Japanese Milk Bread

My husband is in the military and a few years ago, we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to live on the beautiful island of Okinawa. As we were flying into Okinawa for the first time, I was thinking a lot about food. What were the grocery stores going to be like? What kind of restaurants would there be? How much would our diets change? You know… the important things…

Well, fast forward to present day, and I now know that none of that worrying was necessary. Japanese cuisine is amazing and although many dishes are different from our staples in the United States, there was nothing that I tried that I did not enjoy on some level.

There are many ingredients and dishes that I miss from our time on Okinawa, but one of my all time favorites is definitely Japanese milk bread. It is super soft with just the tiniest hint of sweetness. It melts in your mouth, toasts up great, makes perfect croutons, fabulous french toast and is the perfect vessel for grilled cheese. It is amazing and we are going to make a loaf of this wonderful bread today.

Let’s get started…

Begin by gathering your ingredients. To make one standard 9″x5″ loaf, you will need about 400 grams of all purpose flour, some whole milk, 1 envelope of fast acting yeast, 65 grams of granulated sugar, 42 grams of butter (3 tablespoons), 1 teaspoon of salt and 2 large eggs.

There are two important elements in making a beautifully soft loaf of milk bread. The first is your tangzhong, which is a Japanese method of combining a small amount of the flour and milk used in the dough into a slurry like paste, allowing it to cool and then combining it with the dough later. This may sound unimportant, but this pre-gelatinizes the starches in the flour, which allows that flour to absorb much more liquid later and retain that liquid throughout the kneading, baking and cooling process. It creates an easy to work with dough that rises more than typical bread doughs and that stays soft much longer during storage than breads made without using the tangzhong method.

The second important element is weighing your ingredients. This may seem like a hassle, but think of it as your baking insurance. If you weigh everything out and follow this recipe, it will ensure that you are working with exactly the same ingredients that I am and your bread will turn out the same as mine… which is delicious and soft and perfect. You can find a kitchen scale at most stores for under $20 and you may be surprised at how often you end up using it, especially when baking bread.

The first step is to make your tangzhong slurry. Don’t let the name intimidate you. All you have to do it measure out 20 grams of all purpose flour and 100 grams of whole milk and combine them in a small saucepan. Place the saucepan over medium heat and cook, stirring slowly but constantly, until the mixture thickens into a creamy, paste like consistency (similar to cream of wheat). Once you have this consistency, set the pan off to the side to cool while you weigh out the other ingredients.

In a large bowl, whisk 350 grams of all purpose flour with one 7 gram envelope of fast acting yeast, 1 teaspoon of salt and 65 grams of granulated sugar.

Once your tangzhong has cooled a bit, add 1 large egg, 160 ml of warm whole milk and 42 grams of melted butter and whisk until everything is combined. Adding these ingredients into the tangzhong will help to both whisk the egg and loosen the tangzhong before adding it into the flour mixture.

Add the tangzhong mixture into the flour mixture and combine until you have a loose, shaggy dough. Knead the dough by hand in the bowl until it begins to come together and you no longer see dry flour in the dough.

Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes or until the dough feels soft, smooth and elastic.

You are looking for a soft, but not sticky dough. If you measured out 400 grams of all purpose flour at the beginning of this recipe, you will notice that we used 20 grams on the tangzhong and 350 grams in the dough, so you should have 30 grams of flour left. Add this to the dough a little a time, if necessary, while you need to prevent the dough from sticking to your hands or the surface.

Once the dough has come together, form it into a round ball and transfer it into a lightly greased bowl turning it over a few times so that the entire exterior is lightly coated in oil.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel and rest the dough in a warm place for 60-90 minutes or until the dough has double in size.

Transfer the dough back onto a lightly floured surface and use a sharp knife or dough cutter to divide the dough into four equal portions.

Working with one portion at a time, roll the dough into a round ball and place it seem side down onto your work surface.

The way that milk bread dough is folded and rolled has a lot to do with its beautiful texture, but reading instructions on doing this can seem complicated. Looking at the photos of each step below will not only let you see exactly what you are going for, but will also show you that this process is not complicated at all!

Start by rolling your first portion of dough out into about a 10 inch long oval.

Fold the “top” of the oval down towards the center of the oval.

Fold the “bottom” of the oval over the top portion.

Rotate the folded dough to face away from you.

Roll the folded dough out into an 8-10 inch long rectangle.

Now roll the rectangle of dough as you would a cinnamon roll starting at the short end. Set that folded and rolled portion of dough aside and repeat the process with the other portions of dough.

Prepare a 9″x5″ loaf dish by buttering the interior or spraying with your favorite non-stick baking spray. Cut a long rectangle of parchment paper to about 8 inches wide and place it down into the loaf pan like a sling leaving a little bit of excess over each side. This will help to not only prevent the bread from sticking to your loaf pan, but will also help you easily remove the loaf from the pan after baking.

Carefully place all four folded and rolled portions of dough into the loaf pan as in the photo above. Cover the loaf pan with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and allow the loaf to rest in a warm place for 30-45 minutes or until the dough rises close to the top of the sides of the loaf pan.

While the dough is resting, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Once the dough has puffed up, whisk 1 egg with 1 tablespoon of whole milk and gently brush the top surface of the loaf with this mixture.

Bake your milk bread on the middle rack of a preheated 350 degree oven for 40-50 minutes.

Have some tin foil ready incase your loaf begins to brown too much towards the end of the baking time. Your milk bread is ready with the crust is a deep golden brown and the internal temperature reaches 190 degrees.

Once the bread is done, transfer the loaf pan onto a cooling rack and allow the bread to rest for about 15 minutes in the baking dish before using the excess parchment paper to lift it out and transfer it directly onto the cooling rack.

This bread is perfect as is and the crust is not a crisp one by any means, but if you want to ensure that your crust is buttery and soft, brush the crust with a little bit of melted butter while the bread is still hot.

Or…. if you want to add a little something fabulous to your bread, whisk a tablespoon of melted butter with a tablespoon of honey and brush that over the loaf. It’s unnecessary, but incredible.

Just think about it…

This bread needs to cool fully before cutting into it. It’s a long tough process, but please promise me that you will let it rest before slicing it up. Some breads can be enjoyed warm from the oven, but this milk bread is so light and fluffy that it needs time for the internal moisture to redistribute and reabsorb throughout the loaf. Cutting into the loaf before this process has been completed can result in an oddly textured crumb and no one wants that.

Have patience… it will be worth it….

Look at that light, delicate crumb. This bread is just the best! It’s airy and flavorful with a subtly sweetness and wonderfully chewy crust. This bread soaks up an egg custard really well for french toast and crisps up beautifully for some fabulous croutons or grilled cheese, but my favorite way of enjoying milk bread is with a little bit of honey butter and a cup of tea.

Simple, but perfect.

The flavors and texture of this bread takes me right back to weekends on Okinawa. Enjoy some lightly toasted milk bread with jelly for breakfast, a BLT on milk bread for lunch and some milk bread croutons over a caesar salad for dinner. Sweet, delicious memories…

If you want to make a loaf of truly delicious bread then you need to make this Japanese milk bread. Just weigh your ingredients, follow my tips and then pat yourself on the back while enjoying your light, fluffy loaf. You’ll be so glad that you did…