This light and moist Japanese Milk Bread is the perfect pairing for just about any meal. I absolutely love it with soup. It is the ultimate comfort food. 
Finding the Perfect Comfort Food
I was reminded today that we are actually in the fall season. The leaves are starting to turn colors and thoughts of Halloween and cooler nights have been creeping in. Fall food is something that I look forward to all year long. There is nothing better than a warm bowl of soup sitting on the table next to the fire.
One of my absolute favorite soups is this Potato Soup that I make in my beloved Instant Pot. This recipe is loaded with potatoes, cheese, and bacon and is the ultimate in comfort food soups! But every great soup needs some warm, soft bread to go along with it. I LOVE bread and have had all sorts of great bread from all around the world. One of my friends recently told me about Japanese Milk Bread.
Japanese Milk Bread
Japanese Milk Bread, also known as Hokkaido Milk Bread, is known for it’s slightly sweet flavor and very soft interior. One of the key ingredients is tangzhong. This is a starter that you get by cooking flour and water together until the flour completely dissolves.
The resulting bread isn’t nearly as sweet as the title implies and it goes great with just about any meal, but especially soup. It has a perfect golden brown crust and is so warm and soft out of the oven. It is perfect for a chilly Fall day!
We love to make a few loaves of the Asian Sweet Bread at a time so that we have some whenever we need it. It does freeze well so you can think about doubling the recipe and having it available for a quick meal paired with your favorite soup!
I wasn’t familiar with Asian Sweet bread at the time but now it has become one of my families favorite homemade bread. I hope you enjoy this Japanese Milk Bread recipe and use it with your favorite soup.
Asian Sweet Bread
Ingredients
- 5½ cups bread or all purpose flour
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup of milk
- 4 teaspoons instant yeast
- 6 tbsp butter
- tangzhong recipe
- For the tangzhong:
- ⅓ cup all purpose flour
- 1 cup of water
Instructions
- Make the tangzhong by mixing the water and flour together in a small saucepan. After completely dissolving the flour, cook on medium heat until mixture thickens enough to see a line when putting a knife through it. Remove from heat.
- Combine the flour, salt, sugar and instant yeast in a bowl.
- Add wet ingredients and kneed for about 30 minutes. I used my Kitchen Aid dough hook and ended up doing it by hand after about 20 minutes. I added some flour as I went to make sure the dough wasn't too sticky.
- Place dough in greased bowl, cover and let rise for about 40 minutes.
- Separate the dough into 4 balls, cover and let rise for another 20 minutes.
- Create shapes and place them into greased pans. I made a loaf and about 18 rolls from one recipe. Let dough rest in pans and rise for 50 minutes or until dough has doubled in size.
- Brush a beaten egg over the top of the bread and bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes.
Nutritional information is an estimate and provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.
Sharing of this recipe is encouraged and appreciated. Copying of full recipe to any social media is prohibited.
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