Hokkaido milk bread, with its cloud-like texture, is something I’d wanted to share with you for a long time as my go-to burger bun and sandwich bread. I’ll go out on a limb: both this bread and the burger I walk you through from start to finish will blow your mind!
The short answer
Japanese milk bread, known in Japan as shokupan and elsewhere as Hokkaido milk bread, is a milky, buttery loaf that’s soft as cotton and stays fresh for days. The secret is tangzhong: cooking a small part of the flour with milk before it goes into the dough. This recipe makes 7 burger or sandwich buns of 95 g each.
What is tangzhong and how do you make it?
You cook one part flour with five parts milk or water on the stove, stirring constantly, until it turns into a thick paste; it sets at around 65°C. Cooked starch holds far more liquid, so the bread comes out moister, softer and keeps longer. For this recipe, 20 g flour and 100 g milk is enough.
Japan has a similar method called yudane or yukone, where the flour is scalded with boiling water and left to rest overnight. Same goal, different route. I learned the technique best on my trip to Tokyo in May 2019.
Recipe
Japanese Milk Bread (Tangzhong)
- Prep4 hr
- Cook14–16 min · 195°C
- Makes7 buns, 95 g each
Ingredients
Tangzhong
- 20 g (2 tbsp) bread flour
- 100 g (8 tbsp) milk
Dough
- 125 g (½ cup) full-fat cow’s milk, ideally raw milk boiled and cooled to 30°C
- 15 g (2 tsp) active dry yeast (or 10 g instant yeast, mixed straight into the flour)
- 320 g (2½ cups) bread flour
- 8 g (2 tsp) salt
- 42 g (3 tbsp) granulated sugar
- 1 + 1 yolk egg
- 40 g butter, at room temperature
Egg wash
- 1 egg
- 2 tsp water, at room temperature
Method
- For the tangzhong, cook 20 g flour with 100 g milk in a small pan over low heat, stirring constantly, until it becomes a thick paste. Let it cool to room temperature.
- Meanwhile, dissolve the yeast in the milk at 30°C (if you’re using instant yeast, skip this and add it straight to the flour).
- Mix the flour, salt and sugar. Put the dry ingredients in the stand mixer bowl, add the yeasted milk and mix on low speed for 2 minutes.
- With the mixer running, add the tangzhong, 1 egg and 1 egg yolk.
- Add the butter in small pieces and knead for about 5 minutes, until it comes together as a dough.
- Cover with a damp cloth and let it rise until doubled.
- Turn the dough out, knock it back, flatten it and divide it into 7 pieces of 95 g.
- Shape each piece into a ball by tucking the edges underneath; place on a lined tray with space between them.
- Cover and let them rise for about 1 hour.
- Beat the egg with 1 tsp water and brush it over the buns. Bake at 195°C for 14–16 minutes, until golden.
This bread in Japan: shokupan and sando
In Japan this bread is baked as a loaf and toasted in thick slices; with the crusts cut off, it’s the bread for sando sandwiches like katsu sando and tamago sando. If you want a great shokupan in Tokyo, Centre The Bakery is in the bakeries section of my Japan guide.
Going to Japan?
More than 430 addresses in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, and what to know before you go: Japan guide →
Keep reading and listening
- What to Eat at Tsukiji: A Tokyo Day That Starts Early
- Eating Alone in Tokyo: Counters, Ticket Machines and Standing Sushi
- What Is Omakase? A First-Timer’s Guide to the Sushi Counter in Japan
- My Japan lists are now public: Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka
- Japan on our podcast YBYK (in Turkish): episode 17 and episode 19
- Bread on YBYK (in Turkish): our episode with Hakan Doğan
- Swapping yeast? My fresh, active dry and instant yeast conversion chart
