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.
I just made this – and took all the shortcuts – just poured the boiling water onto the flour in the mixer for the Yudane, cut it 10 mins after it was baked (did everything else according to timings) and it’s delicious, so soft and fluffy and delicious. I’ve tried all sorts of different recipes over lockdown, and I think that this is the winner.
Previously I was making a tan zhong in a saucepan for each loaf (makes such a difference to how quickly a loaf goes stale) – but pouring boiling water onto the flour actually seems to work better, and it’s much easier, so thankyou so much for this recipe!
This makes an impossibly soft bread! Really great result. I made it entirely by hand. Some adjustments were needed as the dough was sticky due to the high hydration. I ended up stretching and folding it after mixing rather than kneading. It worked really well and I would highly recommend making it!
Hi,
I’m planning to make mine tomorrow. Yudane is in the refrigerator as we speak. 2 questions though:
1) I left my yudane in a bowl and cling wrapped the bowl instead. Does it matter?
2) is it necessary to use wet towel? Will it make any difference if I cover with dry towel during bench time and 2nd proofing? I have always used dry towel and they have turned out well with other recipes
Thank you!
Hi Ann, good luck!
1) that’s ok.
2) yes, it happened to me but if you have not had any trouble, adjust the recipe to suit you.
I have to admit I was concerned when I read “knead for twenty minutes”–thats far more than other bread recipes I’ve made in the past! But I decided to make it according to the recipe exactly, at least once, and I’m so glad I did. It was perfect! Just like the toast pan we get from tours les jour on special occasions. No more having to wait and pay $5+ a loaf!
Yay Alex!
Hi! Enjoyed this recipe and really wanted to make Fruit Sando but when I clicked the hyperlink on this article for the Fruit Sando, I am always redirected to the Katsu Sando recipe. 😩
Hi Ysa Thank you for letting me know, I will fix the link.
Any suggestions for making this in a bread machine? I’ll pre-make the flour/water paste in a separate bowl the day before…but I’m wondering if I should then premix that with the milk prior to adding to the bread machine — to ensure even distribution. Thoughts?
Hi Jim, I make this in a bread machine 😀
I made it by hand and it still worked. I’ve also doubled the portion as my loaf tin is quite big. The softest loaf I’ve ever made.
Thank you!
Thank you Kade, that’s fantastic to hear:D
From Rosario, Argentina
First of all congratulations for the best page I’ve seen in cooking recipes.
The shokupan came out just as you taught me. It’s simply delicious.
Thank you so much for your help with such clear explanations.
Thank you Regina for making Shokupan in Argentina!
Hi, I have an electric mixer I can use for bread making, but I’m not sure if it’ll work the same as yours. On mine, 6 is the fastest setting, and I rarely use it, I was just worried I’ll end up over-needing the dough, but if it is meant to be needed that much then it’s fine. Otherwise, is it ok for me to need it by hand for 20 minutes?
Hi Eric, yes you need to adjust to what works to yours. I can not really tell as I don’t have same mixer. You can knead manually but this recipe is quite hydrated and may need more than 20 minutes.
I need help! I’ve tried this recipe at least 5 times now. The bread is always delicious but I can’t get it to rise all the way to the top of the tin.
Hi Olivia, you need to check the size of your tin, the time to raise is affected by temperature, you need to raise the dough till it raise up to 80 % of your tin. Hope this helps.
My tin is the same size as yours. I think I have some ideas to regulate temp better. I’ll let you know how it goes, thanks!
Hello! The instructions say to brush with egg after baking, but your photos show you brushing the egg on before baking. Which is it?
Thank you Debi, before.
Can I substitute the white bread flour to wheat bread flour instead?
Yes 😀
sounds very interesting and exciting to make. It my first encounter with Japanese bread, and I feel I have been missing much on on the intricacies of Japanese cooking. Thanks for opening my mind.
You are welcome Edwin 😀
Thank you for this recipe and the detailed instructions – I made this today and it turned out great! I never had success with any bread recipes before so I am super pleased with the result, and the step-by-step guidance was really helpful! I will definitely be making this again. One question, though – my dough was a bit sticky all throughout which meant I had to keep dusting with flour while handling it. Is that supposed to happen and if not, how do I prevent it? Do I just knead it for longer at the start? Thank you again 🙂
Hy Kayla thank you for making Shokupan with my recipe and lovely comment. This recipe is quite hydrated and I usually use my bread machine for kneading and proofing 😀 So this recipe is more for machine making. Many left same questions so I might develop more for hand kneading in the future.
I’ve got a question? I’ve tried this slightly different MILK BREAD recipe it comes out fine and moist but has the texture of BRIOCHE bread is REALLY good But I’ve been noticing from other recipes its not that FLUFFY FLUFFY TEXTURE MORE OF A BRIOCHE BREAD TEXTURE CAN YOU HELP ME FIGURE out what’s wrong or is it just the recipe i use?
HELP ME!!!
Hi Mrs Sarr, I am not sure as I don’t know the recipe you used… If it is like brioche, may be egg? because my shokupan recipe does not use eggs.
This is truly an easy recipe to follow to bake a fluffy and flavourful bread. My family loves it. I do not have a machine to knead the dough. It’s takes a lot of arm strength to knead to dough for 20 minutes. I wonder if there is an easier alternative. And what is the science behind the yudane to make fluffy bread.
Can you add egg to this recipe? how would you adjust the other liquids. Thanks!
Hi Althea, why do you want to add egg? Did you make Shokupan with yudane method? it is truly fluffy and soft and you don’t need any eggs so I wonder why you want to add egg.
Hi! What size pan should be used for this?
Hi Maria it is stated in the recipe card.
Hi Shihoko, thanks for sharing this recipe. May I know how long can yudane be kept in the fridge?
Hi Margaret, about a week.
My friend recommended this Fabulous recipe! I love that I can prep ingredients so easily, pre bag it and have my “bread mix” at the ready to put together any time. I’ve used the yu dane technique with my NY style Deli Rye recipe and it’s great. I’ve also made cinnamon rolls and sweet rolls with your recipe. A definite addition to my frequently used recipes. Next I will try using it for steamed pork buns 😃 Mahalo a nui loa for sharing!
Thank you Laz 😀
Just baked this bread and turned out great.It’s so soft and delicious.Thank you for your recipe and instructions easy to follow.
You are welcome Magda 😀
Have you made this recipe in a pullman loaf pan? If so, does the recipe need to be adjusted? I have a 9x4x4 in. pan
Hi Curt no I have not used a pullman loaf pan.