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Finished slices of Japanese Shokupan
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5 from 3 votes

Shokupan (Japanese Milk Bread)

Light and fluffy Japanese bread with a sweet note and pillow-soft texture. Extremely versatile, this bread is often used for sandwiches, slightly toasted with jam and spreads, or cut into thick pieces and topped with condensed milk, fruits, and ice cream as a dessert.
Cook Time1 hour 30 minutes
Rising and Cooling Time3 hours
Course: Breakfast, Dessert, Snack
Cuisine: Japanese, Taiwanese
Keyword: Japanese milk bread, Pullman bread, Taiwanese brick toast
Author: minminutes

Ingredients

For the Tangzhong Starter

  • 3 Tbsp/22g Bread Flour
  • 1/4 Cup/60 mL Milk (2% or Whole milk)

For the Shokupan Dough

  • 2.5 Cups (325g) Bread Flour
  • 3 Tbsp (45g) Sugar
  • 2 tsp (7g) Active Dry Yeast
  • 1 tsp (4g) Salt
  • 1 Egg
  • 1/2 Cup (120mL) milk (2% or Whole milk)
  • 4 Tbsp (60g) Butter

Instructions

Tangzhong Starter

  • In a small saucepan, add bread flour to milk. Whisk together until smooth and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat, stirring often.
  • Continue cooking and stirring until Tangzhong thickens. You will first notice a faint line initially when you pull the whisk across the tangzhong. Tangzhong is done when the whisk leaves a very obvious line that doesn’t disappear.
  • Allow Tangzhong to cool to room temperature before using it in dough.

Shokupan Dough

  • Warm 1/2C (120mL) milk to between 100-110F* Measure 7g active dry yeast into warmed milk.
  • Add wet ingredients to mixing bowl in this order: Milk+Yeast, tangzhong, egg
  • Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients in this order: Sugar, bread flour, salt**
  • Start mixing dough ingredients until everything comes together (5-10 minutes on “dough” function of bread machine***
  • Add 4T (60g) butter and continue mixing for another 10 minutes until everything comes together.
  • Shape dough into a ball and allow to rise, covered, in a warm place until doubled in size (about 60 minutes).
  • Remove the dough and hand knead it a few times. Using dough cutter, cut the dough into three pieces of equal size.
  • Use a rolling pin, gently flatten each piece of dough into a long flat oval. Roll the dough down from the top to form a log.
  • Spread oil evenly on pullman loaf pan and dust flour evenly over the surface. Place the three rolled pieces of dough into the pan.
  • Cover with plastic wrap and allow dough to rise in a warm place, about 30-40 minutes.
  • Once the dough has risen to about 90% of the pan heigh, remove plastic wrap and place pullman loaf pan lid on (don’t forget to oil bottom of the lid where the dough will come in contact with). At this time preheat oven to 350F and allow dough to rise a little more in the pan while oven preheats.
  • Send bread to oven and bake for 25 minutes.
  • Remove lid and continue baking for another 5-10 minutes until internal temperature reaches 190F.
  • Remove bread from pan with hot hands. Cool loaf on wire rack and allow to cool for at least 1 hour prior to cutting.

Notes

*I usually pour cold milk from the fridge into microwavable mug and heat on high for 30s.
**Make sure to add salt last, on top of the flour, as you don’t want it touching the yeast in the milk before mixing starts
***You can also mix by using the dough hook on stand mixer, or by hand (good workout!) don’t want it touching the yeast in the milk before mixing starts
STORAGE TIPS: According to "Introduction to Tangzhong" by King Arthur Flour (lots of bread experts over there), Tangzhong bread will stay soft for up to 1 week. However, because I live in hot humid Houston, I would never DARE leave homemade bread out that long. I recommend storing bread in zip-lock bag with all the air pressed out for 2 days at room temperature. Slice the rest of the bread you won't eat and store in freezer for up to 1 month.
Recipe adapted from "Japanese Milk Bread" by NYT