The Secret to Making The Fluffiest Bread (Shokupan)

Hey everyone it's Martin and today we'll be making some shokupan or Japanese milk bread dough. Shokupan or Japanese milk bread is an enriched dough which actually uses a unique technique called tanjong. So the process here is we combine the liquids so some water and some fresh milk bring it to a light simmer. So what we're gonna do here is we are gonna be cooking some of the flour mix while adding your flour little by little. So right now we're making a paste that's what tanjong is and what happens here is we are cooking the flour and by doing that we are locking in some of the moisture. So that's why when compared to the regular pullman loaf, the Japanese style loaves are more moist and soft. So I'm just gonna transfer it here to cool it down. This locks in the moisture. It helps the flour or the dough retain more water or milk in our case. Set this aside to cool. Then now for the main dough. First thing I'm gonna do is dissolve my salt into my fresh milk. Then it's super safe to combine your dry ingredients except for the salt. So first is our bread flour. Using bread flour so we can develop our gluten faster. Some white sugar and instant yeast. Before we move this here, I'll crack the eggs. I'm using two eggs. It's one thing I can't do. Break an egg with just one hand. I don't want to risk the recipe just so I can look cool. You know who I'm talking about. Joke lang. Dough hook attachment. So first before the milk and the eggs, I'm gonna add in the Tanjong little by little. Okay next I'll add my two eggs followed by the fresh milk. Okay so why not add the Tanjong after I add my liquids? From experience, whenever you're using a stand mixer like this, hanggang one to two lang whenever you're mixing though. Kasi sa ganyan na maalam yung mixer dati namin na red. Pero hindi ko kasalanan nun. I blame you Erwan Yusuf. We don't add the butter right away. We want to have some gluten formation. Not fully developed. Pero gusto lang natin na mag-develop sya ng unti. Para it won't have a hard time incorporating the butter in it. So I'll add my softened butter. I think it's ready to rest. Sa tabi ko lang to. So check lang natin just to be sure. Get the chunk of your dough. Spread it. Spread, spread until you get that translucent. Poke it. If it doesn't make a hole that means your dough is ready. Lodi kita. Lodi. So lightly greased surface. And just make it into a cute dough. Yeah so we're gonna bulk ferment this for 30 minutes just so we can develop the flavor of the dough. I really recommend the bulk fermentation. Yeah so this has doubled in volume. So I'm gonna divide this into six bowels. Right so dinavide ko sya into six because I have two loaf pans. Just roll them into nice cute balls. Or you could actually just you know what let's make two versions. Man. Flatten like this. Fold the middle sides. Middle sides. Till I get this cute. So this is my favorite type of loaf pan by the way. Because of the ridges and the material here it's non-stick. No need to grease it. But as for this one though it's really important to get the sides the bottom so that so that your bread won't stick. You just. So this one I'll put in. So yeah. We made two kinds. One that's like a straight loaf. One that is like in three parts. Cover it with a wet cloth. And then just to prevent it from forming a skin. And yeah. Until double in volume. Tus bake na tayo later. So gender reveal. So we started out with like less than the height of the loaf pan and now it's like over. So it's ready to bake. So next up is the egg wash. This is just one egg and two tablespoons of water. Because I've already preheated my oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. And this is gonna bake for 30 minutes. 30 to 40 minutes. Really depending on what kind of oven you have at home. All right. So these are ready to bake. 30 minutes. See you soon babies. Nice and brown. Sometimes people brush it with butter or a light syrup. Pero tayo. Masaya na tayo dito. But what I usually do since we are doing a, what do you call this, an open top. I sometimes let it cool. Just so it doesn't get that. It doesn't cave in. Let's let it rest for at least a minute or two before we slice it. Pero at least I'm happy to see na it doesn't, it didn't cave in. Mukhang matatag siya. Tulad ng relationship nyo. With me. Just let it cool before we slice it. So this is actually what we want to happen. When you squish your bread, kind of returns back to its original form. It's very good. Just the right amount of sweetness. Actually great for things like french toast. Essential Japanese milk bread.