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Sourdough Japanese Milk Bread (Shokupan)

ByRoselle
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Sourdough Bread Recipe: Sourdough Japanese Milk Bread

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5 from 1 review

  • Author: Roselle
  • Prep Time: 6-8hrs for the sweet stiff sourdough starter to come to peak
  • Fermentation Time: 4hr room temp proof + 8hr cold proof + 2-4hr final proofing
  • Cook Time: 35 min
  • Total Time: 24hrs
  • Yield: See notes
  • Category: Sourdough Baking

Ingredients

Scale

Sweet Stiff Starter (Levain)

9g starter

45g bread flour

14g water

9g sugar

Yudane – optional

80g bread flour

64g hot water

Dough

400g bread flour

165g milk

40g water

60g egg white (the whites of 1 large/jumbo egg)

74g sugar

10g salt

77g sss (all of it)

53g butter (I use salted)

Instructions

Step 1 – Preparation

Make The Sweet Stiff Starter

  • Take 9g of your sourdough starter and feed it 45g bread flour + 14g water + 9g sugar
  • Wait for it to 3x in size –it will be ready when the top stops doming and starts to crater a little

Prepare Yudane

  • This recipe can be made with OR without the yudane.
  • Yudane is basically a bread improver –it will help your bread be lighter, softer, fluffier and moist for longer
  • In a bowl, add 80g of bread flour, then pour 64g of boiling hot water, mix
  • Let cool, cover, put in the fridge overnight

Step 2 – Mixing

  • In your stand mixer, mix dough ingredients (except the butter) until you get a windowpane (mixer at speed 2 for around 10-16 min)
  • Then add in the butter. Mix again until you get a windowpane (mixer at speed 2 for around 10-16 min)

Step 3 – Bulk Proof/1st Rise

  • Roughly shape the dough into a taut ball and put it in a greased bowl, cover
  • Bulk proof for 4hrs at 74F (gauge time if your room is cooler or warmer)

Step 4 – Cold Proof/2nd Rise

  • Cold proof in your fridge overnight (~8hrs)

ATTN – Cold proofing is optional. I like cold proofing because the slow fermentation lets flavors develop.  It’s normal that it doesn’t rise much or at all in the fridge.  The cold halts fermentation.  The rule of thumb here is to bake when it’s 80% in size, however long that takes in the fridge or on the counter.  My starter leavens this dough with the times I listed above.  It may be shorter or longer for you depending on your starter’s strength.  

Step 5 – Shaping

  • Take out the dough, weigh and divide equally by 6 and shape tautly into buns
  • Cover, rest 20 min
  • Roll each bun into a rectangle
  • Fold the rectangle into thirds like you’re folding a piece of paper to mail (the envelope fold)
  • Cover, rest 20 min
  • Roll each long into a long rectangle
  • Now roll each rectangle like you would a cinnamon roll
  • Lift each roll and place into your buttered Pullman loaf pan
  • Then put directly onto a buttered 13 x 4 x 4 Pullman Loaf Pan
  • Cover

Step 6 – Final Proof/3rd Rise

  • Cover lightly because we don’t want it to dry out
  • Final proof this for 4-6hrs at room temp (74F),
  • or until *ALMOST* double, around 75-80% rise

Step 7 – Baking

  • Egg-wash and bake in a pre-heated 350F oven for 35-40 min

Notes

This recipe at scale 1x will make

To make this sourdough bread in an 8 x 4 x 4 pan with a normal height, please make this recipe at ½ the scale –in other words, divide this recipe in half

Pictures

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10 Comments

  3. I might be missing something. I can’t find in the instruction where I mix the yudane in. Do I mix it in with the dough when I’m making it?

  4. Alexandra says:

    Hi there, I’m making your Sourdough Bread Recipe: Sourdough Japanese Milk Bread, the dough doesn’t rise on the fridge… it’s normal? Can I put on the counter and wait until it double in size? In the first 4 hour rise at 25 degrees the dough only rose 25%, then I put it in the refrigerator, can you tell me what I should do? Thank you for your help…I’m a sourdough beginner…

    1. Hi Alexandra,

      As long as it is rising in general, you are fine.

      Yes, you can skip the cold proof. I like cold proofing because the slow fermentation lets flavors develop. It’s normal that it doesn’t rise much or at all in the fridge. The cold halts fermentation.

      The rule of thumb here is to bake when it’s 80% in size, however long that takes in the fridge or on the counter



  5. Amy Gerber says:

    My bread didn’t rise once shaped…. What did I do wrong???

    1. Did you use a stiff starter? How long did you ferment for after shaping? After cold ferment and the shaping, the dough is cold –it’ll thaw and then reach room temp and that’s when it rises. So you wait until it rises to 80%. Then bake. If it didn’t rise at all, it’s a starter issue. Did you use the starter when it was at its peak?