Hokkaido Milk Bread

We recently bought a loaf of white bread from the bakery in Mitsuwa marketplace. The bread was on the sweeter side, and had a very light and fluffy texture which my husband greatly enjoyed. In my attempt to recreate this bread on Sunday, I tried a recipe for Hokkaido milk bread. Interestingly, the secret to this bread is the use of tangzhong, a cooked mixture of bread flour and water. I was very happy with the results. If you like Hawaiian bread, I think that you would enjoy this bread.

I'm not an experienced bread maker, but this recipe seemed pretty traditional in that it involved 2 proofs. After the first proof, you shape the dough into whatever shape you want the final product to look like, and then let it proof again before baking.

My question to the board, if i wanted to freeze the dough, at what point in the recipe do I do this?

Here's a link to the recipe I used: http://www.instructables.com/id/Asian-S ... kaido-Mil/

Thank you.

Buttercream, the conventional approach for freezing bread dough is to make the dough, allow first rise, shape dough and freeze. When making the bread, allow the dough to get to room temperature, allow second rise, then bake as normal. In my experience, this works, but the bread is never as good as bread baked without freezing.

I am curious whether anyone else has a better method.

Thanks mrsm. Next time I make this dough I'm going to freeze half and see what happens.

Hi,

Gary's Japanese sandwiches made with Japanese Milk Bread has created quite an itch.

I found a recipe on the NYT's, but I went to youtube to watch someone do the shaping:


Shaping begins at 6:35

Waiting for the rise before popping into the oven.

Yes, I could buy it. The time invested to DIY is less than the time to pick it up, not counting waiting for rising.

Regards,
Cathy2

Cook's Illustrated has a good and versatile recipe. It works for dinner rolls and sticky buns.

https://www.kcet.org/food/weekend-recipe-japanese-milk-bread

I've been quite fond of this recipe for shokupan myself. I came across it a few years ago on link from Serious Eats about the ultimate BLT sandwich. And, damn if it doesn't make a great white bread for a sandwich. It's similar to the recipes above; this one is a bit more exact with the weights of ingredients, in case you (like me) like that kind of baking recipe. It's wonderful stuff. The description makes it sound like it's less sweet than Hokkaido Milk Bread, but I've never had Hokkaido. (The King Arthur recipe Emmy is using in her video has about twice the amount of sugar as this recipe.)

I have made the shokupan that Bingo linked through after seeing it on Serious Eats as well. I keep hoping Kenji will post the bread recipe he was working on, but he appears to have disappeared.

That said I prefer the Cook's Illustrated recipe. Its much higher hydration produces a superior loaf and it is not noticeably sweet.

maybe this reply belongs with Gary's sandwiches (can't find?) or the recent egg salad thread, but this is a prime use for Hokkaido:

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/101 ... d-sandwich

annak wrote:maybe this reply belongs with Gary's sandwiches (can't find?) or the recent egg salad thread, but this is a prime use for Hokkaido:

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/101 ... d-sandwich

Here are links to both those threads:

Katsu Sando #homecooking

egg salad

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:Here are links to both those threads:

And here's a link to the Konbi egg salad recipe without the NYT paywall.
------> Link

This Japanese sandwich is why I made the bread and homemade Japanese-style mayonnaise.



Hope the family likes it.

Regards,
CAthy2

botd wrote:I have made the shokupan that Bingo linked through after seeing it on Serious Eats as well. I keep hoping Kenji will post the bread recipe he was working on, but he appears to have disappeared.

That said I prefer the Cook's Illustrated recipe. Its much higher hydration produces a superior loaf and it is not noticeably sweet.

Oh. I am intrigued. Will try that recipe next.

Cathy,

I think you have a starter. I am a huge fan of the wild yeast one as well as the CI one.

Loaf image here ( I still have difficulty posting pics here).

Recipe here.

Hi,

I have made both the NYT and Cook's Illustrated recipes. For the NYT, I used the folding and rolling method from the video I referenced above. For CI, I followed their instructions to roll out roughly 6x24, cut in half and roll up.

I prefer the NYT, because I like it sweeter and the interior surface is velvety. The CI has some holes and is not as velvety. I might bake another CI using the folding method from the video.

The NYT recipe is closer to what I have come to expect from Japanese milk bread the few times I tried it.

Sometime I will try the recipe Binko linked to, once I have a battery back in my digital scale.

Regards,
Cathy2

Pictures demonstrate better:

Looks more like conventional bread.


Tighter construction has a more velvety interior.


Both egg washed and baked at the suggested temperatures and times.

Beautiful Cathy. I was waiting for pics of the final product.