Shokupan (Japanese Milk Bread)

Our recipe for shokupan, or Japanese milk bread, produces a pillowy, subtly sweet bread that's surprisingly easy to make at home. A beloved breakfast staple in Japan, shokupan is typically eaten sliced very thick, lightly toasted, and served with accompaniments like butter and jam. Unlike other sandwich bread recipes, Japanese milk bread utilizes a starter of flour, milk, and water that's briefly cooked before being combined with the other dough ingredients. It helps produce the bread's signature soft and airy crumb and also helps it to stay fresher for longer. This recipe makes two loaves, and the bread freezes beautifully so you can slice and save one for future breakfasts.

How Is Shokupan Different to White Sandwich Bread?

Shokupan is the most widely known and consumed bread in Japan, where it's commonly eaten for breakfast andalso used for sandwiches. It contains milk, in both liquid and dry form, which contributes a delicious richness as well as a subtle sweetness without the need for sugar. (The added milk also classifies shokupan as an enriched dough, similar to challah or brioche.)

The process for making shokupan involves a technique called tangzhong, or cooking a mixture of flour, water, and milk to form a pudding-like starter that's then added to the remaining dough ingredients. Pre-cooking the starter helps to gelatinize the flour's starches, allowing it to absorb more liquid. This results in a less sticky—aka easier-to-work-with—dough and a softer finished product. The extra liquid also results in more steam while baking, which leads to a higher rise, and helps the loaves stay fresher for longer.

Equipment Needed for Shokupan

You'll need the following pieces of kitchen equipment to whip up this soft, dreamy bread. While the list may look long, it's mostly basic things you likely already have in your kitchen, including:

Saucepan: A small saucepan is used to briefly cook the mixture of flour, water, and milk to form the starter.

Whisk: When cooking the starter, you'll need to whisk the mixture constantly to keep it from scorching. You'll also use a whisk to combine the dry ingredients when pulling together the dough.

Wooden spoon: You'll need a wooden spoon to stir together the dough before kneading. You can also use a rubber spatula for this step.

Mixing bowls: Plan to grab two bowls for this recipe: A small one to hold the cooked starter while it cools and a large bowl to mix the dough in. You can either wipe out the large bowl and reuse it to proof the dough in step 4 or swap in a clean one.

Pastry brush: A pastry brush is helpful for greasing the bowl and loaf pans as well as for brushing the dough with both butter and an egg wash. If you don't have a pastry brush, you can use your hands to grease the bowl and pans and wadded up coffee filters for brushing the dough.

Loaf pans: You'll need two standard 9-by-5-inch loaf pans for this recipe. Don't worry if it seems like the dough is rising too high above the tops of the pans in step 6 (it's supposed to look like that!).

Instant-read thermometer: While not essential for this recipe, an instant-read thermometer will help you determine when the bread is perfectly cooked without having to rely solely on visual cues.

Wire rack: Letting the loaves cool on a wire rack allows air to circulate evenly around them, helping them to cool more efficiently.