Have you ever eaten Shokupan, the Japanese milk bread? You must try it! It’s that delicious, soft and fluffy white bread loaf that you can get in Japan. They are amazingly fluffy and keep moist for longer than ordinary bread because of the Yudane method.
Why is Japanese Bread So Fluffy?
Why is Japanese bread so soft and fluffy and has the mochi-like texture? The answer is because of the “Yudane” method. The Yudane method makes the bread pillowy soft and fluffy and also keeps the bread from drying out quickly. This is because the heated gelatinised starch in the flour keeps the moisture inside the bread.
So What is the Yudane Method?
Yudane is made by mixing bread flour and hot boiling water. Adding hot boiling water gelatinises the starch. The gelatinised starch not only allows the starch to take in more water, but also increases the sweetness of it. Therefore adding Yudane to a bread dough(yudane method), you can make soft, moist and sweeter bread which lasts longer.
Yudane vs Tangzhong roux
- The Yudane method originated in Japan and it became widespread and the popular way to bake bread in Asian countries when Yvonne Chen introduced “Tangzhong” roux as a secret ingredient to bake the super soft and light Japanese milk bread in her book called “Bread Doctor”.
- Yudane ratio of flour and water is usually 1:1 whereas “Tangzhong roux” is made by 1:5 ratio of bread flour to water. The Tangzhong mixture is made by heating up to 149°F(65°C) then cooled down to room temperature and added to the bread dough. I will explain how to make Yudane in a paragraph below.
- I have often seen this type of bread also called “Hokkaido Milk Bread” or “Japanese Milk Bread” on social media platforms such as Pinterest. Those breads are made by the same principle either adding Yudane or Tangzhong roux to bread dough.
How to Make Yudane?
We need to deduct 20% of total flour ingredient to make Yudane. So to make 1 standard loaf size dough, we need 250 x 0.2 = 50g bread flour. Yudane flour to water ratios is generally 1:1, but I found it is easier to make yudane with 1:08 ratio. Then simply add hot boiling water (should be above 194°F/90°C) and combine them with a wooden spatula. The ideal combined dough temperature will be around 122°F/50°C. When it is cooled down, wrap with a sheet of cling wrap and leave it on kitchen bench or in a fridge.
Ingredients
You need to gather bread flour, milk, sugar, unsalted butter, Salt and Yudane that you made the night before. Some ingredients will be further explained as I have received many questions about this.
Flour
For making fluffy Japanese milk bread, we need to use bread flour that contains around 12% of protein. I use Japanese brand Nisshin flour. You can use all-purpose flour but all-purpose flour has around 10% protein content therefore the bread will not rise as high as the shokupan made with bread flour.
Yeast
I usually use LeSaffre Saf-Instant Yeast Gold
for making shokupan Japanese milk bread. If you cannot find instant dry yeast but can find fresh yeast, you can substitute. This recipe requires 1 teaspoon(5g) of dry yeast, so you would need 5g x 3 = 15g of fresh yeast.
Butter
We need to use unsalted butter. Because the salt content of butter will affect the glutein formation. If you don’t have unsalted butter, and would like to use oil instead, you can. However it is a little bit tricky because butter is solid and oil is liquid. Generally speaking, you can replace 3/4 of the amount of butter with oil.
Milk
Some readers have asked if they can replace with other types of milk. Using different milk does not affect the fluffiness and lightness of the bread. I tested using coconut milk and almond milk. Read the result in the FAQ.
Bakers Percentages
Some readers have asked to change the amount of the ingredients to make bigger or smaller sized bread loaves. Baker’s percentage is great because it is universal when each country uses different units of weight. In the table below, is the bread ingredients mixing ratio. Each ingredient is shown as a % of the flour.
| Ingredients | weight | percentage |
| Bread flour for Yudane | 50g | 20% |
| Hot water | 40g/ml | 16% |
| Bread flour | 200g | 80% |
| Milk | 150g/ml | 60% |
| Sugar | 15g | 6% |
| Instant dry yeast | 3g | 1.2% |
| unsalted butter | 10g | 4% |
| Salt | 5g | 2% |
Using Cup Measurement
Ok, if you don’t have a kitchen scale, don’t worry. I have figured out measurements for using cups. However, you need to be as precise as you can. So for example, when you measure 1 cup of flour, you need to spoon flour to the measuring cup, then level the surface with the back of a knife. The cup measurements are included in the recipe cards’ note section.
How to Make Shokupan Japanese Milk Bread?
This is the basic process of making the shokupan Japanese bread in 8 steps using Yudane method.
- Make Yudane a night before. (8-12 hours)
- Knead all ingredients using a stand mixer, bread machine or by hand (20min)
- The first rise (45-60min depends on the temperature)
- Divide & roll
- Bench time (20min)
- Shape
- The second rise (30min)
- Bake (30min)
Tips to Make Shokupan Successfully
- Start making Yudane the night before with boiling hot water. When the mixture combines the temperature of the dough should be around 122°F/50°C.
- Leaving Yudane longer will result in better Japanese bread.
- The dough rising temperature should be around 86°F(30°C). My oven has a defrost function and I set the temperature set to 86°F(30°C), so I use that setting for rising. Or use a styrofoam box with 4 little cups with hot water in the corners of the box.
Other Recipes That Call for Shokupan Japanese Milk Bread
The fluffy, soft and moist Japanese milk bread is the basis of other delicious Japanese creations.
- Tamago Sando (Japanese egg sandwich)
- Katsu Sando (Deep fried pork cutlets “Tonkatsu” sandwich)
- Fruit Sando (Japanese fruit sandwich)
- Panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
How to Store the Bread?
Another tip that I can give you is that this bread is super soft, so it is better to slice it the following day. I bake the bread on a Saturday and slice it on Sunday. It will stay moist for a few days just sitting on the kitchen bench. In my household, the bread is eaten in a day or two. But if you wish, slice them and individually wrap and place them in a ziplock bag to freeze. It will last about a month.
FAQ
A: Yes, you can. But as you can see the all purpose flour did not rise well in my experiment. The texture of the bread was not fluffy, but rather it was like eating a savoury muffin. 
A: Using different milk does not affect the fluffiness and lightness of the bread. The coconut milk I used was the “Ayam Premium Coconut Milk 100 % Natural” which contains 24.3 g fat in 100ml and it is quite rich and thick. The almond milk that I used was “Sanitarium So Good Almond Milk” and contained only 1.4g per 100ml. It was very thin milk. The almond milk bread turned out fluffier and coconut milk bread was denser. Hope these experiments using different ingredients helps you make a decision as to which ingredients to use.
A: You can hand knead, however, because this has yudane in the dough which is very moist, the dough is quite sticky. Therefore, this recipe is more suitable for machine kneading. I usually use either a machine or bread mixer to knead and rise.
A: Yes you can. Some of my readers and myself have only rested the dough for about a couple hours in the fridge and the bread made with that shorter resting time of the yudane was quite successful. However, the longer you rest the yudane the better the quality of the bread.
Stay Connected
This is not a popular effortless “No Knead” type of bread recipe, however, it is worth the effort to bake this bread especially if you love any Japanese baking stuff. This is the bread you must try!
If you liked my recipe for Shokupan Japanese milk bread, please rate it and leave a comment below. Also, don’t forget to follow me on Youtube, Pinterest, Facebook , Twitter and Instagram to keep up to date with all the latest happenings on Chopstick Chronicles. Don’t forget to use the hashtag #ChopstickChronicles so I can see your wonderful creations!
Shokupan
Ingredients
Yudane
- 50 g Bread flour *1
- 40 ml boiling water above 194°F(90°C)
Bread
- 150 ml milk (room temperature) *3
- 15 g sugar
- 3 g dry instant yeast *2
- 10 g unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 200 g Bread flour *1
- 5 g salt
Instructions
- Make Yudane the night before. Place bread flour in a bowl and add boiling water and mix well. Put cling wrap and refrigerate overnight. *4
- Pour the room temperature milk into a stand mixer bowl.
- Add sugar,butter and yeast to the bowl then add the yudane as you tear it into small pieces.
- Add the bread, flour and salt.
- Attach the kneading hook onto the stand mixer and combine all ingredient on low speed 1.
- When all ingredients are combined, turn the speed up to 5 or 6 and knead the dough for 20 min.
- Roll the dough round and place the dough into a greased bowl. Wrap with cling wrap to rise for about 45 min to 1 hour at about 86°F(30°C) or until double the size.
- Use your finger, to test if the dough has risen by dusting your finger with flour and poking the dough. If the dough doesn't bounce back and the hole you poked stays there, it is ready.
- Punch the dough down and cut the dough into two equal parts with a scraper and roll them.
- Cover the rolled doughs with a wet cloth and stand it for 20 minutes bench time.
- Roll out each dough to about 5.9×7.8inch (15 x 20 cm) rectangle with a rolling pin.
- Fold the dough tightly not letting any air in towards the centre from left and right.
- Rotate the dough 90 degrees and roll it from one end.
- Spray one loaf bread tin lightly and place the rolled dough in the end of the tin facing the centre.
- Cover it with a wet cloth and let the dough rise for a second time until the dough rises to the size of the bread tin about 30 min.
- Start to preheat the oven to 365 °F(185°C).
- When the dough has risen to be level with the tin, it's ready to bake.
- Bake the dough for about 25 -30 minutes in preheated oven.
- Remove the bread from the tin and cool it down on a rack. * 5
- Whisk an egg, rightly brush over the bread dough.(Optional)
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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This recipe was originally posted in 2017, since then had received so many questions and suggestions. So I have decided update the post and the recipe in order to answer all the questions asked. Thank you for those who left comments below and rate the recipe highly.
Hi Shihoko,
Do you know where i can buy the Nisshin Bread Floue online? . I’m in melbourne, but I can’t find nisshin bredlad flour online right now.
Thank You
Regards,
Alice
Hi Alice, Tokyo mart or Fuji mart?
Hi!
I tried making this with my natural starter but the dough never came together. I suspect the hydration level is too high. Is there any way to calculate how much flour to increase if using a 100% hydration natural starter?
I made this today with the shortened yudane resting time and I used it today too (needed it for BLTs for dinner). It was delicious. My version was slightly underbaked, but I know to keep in the oven a couple of minutes longer next time.
The only bad part is that I think my stand mixer might not be able to handle many more of these, it got super warm and was dancing around a lot. Thanks for the recipe. 🙂
Thank you for making this Shokupan
Just made this recipe and it turned out beautifully soft and fluffy! Will make it again. The only thing is i would double the recipe as this one was not enough to fill a standard loaf tin
Thank you Shelby 😀
Hi!
Can I use the loaf pan with the lid on? Will I need to adjust anything in the recipe?
My family and I love shokupan but have always bought it. Excited to try baking at home!
Thank u!
Hi Tanny, yes you can 😀
Gostei muito de encontrar este artigo.
Thank you Marcos
Love your recipe. I get new knowledge in making bread. If I’d like to put milk powder, what is the percentage. Can change unsalted butter with shortening ?
Waiting for your reply. Thank you
Waiting for your next recipe
hi Shihoko. hello from Indonesia!
super Loved with your recipe 🙂
is it different if I store that yudane in room temperature / fridge?
thankyouu!
Have a nice day 🙂
Hi Sunrise yes, if it is too hot I would store in fridge, but in winter you can leave in room temperature
Hi,thank you for sharing good recipe.
I need to bake vegan shokupan.May you advise me for adjust some ingredients?
I don”t use plant’s base milk or cow’s milk.Can I use water in same volume?
I don”t use butter.Can I use oil in same volume?
thank you
Hi Rodsathorn, the reason milk and butter used in many bread recipes are enrich the flavour of the bread, and preventing the bread become firm and dry. You replace the milk with same amount of water, but end result of texture will be different as I stated in the post. I also mentioned about butter and oil in the post as well.
A bit confused with the yudane ratio. “Yudane ratio of flour and water is usually 1:1 ” . Shouldn’t that mean 50 ml boiling water (instead of 40 ml in the recipe) with 50 g bread flour?
Hi Maria. Yes it is usually 1:1, but I found less water is easier to handle so I tweaked the ratio.
Hi Shihoko, my bread flour has 12.7% protein. When making yudane, I found 40mg/ml was too little (yudane was lumpy). Can you advise how much water I need to add? Thank you.
Hi Francisca, You can add 10ml make it 1:1 ratio, Yudane is lumpy when it is made but after it is rested overnight gluten will be made and it will become gooey.
Hi, i do not have unsalted butter, can you recommend how much litre of Vegetable oil for this recipe? Thanks a lot.
Hi Layean, It is mentioned in the post.
Do I bruch egg over bread before I put in oven? or after taking the bread out from oven?
Hi Alison I brushed before the oven.
So worth your time making this shokupan recipe, straightforward and clear step by step pictures. Bread came out soft, fluffy and chewy like texture which I love so much, the ingredients are all found in my pantry which is very convenient. Thanks so much for this recipe, definitely a keeper!
Thank you Angelina 😀
Amazingly good. Well worth the effort
Thank you Jesse 😀
Hello! Im really excited to try this recipe! I have a question: should I activate the yeast or do I just add it like that? Thanks!
Hi Marcela, if it is instant dry yeast you don’t need to activate.
This recipe was so good!!! The bread came out so good and soft. I will do this recipe again for sure.
I made some yudane with not enough hot water and I have extra mixture. Is there anything I can do with it because I don’t want to throw it away.
Thank you
Hi Bob you can add more hot water to make right consistency?
What is the size of the loaf tin used?
Hi Amy it is in the recipe card note section.
Love this recipe. If I would like to add cocoa powder, garlic powder or cheddar cheese do I need to adjust any of the ingredients
Hi Margaret, I am not sure about garlic powder and cheddar cheese, but for cocoa powder, just replace the amount for the flour, should work it would be only like 1 tbsp?