Shokupan is a milk bread so soft it tears into ribbons, and the hard part in a sourdough version is keeping the acidity from shouting over the milk. The fix has two parts: a yudane made from 40% of the flour weight scalded with boiling milk, and a starter used young, at hour six, when it is sweet rather than sour.
The yudane, and why it is 40%
Mix 120 g of bread flour with 240 g of boiling milk, stir to a paste, cover, and cool to room temperature. That is 40% of the 300 g total flour weight scalded. The gelatinised starch holds water so effectively that the crumb stays soft for four days, which is the defining quality of shokupan. Below 20% the effect is barely noticeable; above 50% the dough becomes slack and the crumb loses its fine structure.
| Ingredient | Weight | Baker's % |
|---|---|---|
| Bread flour | 270 g | 90% |
| Cake flour | 30 g | 10% |
| Yudane (from the above flour) | 120 g flour + 240 g boiling milk | 40% |
| Cold milk | 90 g | 30% |
| Starter 1:5:5, used at hour 6 | 75 g | 25% |
| Sugar | 24 g | 8% |
| Salt | 5.4 g | 1.8% |
| Butter, softened | 24 g | 8% |
Keeping the ferment young and cool
The starter is at 25 °C and has been fed six hours earlier, which is before the acetic acid peak. Bulk is 3.5 hours at 24 °C — deliberately cooler than most entries here, because milk and sugar both push fermentation faster and a warm bulk turns this loaf sour. The dough is kept on the cold side throughout: 12 hours in the fridge slows the final proof and keeps the crumb pale.
Enrichment and the pullman tin
Butter goes in at 8% after the bulk, folded in over three sets. The dough is then divided into two, rolled into cylinders, and placed side by side in a 20 x 10 x 10 cm pullman tin with the lid on for a flat, square top. 200 °C, no steam, 34 minutes. The lid means you cannot see the loaf; trust the time and the internal temperature of 94 °C.
- Crumb rating 4/5: feather-soft, milky white, stretches into ribbons.
- Slices at 2 cm without compressing, which is the point of the whole recipe.
- Keeps four days at room temperature in a sealed bag.
If the loaf tastes sour rather than milky, the starter was too old. Feed it 1:5:5, wait six hours at 25 °C, and start again — a 12-hour starter cannot be rescued with sugar.
Sources / 参考来源
Published reference works consulted for this log: