Japanese Shokupan Condensed Milk Sandwich Bread - Recipe One: So Cottony Soft!

&version;I like to be out-front today telling everyone that I would highly recommend this Shokupan recipe! It is not just plain good. It is very very very very good...

My family and I love love love these breads. They are soft, chewy and delicious. I have to say that I will be happy baking these again, again and again!!!

If you like to bake your own sandwich bread at home, I reckon that you should bake this!!! Or will you?

Soft, chewy and bouncy Japanese Shokupan

Why is the bread so soft, chewy and delicious?

Honestly, I don't really know and I would like to know the answer too...Interestingly, there is no milk used in this recipe and the milky taste in the bread comes primarily from the condensed milk and milk powder.Back to question, why is the bread so delicious? Honestly, I can't help to think that it is the condensed milk that makes the difference.

I believe these are the magic ingredients that make the bread so delicious!

I love this recipe and have been baking these breads numerous times and every bake is always so lovely!Actually, my first bake of these breads aren't as perfect as the ones in my first photo as I have over-loaded my pullman pans with too much dough and resulting the breads to have "flaps" of over flowing dough. Ai yai yai!!! Despite my mistake, I can see the potential of this recipe when I had my first bite of this bread. It is so soft, moist and bouncy!!! I knew it straight that I had discovered GOLD... LOL!!! Then, I baked this recipe again and had to bake them perfectly with the correct calculation.

Not a perfect bake but I have learned something valuable from here...
1) Ops!!! that I have over-loaded the bread pans. Wrong calculation!
2) The bread is really really really good and I have to bake it again.

Then, I made the right amount of dough to bake two 450g loaves.

They came out from the oven being perfectly square!!!
Yay!!!

Always so lovely... with nicely golden browned crust...

... every slice of it even with its crust is so ultra drapery soft!!!

Want to see how I baked these very soft, chewy and delicious milky bread in my one-minute video? From the video, you can see that this dough can be very sticky to handle and so I wouldn't recommend kneading the dough by hand and you need to shape them on well-floured surfaces.

I'm happy to bake with this recipe again, again, again and again... Will you?

Here's the recipe that I have optimized from Cookpad.

Makes two 10 cm width x 20 cm length x 10 cm height or 450g loaves.
Note: To bake just one loaf of this bread, simply use half of this recipe.

435g water at room temperature, about 24°C

75g condensed milk
625g bread flour
55g caster sugar
30g milk powder
8g salt
8g (2 tsp) instant dry yeast
100g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
extra butter or any cooking oil spray to grease the pans
extra flour for dusting and rolling

Place all the ingredients in a breadmaker according to the order of the above list. Use the dough setting to knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic and allow the dough to prove for 1 hr.

If breadmaker is not available, you can also mix and knead this dough using an electric mixer with a dough hook attachment. Using an electric mixer with low mixing speed, mix all dough ingredients (except butter) to form a dough first. Then, mix in the butter and keep kneading the dough at medium low speed until dough is smooth and elastic. Transfer dough into a large bowl and cover it with a cling wrap. Allow the dough to rise for 1 hr or until doubled in size.

As the dough can be quite sticky to handle, I wouldn't recommend kneading the dough by hand.

Grease the Pullman loaf pans with either butter or spraying oil.

To prepare for shaping, dust your hands, rolling pin and your work area with flour as the dough can be sticky to handle.

To shape, divide dough into two and further divide each half into 3 portions and shape each into balls. Allow them to rest at room temperature for about 10 mins.

Dust each portion of dough with a good amount of flour. Using a rolling pin, roll each portion into long and flat oval shape (about 20 cm) on a lightly floured surface. Pick one of the shorter sides and roll dough to form a Swiss roll shape. Repeat this step with the remaining portions of dough.

Place three of the shaped dough with their seams side down into the each prepared pan. Press the top of the dough lightly to form an even surface.

Cover the loaf partially with lid and allow it to prove for another 1 hr or until it has about 1-2 cm more to reach the maximum height of the loaf pans.

Place the lids onto the pans and bake in an oven preheated to 180°C for 30 mins. When the bread is baked, unmould the bread immediately. Transfer bread on a wire rack to cool it completely. Slice and serve.

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