Never Buy Another Supermarket Loaf!

And wait! If you order now…

Just kidding. But if you can master this bread, you may really not have to buy supermarket bread anymore!

When I lived in Japan, it was an almost everyday ritual to go to a local kissaten (coffee shop), and have a slice of “butter jam toast” and a cup of strong, sweet coffee (iced in the summer). Butter jam toast is exactly what it sounds like – toast slathered with butter and strawberry jam (it seemed like that’s the only kind of jam the Japanese know). What made it special (aside from that aromatic, delicious coffee) was the bread. Japanese Bread is a whole ‘nutha animal from American white bread. The loaves are perfectly square and sold in 4, 6, and 8 slice packages. The loaves are the same size, so the size of the slice depends on the slice count; the 4 slice loaves have bigger thicker slices than the 8 slice loaves. The real difference is the crumb, though. Shokupan ( literal translation: meal bread) is a bit denser and sweeter than American sandwich bread. It’s, well, heavy. And Japanese home kitchens rarely have a toaster; home cooks rely on toaster ovens, so the thickness of the slice isn’t an issue. I wanted to post an image of commercially produced shokupan, but the only images I came up with were of home-baked loaves. Rats! Here’s a pic of my own creation, though.

The main difference between shokupan and American sandwich bread is that the Japanese bread uses a starter. I have an incomplete post all about starters saved to draft, but here it is a nutshell. Western bakers use starters, or preferments, to add structure and taste to a loaf. Starters also preserve the bread, adding a few days to its shelf life.

The most common starters in Western baking are: sourdough, which is a whole other subject in and of itself. It sparks heated debates, and recipes for the starters are closely guarded. Sourdough starters also take a long, long time to develop, and you have to feed them. I have commitment issues, so I won’t be making sourdough soon. Biga is used by Italian bakers to make their ciabatta and focaccia. It’s a stiff preferment that takes about 12-14 hours to develop. Poolish, which, as the name suggests, originated in Poland, but is mainly used by French bakers for their baguettes. It is wetter than a biga, but takes about the same amount of time to develop. And then there is the pâté fermenteé, which is basically just a reserved piece of dough from the previous loaf, added to your fresh dough. This method is great for those who back the same loaf several times a week. I haven’t tried it for shokupan yet, but I think I’ll be baking it often, so I’m gonna look into this further.

The starter used in shokupan is called a tangjhon, or water roux. The word is Chinese, but it is commonly thought that it originated in Japan. It’s technically not a roux, as it contains no fat and doesn’t darken. It’s more of a slurry. You cook the slurry over medium-low heat, and at about 150°F, it magically transforms into a pudding-like consistency. It makes for a soft, pillowy crumb that’s just a bit dense, and very moist. And starting with a tangjhon has the added benefit of keeping the bread fresh longer.

Before I share my recipe, I have to warn you. I’m starting to bake using baker’s percentages. That means weighing everything and doing math (ugh). It’s not hard math though, and the calculator is my friend! I have chosen to use metric, rather than avoirdupois, because the math is that much easier. It also makes it easy to tweak existing recipes, increase or decrease the loaf size, and create your own recipes easily. Basically, a baker’s formula consists of ingredients that are a percentage of the total flour weight. Flour is always 100%. Hydration is usually 60% to 70%. Salt is 2% and yeast is 1% to 2percent, usually somewhere in between. (I’m still trying to figure out the common ratios for eggs, sugar, and butter. I’ll let you know!). I know this will be inconvenient for American bakers, who stubbornly hold on to their ounces and pounds. If you’re one of those diehards, here’s a handy little tool to help you convert from grams to ounces: Metric Converter I didn’t add in the volume measurements, every chef in the world, literally, will tell you how important weighing ingredients is in baking (and then of course write their recipes with volume measurements). So, go get yourself a digital kitchen scale! They’re inexpensive and oh so useful.

I’ve gone on long enough, though. It’s time for the recipe!

Japanese Shokupan for Bread Machines

I used several different recipes to research this and adapt it to the bread maker, because that’s how I make my bread. It’s simple to reverse engineer, though, if you don’t have a bread machine or prefer to do things by hand. Only the order of the ingredients will be different.

Ingredients

• Bread flour 500g (100%): 34g (6.8%) for the tangjhon, 446g (93.2%) for the dough plus extra for to add to the dough, if needed, and to dust your work surface.
• 350g water (70%): 175g (50%) for the tangjhon, 175g (50%) for the dough
• Kosher Salt (1.6%) 8g
• Active Dry Yeast (1.6%) 8 grams
• Granulated Sugar (7%) 35g
• Powdered milk (3.3%) 17g
• Unsalted butter (7%) 35g, melted and cooled to room temperature
• One glass of wine, or a cocktail, to take your mind off whether the dough will rise or not!

Instructions

• Lightly whisk the 446g of flour, sugar, and powdered milk together
• Add the 34g of flour and 175g of water for the tangjhon to a small sauce pan. Whisk until thoroughly combined and silky. Heat over medium-low heat, whisking constantly, until the slurry achieves a pudding-like texture. The whisk should leave streaks in the mixture.
• Add the mixture to the bread pan with the remaining 175g of water, the salt (use room temp spring water, it will cool the tangjhon down a bit, so as not to kill the yeast), and the melted cooled butter. Engage the “mix” cycle and mix for a minute or two, then turn the machine off (if your machine doesn’t have a mix cycle, you can just do this by hand, in a bowl, then add it to the bread pan).
• Gently add the flour mixture to the bread pan. Make a small indentation in the flour and add the yeast. Set the machine for the “dough” cycle, and engage. Towards the end of the first knead, check the dough. It should be a bit wet and tacky. If the dough is sticking to the sides of the pan, add flour in pinches until it comes together. If the dough is flaky and dry, add water a bit at a time. Then let the machine do it’s job!
• When the cycle is done, turn the dough onto a lightly floured, clean workspace. Deflate it a bit and form a ball. Place the ball in a lightly oiled glass bowl and turn once to coat the whole ball. Use a neutral oil, like canola, grape seed, or sunflower oil. Cover the bowl with a clean, lint-free dishcloth.
• Put a mug of water into the microwave. (Yes, Virginia, the microwave). Heat it on “high” for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Place the bowl in the microwave with the steaming mug, close the door, and let the dough rise to double its size.
• Remove the dough from the microwave (but leave the mug), and turn it out onto your floured surface. Roll it out gently to about a 9″ by 9″ square. Fold the square in thirds, like a business letter. Then in half again, karate chopping the center. Working from one end, seal the end and then start pinching the seam closed. Finish by sealing the other end. You should have a thick log about 10″ to 12″ long.
• Using both hands, pick up the dough from each end, like a slinky. Place the dough in the pan, ends down and under, and gently shape the dough to the pan. Cover the pan again with the dish towel.
• Reheat the water in the microwave and place the pan in the nice, steamy oven for the final proof. Preheat the oven (the real oven, not the microwave) to 350°F. If you’re using a Pullman loaf pan to get that perfect square (actually, in Pullman pan it’s more of a rectangle), you only want the dough to rise to about 1/2″ under the lip of the pan, so you easily get the lid on, and there’ll be room for that explosive oven rise. If you’re using a standard bread pan, let it rise until the dough is just peeping over the lip.
• Put the pan in the oven (if you’re using a Pullman, grease the pan lid well,before sliding it on.) Bake until the top is golden brown and the bread’s internal temp is 200° to 210°F, twenty to thirty minutes.
• Remove the pan from the oven (if you haven’t done so already, remove the lid from the Pullman) and set on a rack to cool slightly before removing the bread from the pan. After about 10 minutes turn the bread onto the rack and continue cooling. The gluten firms up and solidifies at about 140°F, so don’t give in to the urge to cut right in! If the bread’s too hot, it’ll be mushy!

Shokupan will stay fresh (moist and not stale) in a plastic bag or bread box on your counter for 3 to 4 days. It freezes well too. Slice the bread and store it in the freezer tightly wrapped in plastic wrap, and remove and thaw individual slices as you need them.

Please share with me if you make this bread! There’s plenty of room for tweaks and variations! Comments, too, are always welcome, even critiques and corrections (as long as they’re not nasty).

Until next time, Dance as if no one’s watching, but cook like everyone’s eating!

Bon appétit!

I borrowed from several recipes and websites. All of the information was essential and useful, but I really relied on Jenni Field’s recipe for Pan Au Lait. You can find her recipe, along with excellent commentary, at Jenni Fields’ Fearless in The kitchen. If you’re an aspiring baker, this is one site to bookmark!