The Long-Awaited Milk Bread Recipe Without Sourdough Starter
My sourdough vegan shokupan recipe is one of the most popular recipes on my blog. I posted a sneak peek video of a yeast version of this recipe on my Instagram few days ago and asked about your opinion on me posting a bread recipe without sourdough. As much as I like my sourdough starter, sometimes you just want to make bread without having to spend a whole day at home watching the dough or maintaining a sourdough starter. This vegan shokupan is definitely the softest, fluffiest and most delicious bread you will ever make.
The Soft & Fluffy Shokupan
Shokupan means “eating bread” in Japanese, is the most loved and popular bread in Japan, if not Asia. Japanese eat shokupan for breakfast with butter, as well as making sandwiches. Every bakery in Japan has their own “secret” recipe for Shokupan. Some may even say that shokupan to Japanese is like the baguette to French. However, as I mentioned in my previous post, traditional Shokupans are made with milk, eggs and butter, so for us vegans, it’s hard, if not impossible, to purchase shokupans in the stores.
Same Day Recipe – Soft & Fluffy Bread Ready In 3 hours! 😎
Unlike bread leavened by sourdough, this recipe only requires around 3 hours from start to finish. I usually like to prepare the dough first thing in the morning, so I will have freshly baked bread ready for lunch. But you can make whenever it fits your schedule. As I used yudane (explained below) for this recipe, this bread will stay soft, moist and fluffy for a few days.
Yudane Method 💦
This vegan shokupan is buttery soft, fluffy and stringy. Yudane method is a technique I used quite often in my sourdough baking. Yudane method is the secret to make a soft and fluffy Japanese style bread. In order to bake using this method, you simply mix an equal portion of flour and boiling water. The effect of adding boiling water to flour is that it gelatinises the starch. The gelatinised starch will allow the starch to absorb more water, and thus enhancing the sweetness of the bread.
Yudane method is in fact similar to the Tangzhong method I used in my sourdough milk bread recipe. Unlike the 1:1 flour-to-water ratio in Yudane method, the Tangzhong mixture is made by heating up a mixture of flour and water in the ratio of 1:5 to 65°C.
Baking Schedule
8am: Mix dough
8:30am: First rise
9:30am: Shape the loaf. Cover and leave it to rise at a warm place for around an hour or until it reaches the rim of the Pullman bread pan (I used a 450g pan, 20 x 10 x 10 cm)
10:30am: BAKE!
For more sourdough recipe using Yudane method, check out my the following recipes:
- Super Soft Sourdough Rolls
- Tiger Sourdough Challah
- Vegan Sourdough Shokupan (aka Japanese Milk Bread)
- Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls
- Sourdough Double Chocolate Babka Rolls
- Vegan Sourdough Challah
- Sourdough Blueberry Rolls
- Chocolate Cinnamon Roll Challah
- Japanese Sourdough Butter Rolls
- Matcha Babkallah With Red Bean Paste
- Matcha Black Sesame Sourdough Babka
Vegan Shokupan (aka Japanese Milk Bread) (Yeast Version)
Course: SourdoughCuisine: JapaneseDifficulty: Easy4
servings30
minutes25
minutesThis vegan shokupan is definitely the softest, fluffiest and most deli
Ingredients
- Yudane
65g bread flour
65 boiling water
- Main Dough
260g bread flour
28g sugar
3g salt
170g-185g plant milk (starts with 170g first, then add the remaining 15g of plant milk if the dough is too dry)
15g vegan butter
Directions
- At least 4 hours before preparing the main dough, add 65g boiling water to 65g bread flour. Leave it aside to cool completely. You can also prepare it the night before, then place it in the fridge overnight and use it the next day.
- Place all of the ingredients (except butter) into the bowl of your stand mixer. Using the hook attachment, knead for about 3 minutes until the dough comes together and forms a dough ball.
- Gradually add in butter (in 2-3 batches). Continue knead for around 10 more minutes or until reach window pane stage.
- Round the dough, cover and place it at a warm place. Let it rest for 1 hour. I place mine in the oven with the light on, around 82°F (28°C).
- Divide the dough into 3 equal portions (around 203g each). Roll each dough into a rectangle, then roll it up like when you are making cinnamon rolls.
- Cover and let it proof at a warm place (28°C or 82.4°F) for about another hour or until the dough reaches the rim of the pullman loaf pan.
- Preheat oven to 170°C or 350°F.
- Bake for 15 mins, cover the top with aluminium foil and bake for another 10 minutes.
- Remove the bread from oven and the pan, let it cool completely on rack for at least an hour before diving in! 😆
