Shokupan Milk Bread

AKA the BEST sandwich bread ever. Pillowy soft and light as air, shokupan (commonly known as milk bread) is Japan's version of sandwich bread. With a basic understanding of bread making, and a little practice, you'll soon be making the best sandwiches, toast and dinner rolls you've ever had.

Jump to:

• Recipe overview
• Mise en place for shokupan
• Ingredient Properties & Substitutions
• Technique - Straight dough mixing method
• Bread Pans for shokupan
• Pay careful attention
• Shokupan Japanese Milk Bread
• Credit, sources, shout outs (& sometimes ramblings)

Recipe overview

For this shokupan recipe we will mix boiling water and flour together to make a yudane, one day prior to mixing the final dough. It isn't necessarily common practice to use a yudane to make shokupan in Japan, but here we use the technique because it allows us to achieve a soft, light texture even without access to Japanese flour.

This is an eggless recipe. Shokupan sold in Japan rarely, if ever, contains egg. There are many recipes on non-Japanese websites that contain egg, and although I'm sure the breads are delicious, they are not shokupan. The pure-white crumb distinctive of this milk bread comes from using the following ingredients: flour, milk or cream, butter, yeast, sugar or honey, salt, and in this case, yudane (flour + water).

To make shokupan, we'll use the straight dough mixing method. This is the simplest and most straight-forward bread making technique, which basically involves throwing everything into a KitchenAid and mixing until a windowpane is achieved.

Mise en place for shokupan

Have ready in advance:

• Yudane - prepare the day before
• This recipe uses a KitchenAid mixer w/hook attachment
• Rolling pin
• Bread Pan
• Bench scraper
• A probe thermometer (not a must, but useful to have)

Ingredient Properties & Substitutions

Substituting ingredients in a recipe (especially when baking) will likely change the flavor and texture of the end product. I would suggest first following the recipe as written before making any alterations.

• Bread Flour - of all the American flours I've tested (and one Italian flour), King Arthur Artisan Bread Flour provided the most delicate crumb and produced a loaf closest in texture to Japanese shokupan. That said, any bread flour (protein 12-14%) will make a decent loaf of sandwich bread. I don't suggest using all purpose flour.
• Yudane - technically not an ingredient, but a component. Mix equal parts boiling water and bread flour, wrap and rest overnight
• Milk - whole milk. Contributes to softness and milky taste. Possible to substitute reduced fat or cow milk alternatives*
• Butter - unsalted and at room temperature. Contributes to softness and richness. Possible to substitute margarine*
• Yeast - I prefer instant yeast because it can be added directly to the flour (as-is) and doesn't need to be bloomed (or activated) prior to using. To substitute active dry or fresh yeast, see "notes" section of recipe card
• Sugar - Granulated, white. Adds a little sweetness and contributes to soft texture. Honey may be substituted

*I have not tested this substitution

Technique - Straight dough mixing method

Proper mixing, proofing, shaping and baking are all vital for making good bread. For more in-depth information please see: A Guide to Bread Making 12 Steps for the Home Baker.

Bread Pans for shokupan

Shokupan is baked in bread pans wider and deeper than what you typically find in the United States and the loaves are often sold in perfect cubes. Because most people don't have shokupan pans at home, the recipe below is made to fit a standard one pound loaf pan (8.5 x 4.5 x 2.75).

• If you would like to make shokupan in cube form, like the ones in the photo below, you can purchase Tiger Crown Shokupan Pans (1 Litre size) on Amazon. The dough quantity needed for each pan is 450g - 460g.

Pay careful attention

Four points to pay attention to in order to create a well-structured, soft loaf.

1. Using a scale is the simplest way to achieve accurate and consistent results.
2. Mix until full gluten development is achieved. A well-formed gluten network gives the dough the strength to trap air while rising and when baking. Failing to mix to the proper stage will result in a dense loaf.
3. Allow dough to bulk ferment (1st rise) until 2.5-3x size. The dough is building flavor and structure during this time. The poke test (see notes on recipe card) can help determine when the dough is sufficiently proofed.
4. Final fermentation (final proof) - For the 1 lb and 1.5 lb loaves, the dough will mound up past the edge of the pan (see photo). Use the poke test to determine when it's ready to go into the oven (see note on recipe card). For square pan (1 Litre size), close lid just before the top of the dough reaches the height of the pan.

Credit, sources, shout outs (& sometimes ramblings)

Very few recipes are true originals. Here is where I share my inspiration and cite my sources.

During the pandemic, while everyone was learning how to make sourdough bread, I was trying to figure out how to make the shokupan I grew up eating in Japan. There are lots of recipes for shokupan out there, but most contained eggs or a tangzhong (neither of which is used for Japanese shokupan). There are many online recipes in Japanese, but without access to Japanese bread flour, the texture of the bread was just off. Finally, I came across Chopstick Chronicles website, where I learned about yudane. By incorporating a yudane and using King Arthur Artisan Bread Flour in my dough, I was finally able to achieve the texture I was searching for.

Why should you trust my recipes? You can read about me here.

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