Shokupan (食パン) – Japanese Milk Bread with Tangzhong

Shokupan is the white loaf bread that you eat in Japan for breakfast, cut thick and toasted with butter. For sandwiches you take thinner slices and cut off the crust. The crumb is white and fibrous, and you can pull it off in strips. The crust stays thin and pale.

By Laura Chen · November 4, 2026

3 Std 10 Mintotal

12servings

150kcal

JapaneseCuisine ›

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Before kneading, you cook a portion of the flour and milk into a paste, the tangzhong. At 65 °C the starch gelatinizes and binds more water than raw flour takes up. That keeps your bread soft for three days. Knead the dough until you can stretch a piece into a thin, translucent skin. With the lid on the pan you bake a square loaf; without a lid it domes into three round hills.

With shokupan you build a katsu sando with a breaded cutlet. For a breakfast sandwich, put tamagoyaki between two slices. A fried toast with vegetable omelet from Korea is in gilgeori toast.

Image: AI-generated.

Shokupan (食パン) – Japanese Milk Bread with Tangzhong

Name: Shokupan (食パン) – Japanese Milk Bread with Tangzhong
Prep time: 2 h 35 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 3 h 10 min
Yield: 12
Cuisine: Japanese
Ingredients: 25 g bread flour (type 550); 125 ml milk; 350 g bread flour (type 550); 30 g sugar; 6 g salt; 7 g dry yeast (1 packet); 160 ml lukewarm milk; 30 g soft butter; 1 tbsp milk

Laura Chen

Servings

Prep time

155 minutes

Cook time

35 minutes

Calories

150

Cuisine

Japanese

Ingredients

For the tangzhong:

25 g bread flour (type 550)
125 ml milk

For the dough:

350 g bread flour (type 550)
30 g sugar
6 g salt
7 g dry yeast (1 packet)
160 ml lukewarm milk
30 g soft butter

For brushing:

1 tbsp milk

Instructions

Whisk 25 g flour and 125 ml milk in a small pot until no lumps remain. Heat the mixture over medium heat, stirring, for 2 to 3 minutes, until it thickens to a pudding and reaches 65 °C.
Transfer the tangzhong to a bowl, lay plastic wrap directly on the surface and let it cool for 20 minutes.
Put the flour, sugar, salt and yeast in the bowl of the stand mixer. Add the milk and tangzhong and knead everything for 5 minutes on low speed.
Add the butter and knead for 10 more minutes on medium speed, until you can stretch a piece of dough into a thin, translucent skin.
Shape the dough into a ball and let it rise covered for 60 minutes in a warm place, until it has doubled in volume.
Grease a 25 x 11 cm loaf pan. Divide the dough into 3 pieces, roll each into an oval 25 cm long and roll it up from the short side.
Set the 3 rolls side by side in the pan. Let them rise covered for 45 minutes, until the dough is 1 cm below the rim.
Preheat the oven to 180 °C (355 °F) top and bottom heat. Brush the surface with milk and bake the bread for 35 minutes.
Turn the bread out of the pan right away and let it cool on a rack before slicing. Warm, the crumb tears when cut.

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Shokupan (食パン) – Japanese Milk Bread with Tangzhong

Ingredients

For the tangzhong:

For the dough:

For brushing:

Instructions

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Shokupan (食パン) – Japanese Milk Bread with Tangzhong

Ingredients

For the tangzhong:

For the dough:

For brushing:

Instructions

Reviews

Rate this recipe

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