Japanese milk bread or shokupan is an every day white loaf bread made with tangzhong. It's got a thin golden brown crust and the fluffiest, light, feathery interior that's got a good chew like good bread should! Milk bread tastes slightly sweet and are great sandwich breads, like for our Japanese egg sandwich (tomago sando).
This Japanese milk bread recipe is long overdue. We've been trying to perfect this recipe, and it's finally met our expectation and good enough for sharing.
Milk bread really makes for great sandwich breads, but it's totally not us snacking on the whole loaf because we can't get enough of how beautiful it shreds!
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What is Japanese milk bread?
Japanese milk bread is also known as simply milk bread, hokkaido milk bread, and shokupan. They are everyday bread enjoyed in Japan as white bread is in American. "Shokupan" literally translates to "eating bread".
Milk bread is loved for its thin, crust with super light and feathery interior crumb that shreds like a good cheese pull. It's made like regular enriched breads, with flour, milk, sugar, salt, egg, butter, yeast, and sometimes milk powder. However, there is a secret ingredient known as tangzhong that gives milk bread its beloved fluffiness.
What is tangzhong?
Tangzhong is the secret ingredient used to allow milk breads to be super light and fluffy, yet moist. It allows the milk bread dough to hold more moisture than a dough without tangzhong, which also helps to extend milk bread's shelf life.
So what is tangzhong? It's a bread making technique from China that cooks part of a dough's total flour with water to create thick paste, also known as a "water roux". This paste is thickened when the flour is cooked and becomes gelatinzed, which enables the flour to absorb a much large amount of water than raw flour.
How to eat and what to eat with milk bread?
Honestly, Japanese milk bread can be enjoyed on its own, like a snack, and it's additive! You could also enjoy it anyway you would white sandwich bread. Below are some recommendations that you could try:
- Fruit sando - Aka fruit sandwich. Cut two beautiful slices of milk bread and sandwich it with sweetened whipped cream and fruits of your choice. Wonderful dessert and snack.
- Egg sandwich - We really like tamago sando, or Japanese egg sandwich. The texture of the milk bread is beautiful with the rich egg salad.
- Katsu sandwich - Make our classic tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet) or air fryer chicken katsu and sandwich it between two slices of milk bread, along with some katsu sauce and shredded green cabbage or light slaw, for a super filling meal!
- Bread pudding - Leftover, stale milk bread makes for great bread pudding!
Ingredients
Please scroll down to the recipe card for the ingredient quantities!
- Bread flour - In order to give our milk bread loaf that iconic light, feathery structure and a good chew, bread flour is needed so that the milk bread dough can develop the gluten it needs.
- Water - To make the tangzhong. Although, you could make it with milk, we find that water makes the best tangzhong.
- Milk - For the milk bread dough. It'll also enrich the dough. We recommend full fat milk, but low fat or 2 percent works too.
- Active dry yeast - The leavening agent for our bread. We typically always use active dry yeast for bread making. This type of yeast must be dissolved in liquid first. You could use instant yeast instead.
- Sugar - To sweeten the loaf. Regular granulated white sugar will do. Milk bread is usually slightly sweeter than the average white bread.
- Salt - A little salt will season the bread and also help with gluten development to make the dough more elastic.
- Egg - For enriching our milk bread and makes it more fragrant.
- Unsalted butter - Just a little butter to help further enrich the bread.
How to make milk bread
Make the tangzhong:
1. In a bowl, whisk together the flour and water until no more clumps remain.
2. Pour the flour and water mixture into a small nonstick pan and cook over medium heat until the tangzhong is thick and opaque. Make sure to constantly mix the tangzhong so that it cooks evenly. This is especially important when it starts to thicken to prevent burning.
3. Transfer the tangzhong to a plate or bowl and cover with a cling wrap. Make sure the wrap is touching the tangzhong and let it cool in the fridge until completely cooled.
Make the dough:
1. Sprinkle the yeast into the warm milk and mix well. Set aside to let the yeast dissolve and activate, about 3 to 5 minutes.
2. In the stand mixer bowl, add the bread flour, sugar, and salt. Give the dry mixture a good mixed, then add the egg, cooled tangzhong, and milk and yeast mixture.
3. Using the dough hook attachment, mix on low to medium low speed until a dough forms. Then, increase the speed to medium high or high and knead until the dough is smooth, supple, and passes the window pane test. For more information on the "window pane test", please refer to the window pane test topic below.
🌟 Pro tip: Some stand mixers require premixing the dough until it roughly comes together before it can knead the dough properly. For us, it's a frequent occurrence when we only make one loaf of dough in a 5 quart mixing bowl.
4. Once the dough passes the window pane test, add the softened butter and knead on medium to medium high speed until the butter is fully absorbed by the dough.
5. When the butter has been incorporated, round the dough into a ball and place it into a clean bowl. Cover and let the dough proof in a warm area until doubled, about 1 hour. This milk bread dough will be on the tackier side, so we recommend handling with gloved hands for minimal sticking.
🌟 Pro tip: The oven is a great place to proof your doughs! Keep the oven OFF and place the dough in the oven and just turn and keep the oven light on. If it's cold, you can go a step further and turn on your oven briefly (maybe 5 to 10 seconds), just enough to slightly warm up the oven.
How to shape milk bread loaf:
1. Prepare an 8 inch by 4 inch loaf pan with a lid. Lightly grease it with some butter if it is not nonstick.
2. Once the dough has doubled, punch it down to degas. Divide the dough into 3 even pieces and place them onto a lightly floured work surface. Round each piece of dough into a ball.
3. Working with the first ball of dough, roll the dough into a 7 inch by 7 inch square. Fold dough into thirds, like a letter. Then, using the rolling pin, roll the dough to about 2½ to 3 inches wide, and about ¼ inch thick.
4. From the bottom, roll the dough upwards to form a roll. Pinch the seams together and place the roll seam side down in the loaf pan. Repeat with remaining dough balls.
🌟 Pro tip: Before rolling up the dough, flatten out the top edge of the dough, almost in a smearing motion. This will make that part of the dough super thin, so that it adheres to the dough well and keeps the bottom of the roll flat.
5. When the doughs are all shaped, slide the lid onto the loaf pan and let the dough proof in a warm area.
🍞 For flat top loaf (aka pullman loaf): Let the dough proof until the highest part of the dough touches the lid. You'll feel a slight resistance when trying to slide the lid off the pan. Keep the lid on.
🍞 For a rounded loaf: Let the dough proof until the highest part of the dough peaks past the the top of the pan by about ½ inch to 1 inch. If you are covering the dough with the lid, make sure to remove the lid before the dough touches it!
Make an egg wash by beating an egg or beating a large egg yolk with 1 tablespoon of milk. When the rounded loaf is done proofing and ready to bake, brush the top of the dough with some egg wash.
Bake the milk bread:
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. When the dough is ready, bake the milk bread, with the lid on, for 25 minutes, or until the outside is golden brown and the internal temperature registers at least 195°F.
3. Remove the milk bread from the oven and remove the lid. Tap the loaf pan on the sides and bottom to pop the milk bread out of the pan.
4. Let the milk bread cool on a rack until completely cooled before storing or cutting. Enjoy!
The window pane test
Sufficient gluten development is the key to ensuring our milk bread is light, feathery, yet still chewy like how good bread should. There are a few ways to test whether the milk bread dough has developed enough gluten. One of the post popular way is called the "window pane test". You can also apply this test to other doughs.
To see if a dough passes the window pane test, take a small piece the dough and gently stretch it between your fingers. Keep stretching the dough until you can see silhouettes through it without tearing. If the dough passes the test, it's ready for the next step. However, if the dough does not pass the test, keep kneading the dough and redo the test.
Recipe tips
- Using a scale is the most accurate way to measure ingredients for baking. We highly recommend it to prevent using too much flour. If you are measuring the flour with a dry measuring cup, make sure to fluff up the bread flour first, then spoon it into your measuring cup until completely full. Without shaking the measuring cup, scrape it with the back of a straight edge, like a butter knife.
- DO NOT add too much extra flour into the dough. You can add 1 to 2 tablespoons of extra flour if needed, however, no more than that. This milk bread dough will be quite tacky, so we recommend handling it with gloved hands. Adding too much additional flour can cause the milk bread to become dense.
- Kneading the dough until it passes the window pane test is essential to achieving milk bread's iconic light, feathery texture.
Storage
Milk bread, like most breads, are best enjoyed the day of. After the milk bread loaf has completely cooled down, you can slice it up and enjoy.
If you are making it for the next day, let the milk bread loaf completely cool at room temperature before wrapping up tightly using cling wrap or stored in an airtight container. It can be kept at room temperature for up to 3 days before it loses its softness. We recommend keeping the loaf whole and slicing it whenever needed to keep the crumbs moist.
If you are not going to finish it within 3 days, we recommend freezing it in an airtight container. Also, pre-slice the loaf before freezing, if you plan on using it for sandwiches. When ready to eat, simply thaw as many slices as you'd like.
FAQ
Although you can make milk bread with all-purpose flour, the result may not be the best. However, for this recipe, we do not recommend substituting the bread flour for all-purpose. All-purpose flour cannot absorb as much liquid as bread flour, which will create a very sticky dough.
Yes! We've often made this milk bread recipe using lactose-free milk and dairy free milk substitutes like oat milk. For the butter, vegan butter or melted and cooled coconut oil can be used.
Yes. If you only have instant dry yeast, you can use it in place of active dry yeast. Instant dry yeast does not need to be dissolved in liquids first, so you can add it straight into the flour instead of the milk. Do still use all of the warm milk for the recipe.
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📖 Recipe
Japanese Milk Bread (Shokupan)
Ingredients
For the tangzhong:
- 2 tablespoons bread flour fluffed, spooned, and leveled
- 5 tablespoons water
For the dough:
- ¼ cup milk warm (105°F to 115°F)
- 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
- 1¾ cups bread flour fluffed, spooned, and leveled (plus a little more if needed)
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter softened and cut into small pieces
Instructions
Make the tangzhong:
- In a bowl, whisk together the flour and water until no more clumps remain.
- Pour the flour and water mixture into a small nonstick pan and cook over medium heat until the tangzhong is thick and opaque. Make sure to constantly mix the tangzhong so that it cooks evenly. This is especially important when it starts to thicken to prevent burning.
- Transfer the tangzhong to a plate or bowl and cover with a cling wrap. Make sure the wrap is touching the tangzhong and let it cool in the fridge until completely cooled.
Make the dough:
- Sprinkle the yeast into the warm milk and mix well. Set aside to let the yeast dissolve and activate, about 3 to 5 minutes.
- In the stand mixer bowl, add the bread flour, sugar, and salt. Give the dry mixture a good mixed, then add the egg, cooled tangzhong, and milk and yeast mixture.
- Using the dough hook attachment, mix on low to medium low speed until a dough forms. Then, increase the speed to medium high or high and knead until the dough is smooth, supple, and passes the window pane test.*Some stand mixers require premixing the dough until it roughly comes together before it can knead the dough properly. Also, please refer to the post above for more details about the window pane test and for photo references!*
- Once the dough passed the window pane test, add the softened butter and knead on medium to medium high speed until the butter is fully absorbed by the dough.
- When the butter has been incorporated, round the dough into a ball and place it into a clean bowl. Cover and let the dough proof in a warm area until doubled, about 1 hour.*This milk bread dough is quite tacky, but should not be wet. We recommend wearing some disposable gloves while handling it for minimal sticking.*
Shape the dough:
- Prepare an 8 inch by 4 inch loaf pan with a lid. Lightly grease it with some butter if it is not nonstick.
- Once the dough has doubled, punch it down to degas. Divide the dough into 3 even pieces and place them onto a lightly floured work surface.
- Round each piece of dough into a ball. Working with the first ball of dough, roll the dough into a 7 inch by 7 inch square. Fold dough into thirds, like a letter. Then, using the rolling pin, roll the dough to about 2½ to 3 inches wide, and about ¼ inch thick. From the bottom, roll the dough upwards to form a roll. Pinch the seams together and place the roll seam side down in the loaf pan. Repeat with remaining dough balls.
- When the doughs are all shaped, slide the lid onto the loaf pan and let the dough proof in a warm area.
- For flat top (pullman loaf): Let the dough proof until the highest part of the dough touches the lid. You'll feel a slight resistance when trying to slide the lid off the pan. Keep the lid on.For a rounded loaf: Let the dough proof until the highest part of the dough peaks past the the top of the pan by about ½ inch to 1 inch. If you are covering the dough with the lid, make sure to remove the lid before the dough touches it! Make an egg wash by beating an egg or beating a large egg yolk with 1 tablespoon of milk. When the rounded loaf is done proofing and ready to bake, brush the top of the dough with some egg wash.
Bake the milk bread:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- When the dough is ready, bake the milk bread, with the lid on, for 25 minutes, or until the outside is golden brown and the internal temperature registers at least 195°F.
- Remove the milk bread from the oven and remove the lid. Tap the loaf pan on the sides and bottom to pop the milk bread out of the pan.
- Let the milk bread cool on a rack until completely cooled before storing or cutting. Enjoy!
Notes
- Depending on your environment, you may or may not need to add a little more flour to the dough. This dough is a stickier dough and we recommend handling it with gloved hands. DO NOT add more than 1 to 2 tablespoons of extra flour if your dough feels tacky. It will make the milk bread denser
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