Have you ever eaten Shokupan, the Japanese milk bread? You must try it! It’s the delicious, soft and fluffy white bread loaf that you can get in Japan. The golden brown crust and soft white inside make it irresistible. It is amazingly fluffy and stays 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.
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 by adding Yudane to a bread dough (the 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 ingredients to make Yudane. So to make 1 standard loaf size dough, we need 250 x 0.2 = 50g bread flour. Yudane flour to water ratio 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 plastic wrap and leave it on the kitchen bench or in the 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 active 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 gluten 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 the whole milk 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 even 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
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. 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 the night before. (8-12 hours)
- Knead all ingredients using a stand mixer, bread machine or by hand (20min)
- The first rise (45-60 min depends on the temperature)
- Divide & roll
- Bench time (20 min)
- Shape
- The second rise (30 min)
- Bake (30 min)
Tips for Making Shokupan Japanese Milk Bread 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 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). This egg salad sandwich is super popular and for good reason.
- Fruit Sando (Japanese fruit sandwich). Another popular sandwich in Japan, often made with strawberries and cream.
- Panko (Japanese bread crumbs). You can use this Japanese bread to make Japanese bread crumbs which are so crispy and perfect for using to make pork katsu or chicken katsu.
- Simply toasting the bread with some butter or jam is also great. The bread is so delicious that even eating it simply like this tastes amazing.
- You can also use this recipe to make super soft Japanese bread rolls.
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.
A: My bread form size is 3.9 x 7.9 x 3.5 inch (10 x 20 x 9 cm). I bought it in Japan. This is similar to what I have from Amazon.com.
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 食パン
Video
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)
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 it turned out well. Thanks for the recipe. You don’t say anything about protecting the dough during the last rise, so I sprinkled it with flour. I then saw in the video you seemed to brush it with liquid before baking. What do you recommend?
Hi Manus, Thank you for your question. I did not mention anything protecting the dough because I did not do anything but I brushed with beaten egg just before baking it.
Can’t wait to try out this out! Do you know if I should shorten the kneading time if I use a Thermomix?
Hi Phing, I am not sure..because I don’t have a Thermomix.
Thanks for the prompt reply. Unfortunately mine wasn’t as successful, bread didn’t rise well. Not sure if it’s due to over kneading with the thermomix or because I used a smaller bread loaf pan.
I am sorry to hear your bread was not successful. All sorts of things affect so I can not pinpoint what went wrong, but it didn’t rise well, may be the temperature and could be left a little bit longer till it rise?
Hello, I tried out this recipe and it turned out really well! May I know if it is possible to add chocolate chips or raisins too? Thank you!
Thank you Es. Yes you can, I sometimes add raisins to make fruit bread 😀 Simply just add raisin to the recipe.
Hi Shihoko,
Thankyou for a great page. I could not find a link to your video on the page and so have posted it here..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6dUC0OWcSk
nice editing..very watchable, and then mouthwatering!
I have a question; I am going to use an old Kenwood machine, should I use the dough hook to knead the dough for the same 2 x 10minutes. I ask this because this heavy duty machine really whips the dough around, perhaps more than an automatic breadmaker.
thanks
Thank you Rod, I will try to upload the video in the recipe card or in the post. And for using kenwood, yes you need to see using dough hook, as I am not sure how strong your machine is. Let me know how you go.
Many thanks for the great recipe!
Coincidentally I tried it with an old Kenwood dough hook as I was feeling too lazy to knead by hand today.
Unfortunately the dough hook didn’t fully mix in the yudane, and I only noticed it had left little pea-sized lumps when I was rolling out. Re-kneading these out meant the bread ended up denser than usual, but still delicious!
Next time I’ll knead by hand for a minute until the yudane is incorporated, then stick it in the Kenwood.
Thank you for making this recipe and information about your adaptation for the readers 😀
Hi, I was just wanting to know with the new shortage of yeast in my area can a sourdough type starter be used or what might you recommend? I’ve just recently started bread baking, I’m usually doing cakes and cookies.
Thank you
Hi J.Clark, I am working on developing natural yeast bread. I am not sure if this recipe work with sourdough at the moment. We are having dry yeast shortage as well so I understand your situation.
I just saw wanted to post for anyone who might be looking for yeast that I found it in stock on the modernist pantry’s website https://www.modernistpantry.com/iinstaferm-gold-instant-dry-bakers-yeast.html
I hope this helps!
I made this, but doubled the recipe to fit into my huge-ass bread pan 🙂 tasted sooooo good, everyone in the house loved it. I mixed wholemeal with white flour for a healthier bread, and i think that made the taste better too.
That’s fantastic Desi and you successfully adjusting the recipe to add wholemeal 😀
Hi, is the butter melted to liquid or just soften to room temperature?
Hi Vera, I don’t do anything to the butter. It does not have to be done anything, no maleting, no softening is necessary 😀
Hi Shihoko,
Authentic cotton wispy, light fluffy milk bread. I made the yudane 2 nights in advance and kept in the fridge. As for the dough I kept window pane for 1 day on the first proofing step.
I do want to make more in 1 batch. What would you recommend if I wish to make more than 8 slices. But say 24? I have a big family and they loved it.
Also I wabted to try maybe coconut and custard a more dessert style variety as well.
Hi Thank you Maria, Do you have two tins? How about double the dough and bake in two tins?
I want to make this in a 13x4x4 Pullman. Should I double the recipe or 1 1/2 times the recipe?
I would double and see how you go with the amount.
I would like to try this bread recipe. I was wondering if using a dough enhancer would help? This is not a commercial product, I make my own enhancer. I love bread!
Hi Anna, you don’t need dough enhancer 😀
Hi. This is an incredible recipe!!! I would like to try this amazing bread!!! But can I just make Yudane and put everything into the bread maker machine??
Thanks inadvance.
Yes, N that’s what I would do 😀
Hi, I want to ask about the yudane, do you need to leave it overnight in the fridge? is it okay just to ket it cool a few hours at room temptemperature?
Hi Brie, you can just rest a few hours, but you will have better result when you lest the yudane longer.
Hello! I was wondering if I could replace the butter with olive oil because I’m lactose intolerant. I have bought shokupan that was made with olive oil but I’m not sure how many grams it should be. Your advice would be appreciated!
Hi Alex, yes possible. Try replace with 12g of olive oil.
Can I use kitchen aid mixer to knead the dough? And how long and what speed. Thank you.
Hi Hazel Thank you for your inquiry. The recipe is updated now please see the updated post 😀
Hiii!! I just found your recipe, would you mind if I am asking… my dough seem to be very wet and soaked so I don’t know if I am making it right. The dough after finish kneading does it need to have windowpane like other bread?
Hi Ningii Yes 😀
Do I need to warm up the milk?
Hi Joyce no you don’t. I used instant yeast and so does not need to warm up the milk 😀
Tried this recipe and turns out similiar with milk bread. Thank you so much.
Thank you Vie 😀
Hi! Will results differ between a kitchen aid and zojirushi bread machine? I’m all excited to try this but unsure which to start! Haha
Hi Liling, No the result will not be different, but because the dough is quite wet, using bread machine is easier. I usually use my bread machine to knead and rise 😀
Thank you for sharing this recipe! I have tried many recipes to achieve the real Japanese airy fluffy bread and yours work the best !
However ,It took much longer for my bread to proof , 2 hours for the 1st proof and 40mins for 2nd proof, I think my temperature should be just right 27-30°C. as I live in a hotter climate. But nevertheless the bread turn out with the desired lightness and fluffiness.
However I found it a bit salty to my liking , would you advise me to lessen the salt ?
Appreciate for your answer! Thanks
In love with this recipe and also the best bread produced. Beautifully documented, and easy to follow recipe. My knowledge is enhanced with the well rounded explanations.
I have started to make bread for my 10 months old babies and needed a good portion so that it’s always as fresh as possible.
The portion here is perfect.
Hello Stephanie! Thank you for lovely comment and fantastic review 😀 I am glad the recipe is helpful.
I added about 30ml too much water to the yudane, what will happen to the bread and is it possible to dry the yudane?
Hi Joey, add more flour.
Hi. I came across an article saying Yudane is 1:1 meaning 50g flour : 50ml water. I am curious to know your thoughts on this and also your recommended ratio. Thanks.
This is a very authentic recipe for 食パン and if followed strictly produces wonderful bread. Making the yudane (湯種）the night before is essential to getting the right texture as is using good bread flour. I have made this several times and it always turns out so perfect and exactly like very typical milk bread in Japan.
Thank you Dan for excellent review and rating 😀