Bread Ever

I usually use LeSaffre Saf-Instant Yeast Gold for making shokupan Japanese milk bread. If you cannot find instant active dry yeast but can find fresh yeast, you can substitute. This recipe requires 1 teaspoon(5g) of dry yeast, so you would need 5g x 3 = 15g of fresh yeast.

We need to use unsalted butter. Because the salt content of butter will affect the gluten formation. If you don’t have unsalted butter, and would like to use oil instead, you can. However it is a little bit tricky because butter is solid and oil is liquid. Generally speaking, you can replace 3/4 of the amount of butter with oil.

Some readers have asked if they can replace the whole milk with other types of milk. Using different milk does not affect the fluffiness and lightness of the bread. I tested using coconut milk and almond milk. Read the result in the FAQ.

Hokkaido Milk Bread With Tangzhong

Some readers have asked to change the amount of the ingredients to make bigger or smaller sized bread loaves. Baker’s percentage is great because it is universal even when each country uses different units of weight. In the table below, is the bread ingredients mixing ratio. Each ingredient is shown as a % of the flour.

If you don’t have a kitchen scale, don’t worry. I have figured out measurements for using cups. However, you need to be as precise as you can. For example, when you measure 1 cup of flour, you need to spoon flour to the measuring cup, then level the surface with the back of a knife. The cup measurements are included in the recipe cards’ note section.

Shokupan

Another tip that I can give you is that this bread is super soft, so it is better to slice it the following day. I bake the bread on a Saturday and slice it on Sunday. It will stay moist for a few days just sitting on the kitchen bench. In my household, the bread is eaten in a day or two. But if you wish, slice them and individually wrap and place them in a ziplock bag to freeze. It will last about a month.

Sweet Potato Sourdough Japanese Milk Bread

A: Yes, you can. But as you can see the all purpose flour did not rise well in my experiment. The texture of the bread was not fluffy, but rather it was like eating a savoury muffin.

A: Using different milk does not affect the fluffiness and lightness of the bread. The coconut milk I used was the “Ayam Premium Coconut Milk 100 % Natural” which contains 24.3 g fat in 100ml and it is quite rich and thick. The almond milk that I used was “Sanitarium So Good Almond Milk” and contained only 1.4g per 100ml. It was very thin milk. The almond milk bread turned out fluffier and coconut milk bread was denser. Hope these experiments using different ingredients helps you make a decision as to which ingredients to use.

A: You can hand knead, however, because this has yudane in the dough which is very moist, the dough is quite sticky. Therefore, this recipe is more suitable for machine kneading. I usually use either a machine or bread mixer to knead and rise.

How To Make Milk Bread Rolls

A: Yes you can. Some of my readers and myself have only rested the dough for about a couple hours in the fridge and the bread made with that shorter resting time of the yudane was quite successful. However, the longer you rest the yudane the better the quality of the bread.

A: My bread form size is 3.9 x 7.9 x 3.5 inch (10 x 20 x 9 cm).I bought it in Japan. This is similar to what I have from Amazon.com.

Japanese

This is not a popular effortless “No Knead” type of bread recipe, however, it is worth the effort to bake this bread especially if you love any Japanese baking stuff. This is the bread you must try!

Japanese Milk Bread (softest Dinner Rolls)

If you liked my recipe for Shokupan Japanese milk bread, please rate it and leave a comment below. Also, don’t forget to follow me onYoutube, Pinterest, Facebook, TwitterandInstagram to keep up to date with all the latest happenings on Chopstick Chronicles. Don’t forget to use the hashtag # so I can see your wonderful creations!

*5 This bread is super soft, therefore, it will be tricky to slice it when the bread is still warm. I usually slice it the next day.

Calories: 1112 kcal | Carbohydrates: 200 g | Protein: 34 g | Fat:

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