How to make Shokupan

Learn how to make fluffy, delicious and highly aesthetic, Japanese Milk Bread or Shokupan at home! 

Shokupan tins are one of our most popular products. To help get you started baking, we've put together this simple recipe. 

What is Shokupan?

Also commonly known as Japanese milk bread is a light fluffy, slightly sweetened and super aesthetic bread commonly found in Japan. 

Recipe

Ingredients:

Method:

• Pre-set the oven to 180 degrees.
• Combine bakers flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl and beat well with an electric mixer.
• Make a well in the middle of the dough and add lukewarm water and dry yeast.
• Gradually mix in the water and yeast with the surrounding dough by hand.
• Place the dough onto a clean bench top and knead well, punching down the dough 40 to 50 times.
• Incorporate the butter kept at room temperature into the dough and knead until the dough is smooth.
• Pinch the ends of the dough and pull sideways. Once the dough stretches out into a thin elastic sheet, place the dough inside a greased bowl. Cover and set aside in a warm place (ideally 24-25 degrees) until the dough rises and doubles in size (~1 hour).
• Poke the dough with a dough scraper and press down gently with hands to release gas on a dough mat.
• Divide the dough into two with a scraper. Cover with a cloth and set aside for 10 minutes.
• Roll out the ball of dough with a rolling pin and fold the 2 sides of the dough into the middle. Lightly stretch out the folded dough with a rolling pin.
• Roll the dough by hand and tuck the ends underneath.
• Place the 2 rolls of dough inside the greased bread tin and let it rest in a warm room until the dough rises another 1cm.
• Bake in the oven on 180 degrees (1 loaf tin = 35min; 1.5 loaf tin = 40min; 2 loaf tin = 50min).
• Let the bread cool on a cooling rack.

Which tin to use?

Choosing the right shokupan tin mostly comes down to what size you like. The most common type is of course the traditional rectangle, however the cube shaped ones are increasingly becoming popular!

We just recently introduced Shokupan tins with a thicker 0.7mm wall. This helps the Shokupan cook more evenly in the oven!

We've listed a few product suggestions below: