FREE DELIVERY ABOVE $60

Recipes > Japanese Milk Bread

Japanese Milk Bread

Recipes > Japanese Milk Bread

Japanese Milk Bread

Recipe by RedmanShop

This recipe is our take on Japan's Hokkaido milk bread, a loaf so light it's often described as feathery. The technique to make it involves pre-cooking some of the flour and milk into a soft paste called tangzhong. (See "tips," below to learn more about its origins.) This simple step yields a loaf that’s tender, moist, and stays fresh longer than loaves prepared the standard way. Bread made with tangzhong is far and away superior to the pre-sliced, plastic-wrapped loaves that you'll find on grocery store shelves. Trust us: Once you bake and familiarize yourself with this loaf, you’ll never want to buy sandwich bread again!

Save Entire Page as PDF

Prep

30 mins

Bake

30 - 35 mins

Total

1 hr 5 mins

Yield

1 sandwich loaf

Tangzhong

  • Water 3 tablespoons (43g)
  • Milk, whole preferred 103602 3 tablespoons (43g)
  • Unbleached Bread Flour 1243 2 tablespoons (14g)

Dough

  • Unbleached Bread Flour 1243 2 1/2 cups (300g)
  • Special Dry Milk or Nonfat Dry Milk 2 tablespoons (14g)
  • Granulated Sugar 53572 1/4 cup (50g)
  • Table Salt 1 teaspoon (6g)
  • Instant Yeast 12294 1 tablespoon
  • Milk, whole preferred 103602 1/2 cup (113g)
  • Large Egg 1
  • Unsalted Butter, melted 68328 4 tablespoons (57g)

Featured Products

Instructions

Bake Mode

Prevent your screen from going dark as you follow along.

  1. To make the tangzhong: Combine all of the ingredients in a small saucepan, and whisk until no lumps remain.
  2. Place the saucepan over low heat and cook the mixture, whisking constantly, until thick and the whisk leaves lines on the bottom of the pan, about 3 to 5 minutes.
  3. Transfer the tangzhong to a small mixing bowl or measuring cup and let it cool to lukewarm.
  4. To make the dough: Weigh your flour; or measure it by gently spooning it into a cup, then sweeping off any excess. Combine the tangzhong with the remaining dough ingredients, then mix and knead — by mixer or bread machine — until a smooth, elastic dough forms; this could take almost 15 minutes in a stand mixer.
  5. Shape the dough into a ball, and let it rest in a lightly greased bowl, covered, for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until puffy but not necessarily doubled in bulk.
  6. Gently deflate the dough and divide it into four equal pieces; if you have a scale each piece will weigh between 170g and 175g.
  7. Flatten each piece of dough into a 5″ x 8″ rectangle, then fold the short ends in towards one another like a letter. Flatten the folded pieces into rectangles again (this time about 3″ x 6″) and, starting with a short end, roll them each into a 4″ log.
  8. Place the logs in a row of four — seam side down and side by side — in a lightly greased 9″ x 5″ loaf pan.
  9. Cover the loaf and allow it to rest/rise for 40 to 50 minutes, until puffy.
  10. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350°F.
  11. To bake the bread: Brush the loaf with milk and bake it for 30 to 35 minutes, until it’s golden brown on top and a digital thermometer inserted into the center reads at least 190°F.
  12. Remove the loaf from the oven and cool it in the pan until you can transfer it safely to a rack to cool completely.
  13. Store leftover bread, well wrapped, at cool room temperature for 5 to 7 days; freeze for longer storage.

Tips

  1. With origins in Japan’s yukone (or yudane), tangzhong is a yeast bread technique popularized across Asia by Taiwanese cookbook author Yvonne Chen. Tangzhong involves cooking some of a bread recipe’s flour in liquid prior to adding it to the remaining dough ingredients. Bringing the temperature of the flour and liquid to 65°C (149°F) pre-gelatinizes the flour’s starches, which makes them more able to retain liquid — thus enhancing the resulting bread’s softness and shelf life.

  2. Would you like a dark-gold, shiny crust on your loaf? Make an egg wash by whisking together 1 large egg + 1 tablespoon cold water. Just before putting the bread into the oven, instead of brushing the top crust with milk, brush it with some of the egg wash (you won’t use all of it). Bake as directed.

Bake of the Week

Pennoni Millerighi with Pepper Cream

Submit your review
1
2
3
4
5
Submit
     
Cancel

Create your own review

RedManShop
Average rating:  
 0 reviews

Shop This Recipe

INSTANT DRY YEAST 11G (#12294)

2.25

UNSALTED LACTIC BUTTER 250G (#68328)

5.40

UHT FULL CREAM MILK 3.5% 1L (#103602)

2.90

Subscribe to our Newsletter Now

Get the latest recipes, products and classes available on RedManShop.