Milk bread
An enriched soft loaf whose characteristic pillowy crumb comes from a cooked-flour paste that lets the dough carry more water than it otherwise could.
Also called shokupan (INTERNATIONAL), hokkaido milk bread (INTERNATIONAL), japanese milk bread (INTERNATIONAL), tangzhong bread (TRADE)
Milk bread is an enriched white loaf — milk, butter, sugar, sometimes egg — made to be soft, fine-crumbed and to stay that way for longer than an ordinary enriched loaf does. In its East Asian form it is usually built on a cooked flour paste, known as tangzhong or by the related yudane method.
WHAT THE PASTE ACTUALLY DOES. A small portion of the flour is cooked with liquid until the starch gelatinises. Gelatinised starch holds far more water than raw flour does, and holds it in a form that does not make the dough slack. So the finished dough can carry more total water at the same handling consistency, and a wetter crumb is a softer crumb that takes longer to stale.
IT IS A WATER-MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUE, NOT A MAGIC INGREDIENT. Nothing is added that was not already in the formula; the flour and water are simply pre-treated. That is why the same effect appears in various traditions under different names, and why the size of the effect depends on how much of the flour was treated.
THE ENRICHMENT WORKS THE USUAL WAY. Fat and sugar tenderise and slow fermentation; milk contributes water, sugars that brown, and protein. The combination is why a milk bread dough is slow, sticky and worth developing well — the fine even crumb it is judged on needs a properly built network.
BakeHQ describes the method and its mechanism. The popular account of a single named originator for the technique is not something this site is sourced to assert.
What it should be like
- Crumb texture
- Very fine, even and pillowy; tears in soft sheets
- Tenderness
- Soft throughout, with a thin crust
- Shelf life
- Stays soft longer than a comparable enriched loaf
How it keeps
Stays soft longer than an equivalent enriched loaf made without a cooked-flour paste. More water held in gelatinised starch means more water still in the crumb as retrogradation proceeds.
Derived from the gelatinisation and retrogradation records rather than from a comparative shelf-life study, which BakeHQ has not read. The direction is well supported; no figure is claimed.
InferredJan A. Delcour and R. Carl Hoseney, AACC International
Where it comes from
Professional consensus
Agreed by professional bakers and baking-science texts, with an accepted mechanism, though not isolated by controlled experiment.
The soft enriched tin loaf known as shokupan is central to modern Japanese baking, and closely related breads are made across East Asia. The cooked-flour technique it is built on appears in several traditions under different names.
More in baking history and culture.
Why milk bread that is not fluffy is usually underdeveloped rather than underproved
The crumb this bread is judged on — fine, even, tearing in sheets — is a well-built gluten network holding small uniform cells. Getting there needs the dough developed further than most home bread doughs are taken.
An enriched dough resists development: fat interferes with the network forming, and a wet sticky dough tempts the baker to add flour and stop early. The result rises acceptably and has a coarse, uneven, slightly bready crumb rather than a pillowy one.
The honest test is the dough, not the loaf. A properly developed enriched dough becomes smooth, elastic and much less sticky than it started, and it does so well after the point at which it first looks combined.
Related
Part of
An enriched lean-dough descendant, built on a gluten network like the rest of the family.
Things that go wrong
Ordinary fermentation causes, slowed by enrichment.
The fine even crumb this bread is judged on needs development most home doughs do not get.
The dough is too sticky to handle
A wet enriched dough is sticky long past the point at which it is ready.
Baked in a tin and judged on height.
A tall tin loaf with a soft crumb has somewhere to fall.
The bread is crumbly and falls apart
Added when the graph-exclusion rule made the omission visible. An enriched loaf judged on a fine even crumb does crumble when the network was never built, which is this model's second cause.
What this product needs done
Structure building
The fine even crumb is a well-developed network and cannot be reached without one.
Gas retention
Standard for a yeasted dough.
Aeration
Yeast, slowed by fat and sugar.
Hydration
More water than an ordinary enriched dough, held in gelatinised starch.
Moisture retention
The cooked-flour paste exists to hold water in the crumb after baking.
Fermentation substrate
Standard.
Characteristic ingredients
The fine even crumb needs a strong well-developed network.
The liquid the bread is named for.
Enrichment and softness.
Tenderness, browning and yeast food.
Slowed by the enrichment.
Techniques involved
Developed further than most home doughs are taken.
Slowed by fat and sugar.
Rolled and coiled into the tin for the characteristic tearing crumb.