Japanese Milk Bread / Shokupan
Home-made Artisan Sliced Sandwich Loaf
Sliced sandwich loaves are typically mass-produced and contain preservatives that keep them fresh for over a week at room temperature. Now, you could get a loaf of home-made artisan sliced sandwich loaf at Flourish Flourist Bakery. Convenient meal prep no longer means having preservatives and shortening in your food.
75%* Dough Hydration; Below 10%* Butter (for white plain version)
Using a water roux* technique, called Yu-dane (ゆだね) or TangZhong (湯種), which helps retain moisture in milk bread. It is much softer and moister than other breads with 75% dough hydration. The ingredients are simple: bread flour, water, whole milk, sugar, butter, salt, and instant yeast. It is the cotton candy of bread that’s free from vegetable oil, shortening, and milk powder. Since moisture helps keep our bread soft, we can use less than 10%* butter in our white plain Japanese Milk Bread. Brioche, a classic bread used for premium plain hot dog rolls or burgers, typically contains at least 30%* butter.
* All percentages above are bakers’ percentages, which express the weight of the corresponding ingredient(s) as a percentage of the total flour weight. The flour is always set at 100%, and other ingredients, such as water and butter, are calculated as a percentage of the flour weight.
Hand-folded into 20+ Layers each Section
High dough hydration only makes the bread soft. Just like a croissant without layers is not a croissant, a good Japanese Milk Bread cannot achieve its cotton-candy texture without the layers. Each half-loaf of our plain Japanese Milk Bread has three dough sections. Each section is hand-folded to around 20 layers. It takes a few rounds of folding, shaping, and resting to achieve these layers. You could tell the difference, as the marks from the last round of folding are pretty evident on the outside. Not all sandwich loaves in Asian bakeries would have these folding marks. Not all online Milk Bread recipes include instructions for these folding and layering steps. This is one of the reasons we call our Japanese Milk Bread an artisan-sliced sandwich loaf.
No Coating Pullman Bread Pan (No Silicon; No Non-stick Coating)
It takes us quite some time to find a Pullman bread pan without a coating. Since the rise of silicone coatings, almost all major baking utensil brands have followed the trend. Some brands offer non-coating bread pans. However, with the Pullman one, they always applied some coating, especially those designed for commercial use. We cleared the last two remaining stock items of blue steel Pullman bread pans from Italy when we finally located what we wanted. We waited about four months for the next shipment to arrive in the US. On the bright side, it forces us to develop some bread. It really sped up our development of the Signature Roll and Foccacia.
Flavor & Usage
Our Swirl Japanese Milk Bread is sold by the section (1/3 of a loaf, cut into four medium slices) as a snack or for easy toast at home. We hand-shape each section with swirl, one at a time, to ensure each section has the same amount of goodies. The savory bread, like Chives Bread with Garlic Butter and Cheese Swirl, is a great companion to your home-made soup in the Fall.
Big weekend breakfast without preservatives is just a few minutes away! Just put our sweet version in the air fryer for a few minutes, then pair it with your favorite fresh fruit and cream.
Our flavored one, like Chives Bread, is an excellent bread for grilled cheese or a quick, low-effort sandwich. This 1/2 loaf is sliced into six medium slices. Follow our Instagram for new flavor announcements.
Storage & Re-heating
As no preservative is used, the bread may last for two to three days at room temperature in the shade. If you plan to enjoy the bread after 2 days of purchase, we recommend placing it in a zip-lock bag and freezing it for up to 3 weeks. Several of our sandwich loaves contain chives, which can be mistaken for mold. That’s why we recommend freezing it once after 2 days of purchase. Why spend time worrying whether it’s mold or just a chive?
To reheat a sandwich slice, place it in an air fryer for a few minutes straight from the freezer. If it is a plain white one, you may also use the toaster’s defrost function. The defrost function also works well for the flavored one, but it may make cleaning more complicated.
* All percentages used above are bakers’ percentages, which express the weight of the ingredient as a percentage of the total weight of the flour. The flour is always set at 100%, and other ingredients, such as water and butter, are calculated as a portion of the flour weight.