Japanese Soft and Fluffy Bread - Syoku-Pan 食パン

Multigrain Shoku-Pan. A healthier Version of my Shoku-Pan

As I mentioned in cooksnaps.com, Japanese Shoku-Pan used to be something I really miss from Japan.

Yeah I know, they have a lot of nice bread here in Canada but nothing is like Shoku-Pan that I was use to eat growing up in Japan.

They are fluffy and soft, kind of like a sponge cake except it's not really sweet. When toasted it is crispy on the surface yet if you bite into it, it's moist and chewy on the inside.

It took me a while to formulate the perfect recipe. It wouldn't have been this much of a project if I had a Japanese bread maker. (Many of my Japanese friends tried making a loaf with ingredients available in Canada and had a great success.)

And when I really missed eating Japanese bread unfortunately coincided with the time of that huge earthquake and the arrival of my 2 babies so going back to Japan and get me a bread machine wasn't an option.

Then I found out that you can buy Japanese style Shoku-Pan from T&T Supermarket but when I tried it, it was just way too sweet and it had funny aftertaste.

So the next thing I did was to try to make Shoku-Pan with a Canadian bought bread maker like you see below.

Oster Bread maker. This guy's been with us for more than 10 years.

I just used the recipe for Shoku-Pan that I found on cookpad.com . And the bread I got was a disaster. I don't remember well exactly how it was like, but it was totally different from what I had in mind.

Next, I only used the dough setting and did the rest (second proofing etc.) by myself. Then I only had pound cake pans so I used those.

And this is what I got! I was pretty happy with the result, and the texture and the softness was pretty awesome if I can say so myself. But I wasn't 100% satisfied yet.

Yes, the shape of it wasn't that of a Shoku-Pan I knew.

So I went of the Net and found Shoku-Pan Pans!

12cm X 12cm Professional grade Shoku-Pan Pan 630 Yen

I asked my mom to send these to me and when I finally got them, I tweaked the recipe I had a little bit and the bread was perfect. I have been making my Shoku-Pan with this recipe ever since.

Below is the recipe of my Shoku-Pan. You can also find it at cooksnaps.com.

Ingredients (yields to 2 square Shoku-Pan)

• 340ml Water
• 50g Butter (measured and melted)
• 2 tsp Salt
• 460g Bread flour
• 40g Cake & Pastry flour
• 40g Granulated suger
• 5g Yeast

Directions

1. Measure all the ingredients. Melt the butter.
2. In the bread maker pan put all the ingredients in the order shown above in "Ingredients" section. (water-->butter-->salt-->flour-->sugar--> yeast)
3. Put the pan in the bread maker and choose dough setting. Once it starts to move, add seeds and grains if you choose to use them.
4. Scrape the side of the pan with a spatula from time to time so the dough gets mixed evenly. And also this is the good time to check your dough. If it's too soft (sticking to the pan) add some flour, half a table spoon at a time. Or if it's too hard (you hear dough knocking hard on the side of the pan) add water, half a table spoon at a time.*
5. After the dough cycle is done (mine takes about 1 hour and 30 mins.) Remove the dough from the pan and divide into two equally sized balls. On a floured surface, knead each dough balls lightly squeezing out big air bubbles.
6. Let them rest for 20 mins in room temperature, covered with a damp paper towel or a cloth.
7. Knead the dough gently again to push out big air bubbles from the dough.
8. Put the dough in a greased pan (I use Pam spray for that) and proof the dough for 1 hour or until the dough is about 80% of the height of the pan. (I know I have over proofed a bit this time.)



I know I over proofed a bit this time.

9. You can leave the lids open to make English style (dome shape, shown in a pic below) Shokupan or close the lid to make normal ones. (square)



English style Shoku-Pan

10. Preheat the oven to 392 Fahrenheit or 200 Celsius and bake for 18 mins.
11. Remove the bread from the pans immediately and cool on the wire rack until the bread is cool to touch.
12. Put the bread in plastic bags to keep them soft and moist.

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*The dough is supposed to be on the soft side, so try not to ass too much flour or it might mess up the ratio and therefore not so fluffy bread. 

The Pans I use are pre-baked with oil several times to prevent the dough from sticking. Nevertheless you have to grease the pan every time. I used to grease the pans with butter but now I find PAM spray works the best.

The other thing you should remember is that once you pre-baked these pans, you should not wash them after each use or ever, actually. If you accidentally washed them for some reason you have to pre-bake the pans again.

And finally I introduce you to a neat tool for slicing bread.

For those who can't slice their bread evenly. You can fit English style bread as well. You can choose different thickness (25mm, 20mm, 15mm and 10mm)

You can get this neat tool here.

Shoku-Pan Slicer 1,344 Yen at Rakuten.