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The best Japanese-inspired milk bread that is cotton soft, fluffy and sweet. This easy milk bread recipe uses a roux starter to make the dough and stay fresh for days!
Table of Contents
Milk Bread Recipe
Milk bread is a cotton soft, sweet and fluffy Japanese-style bread made famous by bakeries in Japan.
It’s called Shokupan in Japanese language. I believe it originated from Hokkaido in Japan as Shokupan is also called Hokkaido milk bread.
The bread uses a simple Asian bread baking technique called “tangzhong” or 汤种. It’s a roux starter.
First part of the dough is cooked first, producing cottony soft, fluffy and tender bread.
This is the best, softest bread ever!
Once you have tried the bread, you will never go back to regular white bread. These soft and cottony milk bread recipe is perfect for dinner tonight, holidays or any day!
This milk bread applies a roux technique to make the dough.
First part of the dough is cooked first.
This roux starter technique yeilds soft, puffy and absolutely amazing bread that stay soft for days.
Milk Bread Ingredients
This fail-proof, homemade and easy recipe calls for simple ingredients:
Bread flour
Heavy cream
Honey
Dry milk powder
Yeast
Unsalted butter
Sugar and salt
It’s important that you have an active dry yeast that is alive so please check the expiration date of the yeast before baking.
What Pan to Use for Milk Bread?
You can bake this bread using a regular 9X5″ loaf pan.
You can also use a baking tray for split-up dinner rolls or buns.
I made them into these cute clover-shaped buns using a big muffin pan.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I Bake Milk Bread Ahead?
Yes, you can.
This bread can be baked 5 days ahead. Tightly wrap the rolls with aluminum foil and place in a plastic bag before storing in the refrigerator.
The best Japanese-inspiredmilk breadthat is cotton soft, fluffy and sweet. This easymilk bread recipeuses a roux starter to make the dough and stay fresh for days!
4.74 from 19 votes
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By Bee Yinn Low
Yield 6Rolls
Prep 20 minutesmins
Additional Time 2 hourshrs
Cook 30 minutesmins
Total 2 hourshrs50 minutesmins
Ingredients
5 1/3cupsbread flour(divided, plus more for surface)
1cupheavy cream
1/3cuphoney
3tablespoonsnonfat dry milk powder
2tablespoonsactive dry yeast(from about 3 envelopes)
2tablespoonskosher salt
3largeeggs
1/2stick unsalted butter(cut into pieces, room temperature (4 tablespoons))
nonstick vegetable oil spray
flaky sea salt
Instructions
Cook 1/3 cup flour and 1 cup water in a small saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly, until a thick paste forms, about 5 minutes. Add cream, honey and cook, whisking until honey dissolves.
Transfer mixture to a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook and add milk powder, yeast, kosher salt, 2 eggs, and 5 cups flour. Knead on medium speed until dough is smooth, about 5 minutes.
Add butter, a piece at a time, fully incorporating into dough before adding the next piece, until dough is smooth, shiny, and elastic, about 4 minutes.
Coat a large bowl with nonstick spray and transfer dough to bowl, turning to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
Lightly coat a 6-cup jumbo muffin pan with nonstick spray. Turn out dough onto a floured surface and divide into 6 pieces. Divide each piece into 3 smaller pieces. Place 3 pieces of dough side-by-side in each muffin cup. Let rise again in a warm place until doubled in size and puffing over top of muffin pan), about 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C). Beat the remaining egg with 1 tsp. water. Brush top of dough with egg wash and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until bread is deep golden brown, about 25–35 minutes. Let milk bread cool slightly in pan before turning out.
Notes
Recipe Source: Bon Appetite. This recipe makes 6 rolls or one 9x5" loaf.
Course: Baking Recipes
Cuisine: Japanese
Keywords: honey, Milk Bread, milk powder
Nutrition
Nutrition Facts
Milk Bread
Amount Per Serving (1 g)
Calories 329Calories from Fat 135
% Daily Value*
Fat 15g23%
Saturated Fat 6g38%
Cholesterol 102mg34%
Sodium 2413mg105%
Carbohydrates 103g34%
Fiber 3g13%
Sugar 22g24%
Protein 18g36%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated, using Spoonacular, for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
The reason for its soft texture is the tangzhong roux method - a baking technique originated in China that involves cooking a mixture of flour and milk to create a thick paste that is added to the rest of the bread ingredients, as you would a starter.
Milk bread dough is an enriched dough, which means it has dairy (milk, cream, and/or butter), eggs, oil, and/or sugar added to it. It is softer and richer than regular breads, which are made with primarily flour, water, salt, and yeast.
Milk bread was developed in Japan in the 20th century, using tangzhong, a warm flour-and-water paste traditionally used in China to make buns with a soft, springy texture and tiny air bubbles. Surprisingly, milk bread with an incomparable crumb and buttery taste is a snap to make at home, using supermarket ingredients.
In the dough stage, milk increases water absorption. Consequently, dough made with milk should come softer from the mixer than dough made with water. Other aspects of milk in yeast doughs include: Dough may be mixed more intensively.
Brioche is a much richer bread than Japanese milk bread. It uses a lot more butter than shokupan dough, giving brioche a sweeter and more buttery taste. Brioche is also made with eggs. This helps give brioche its signature golden color and a denser, chewier texture than shokupan.
Beth Goldowitz. Baking tasty bread, cookies, and pies for over 50 years. · 3y. Milk bread is white bread. It uses the same ingredients as a white sandwich bread, but it includes milk in the dough.
All this is to say, the method and shape may be different, but that combination of flour, some kind of liquid, sugar, salt, and yeast all lead to one thing: cottony shokupan. The closest thing to milk bread in the U.S. is bland, shaggy-textured supermarket white bread we ate as kids. It's not a far stretch.
And these are some of the fluffiest shokupan loaves you'll find in Tokyo. The dough is left to rise at a low temperature for a long time, making it especially sweet, and the long steaming process gives it a moist and mellow texture.
Other names for it are Hokkaido milk bread, shokupan, and pai bao. Shokupan translates to "eating bread" or "food bread" or "plain bread"; in Japan the style is considered the standard bread of the country, where it is a common breakfast meal or eaten as a snack. It is carried in many bakeries in Asian countries.
Iceland. Iceland is considered one of the countries with the best bread in the world, much of which can be attributed to the unique methods it employs for its bread-making. The Icelandic rye bread is high in sugar and is baked underground using bubbling lava sand as the heat source.
If your milk bread is dense, mostly likely, the dough is under-kneaded. The dough needs to develop enough gluten to expand and become soft and fluffy. A sure way to ensure that the dough is kneaded enough is using the window pane test.
Egg has protein, fat, water and while the fat and water soften the crumb, the protein helps with strengthening the gluten and capturing more CO2. Eggs are also helping with leavening the dough which adds to the rise. Doughs that have more egg usually rise more, so go ahead and play around a bit!
There's something magical about the bread you get at your local bakeries - they're always sooo soft and fluffy. Many of these breads, especially packaged ones, are made with a ton of chemical additives such as calcium propionate, amylase, and chlorine dioxide which help keep them soft, light, and fluffy for days.
The dough is enriched and is created using a tangzhong, a type of roux. The use of the tangzhong helps keep the bread fresh for a longer period. Typical ingredients include flour, whole milk, butter, yeast, salt, sugar and often eggs.
Why is my milk bread dense? If your milk bread is dense, mostly likely, the dough is under-kneaded. The dough needs to develop enough gluten to expand and become soft and fluffy. A sure way to ensure that the dough is kneaded enough is using the window pane test.
The Difference Between Western and Asian-style breads
The key difference lies in the dough's chemistry: Western-style bread has zero fat – its main [components] are flour, salt and water while Asian-style bread contains 15 per cent fat and 25 per cent sugar to give that soft texture.
Introduction: My name is Msgr. Refugio Daniel, I am a fine, precious, encouraging, calm, glamorous, vivacious, friendly person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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