The fluffiest and softest bread. Simple ingredients and a little time and you’ve got your favorite new sandwich bread.
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Ever since we started the bakery – we knew we wanted to have a killer bread recipe. Not just your average white bread but extra pillowy soft and subtly sweet. A bread that you could literally just eat plain but is also stellar to use for sandwiches, toasts – especially french toast. Once you learn some basic tips, it’s so easy to make right at home!
My husband and I visited Japan in 2019 and we brought back with us a huge love of all things Japanese culture & food. When we started our bakery we knew we needed to add Shokupan to the menu and boy has it been a hit.
For this recipe I’m sharing – you don’t need any fancy equipment or pans, a stand mixer is definitely recommended but you could totally do this by hand if you have the muscles and patience. This recipe does require quite a bit of kneading but using the stand mixer takes out all the heft. You’ll also use regular bread pans to bake this, although if you wanted to get the traditional square pans, those are always nice to have!
Let’s talk ingredients & technique.
This is the beauty of this recipe. It’s texture and flavor is unmatched but all you need is typical pantry staples! Flour, butter, yeast, milk, etc.
Choosing great ingredients however is where the gap between cheap store bought bread and an amazing hand made loaf gets wider.
The secret to making the fluffiest bread is something called a tangzhong. Tangzhong is an Asian cooking technique where you cook a bit of flour and liquid (milk in my recipe) on the stove until it becomes a thick paste. This gelatinizes the starches in the flour helping the bread retain moisture and fluffiness!
Another secret to creating the best fluffy bread is making sure you’re giving the dough enough gluten structure by kneading it until it passes the window pane test as well as making sure you allow plenty of time for proper proofing. Depending on temperature inside/outside as well as humidity it can take the dough a longer or shorter time to proof properly so the best test is going by size. Once it’s a little over doubled in size – you’re good to go!
Step by Step instructions.
- Make your tangzhong by whisking flour & milk over medium heat until a paste forms. Set in fridge to cool.
- Mix together water & yeast and set aside to bloom.
- Weigh out all your dry ingredients into a bowl.
- Throw in your COLD wet ingredients into the mixer first – this will prevent flour from crumbling at the bottom of the mixer during kneading. And using cold ingredients keeps the dough from warming too much during the kneading process. Also add in the tangzhong and yeast mixture.
- Pour in the dry ingredients leaving out the butter chunks. Mix until it forms a shaggy looking dough and throw in the cubes of butter and mix on medium-high until it’s very soft and passes the window pain test. Should be around 10 minutes in a stand mixer. If needed I usually take it out of the mixer and kneed by hand using the slap and fold method until it’s nice and smooth. The dough should come away relatively clean from the mixing bowl if it’s kneaded properly.
- Form the dough into a ball and set in a bowl and allow to rise until doubled in size. Usually 1-2 hours.
- Once risen – turn out your dough onto a clean surface and separate your dough into pieces weighing around 250grams. Make each piece into a nice ball.
- Roll out each ball into a rectangle and fold each side into the middle and roll it up as shown in the photos. Place three rolls into a bread pan. (See photos below).
- Let rise until the rolls fill the pan – usually another hour or so.
- Brush the dough with a egg wash mixture. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes until it’s nice and golden brown on the outside and the temp in the middle of the bread reaches 180F.
Equipment I Use
Let’s get to the recipe!
Milk Bread (Shokupan)
Ingredients
Tangzhong
- 40 g all purpose flour
- 175 g whole milk
Yeast Mixture
- 20 g yeast
- 40 g warm water
Dough
- tangzhong
- yeast mixture
- 750 g all purpose flour
- 120 g granulated sugar
- 13 g salt
- 260 g whole milk
- 2 large eggs
- 6 tbsp butter cubed
Instructions
Tangzhong
- Whisk together the flour and milk in a saucepan over medium heat until the mixture thickens into a paste. Set aside to cool.
Yeast Mixture
- Mix together warm water and yeast and allow to bloom.
Dough
- Weigh out dry ingredients in a bowl.
- Whisk together the milk and eggs in the bowl of the stand mixer. Add tangzhong and yeast mixture.
- Pour in the dry ingredients and mix until a shaggy dough forms.
- Add in cubed butter a few at a time while the dough is mixing. Continue to allow the dough to mix in the stand mixer until its soft and smooth. If needed – take out the dough and kneed by hand using the slap & fold method. The dough may feel slightly tacky but shouldn't be sticky.
Proofing, Shaping & Baking
- Form the dough into a large ball and place in a large bowl and cover until completely doubled in size.
- Punch down the dough and split the dough into 6 pieces that weigh 250g each. Form them into a ball and set aside.
- Roll out each ball into a rectangle on a lightly floured surface and fold in the sides over each other. Roll up the dough and place into a greased or lined bread pan. Three rolls go into each loaf of bread. (see photos above)
- Cover the pans and allow to rise again until it doubles in size.
- Preheat the oven to 350℉. Once bread has doubled in size, brush with egg wash and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and an internal temp of 180℉ is reached.
- Immediately remove bread from pans once out of the oven and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.
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