“shokupan”
12 recipes vs 45Recipes with “shokupan” in the title: less sugar (8.1% vs 14%).
“shokupan” (12)the rest (45)middle half of all
Sugarrecipes with shokupan in the title 8.1% vs the rest 14%
Japanese Milk Bread Lab
Japanese Milk Bread: what 73 recipes agree on
Shokupan and Hokkaido milk bread: tangzhong, milk, butter and sugar per 100 g of flour.
73 recipes from 44 sites, each reduced to grams and written as baker's percentages: grams of each ingredient per 100 g of flour, so a small recipe and a double batch line up. Below: the typical loaf, how far recipes stray from it, and a page for every recipe with a link to the original.
Recipes
73
from 44 sites
Typical flour
350 g
about 2 3/4 cups
Oven
350°F
175°C · median of 66
Bake time
31 min
most 28 to 38 min
The typical loaf of Japanese milk bread
The median of all 73 recipes for each ingredient, scaled to 350 g of flour. No single recipe is exactly this: each line is the middle of its own distribution. “Most recipes” means the middle half, from the 25th to the 75th percentile.
| Ingredient | Grams |
|---|---|
| FlourThe scale for everything else | 350 gabout 2 3/4 cups |
| LiquidMost recipes use 190 to 265 g | 235 gabout 1 cup |
| ButterMost recipes use 30 to 55 g | 46 gabout 3 1/2 tbsp |
| SugarMost recipes use 28 to 55 g | 44 gabout 1/4 cup |
| EggMost recipes use 31 to 65 g | 49 gabout 1 large egg |
| SaltMost recipes use 4 to 7 g | 6 g |
| YeastMost recipes use 4 to 7 g | 6 g |
Bake350°F (175°C) for about 31 minutes.
Volumes are approximate: flour at 125 g a cup, sugar 200 g, butter or oil 225 g, milk and other liquids 240 g, a large egg 50 g.
Every recipe, ingredient by ingredient
Each dot is a recipe, placed by grams of the ingredient per 100 g of flour (100% would be as much as the flour). The shaded band is the middle half of recipes and the line is the median.
Liquid
median 68% · most 54 to 76%
Milk and water, including what goes into the tangzhong or yudane, the cooked flour paste that lets the dough hold more liquid and stay soft for days.
range 37 to 94%
Butter
median 13% · most 8.7 to 16%
Butter kneaded in late, once the gluten has formed, for the tender, pull-apart crumb.
range 3.8 to 23%
Sugar
median 13% · most 8 to 16%
More sugar than a Western sandwich loaf, which gives the faint sweetness and the deep brown crust.
range 0 to 35% · 1% use none
Egg
median 14% · most 8.9 to 18%
An egg in the dough makes it richer and more golden; many recipes use milk alone.
Each dot is up to 2 recipes. range 0 to 35% · 21% use none
Salt
median 1.6% · most 1.1 to 1.9%
Around 1.5 to 2%, a little lower than lean bread.
Each dot is up to 2 recipes. range 0.5 to 3.6%
Yeast
median 1.8% · most 1.2 to 2%
Instant or active dry yeast for two rises.
Each dot is up to 2 recipes. range 0 to 3.2% · 5% use none
Where recipes disagree
Measured by how far apart the 25th and 75th percentile recipes are. The widest gaps are where the choice of recipe matters most.
- Egg. The middle half of recipes use 8.9 to 18% of the flour weight in egg, so a recipe at the 75th percentile has 2.0 times as much as one at the 25th.
- Sugar. The middle half of recipes use 8 to 16% of the flour weight in sugar, so a recipe at the 75th percentile has 1.9 times as much as one at the 25th.
Recipes agree most on liquid and yeast: liquid 54 to 76%, yeast 1.2 to 2% for the middle half.
What the words in titles mean
English recipes whose titles use a word, against the ones that do not. What recipe writers do when they pick the word, not proof that it makes the texture.
Oven temperature and time
66 of 73 recipes state an oven temperature, and 63% of those bake at 350°F (175°C). The middle half bake at 350 to 355°F. The other 7 do not say.
- 350°F42 recipes
- 375°F8 recipes
- 325°F3 recipes
- 425°F3 recipes
- 300°F2 recipes
- 355°F2 recipes
72 recipes state a bake time. Taking the middle of any stated range (“55 to 65 minutes” counts as 60), the median is 31 minutes and the middle half bake 28 to 38 minutes.
Temperature and time together
The single most common pairing is 350°F for 30 to 40 minutes, with 22 of the 66 recipes that state both.
≥425°F 220400°F 205375°F 190350°F 175≤325°F 1651030507090110
Recipes to start with
Closest to the typical loaf
Nearest the median on every ingredient at once.
- Japanese Milk Bread · theflavorbender.comliquid 70% · butter 16%
- Milk Bread Recipe for Bread Machine · kimchimari.comliquid 69% · butter 16%
- Japans Melkbrood · 24kitchen.nlliquid 71% · butter 14%
- Japanese Milk Bread Dinner Rolls · modernhoney.comliquid 76% · butter 13%
- Vegan Shokupan · tarasmulticulturaltable.comliquid 66% · butter 14%
Most liquid
- Easy Milk Bread · foodnetwork.comliquid 94% · butter 7.3%
- Tangzhong Milchbrot · marcelpaa.comliquid 91% · butter 7.6%
- Whole Wheat Sourdough Hokkaido Milk Bread · breadtopia.comliquid 90% · butter 13%
Least liquid
- Milk Bread · rasamalaysia.comliquid 37% · butter 8.3%
- Pain au lait japonais · cuisine.journaldesfemmes.frliquid 37% · butter 12%
- Milk Bread · kirbiecravings.comliquid 38% · butter 13%
Go deeper
- DiscoverEvery recipe plotted on any two ratios.
- CalculatorStart from the typical recipe, move the ratios, get grams.
- IngredientsWhich ingredients recipes use, and the choices they make.
- RatiosWhich ingredients rise and fall together.
- TimelineRecipes by publication year and how the typical one shifted.
- All RecipesEvery recipe, sortable, with a page each.
- ClustersThe styles the numbers fall into.
- Decision TreeA few questions that narrow the recipes to the ones you want.
Top sources
- 6kingarthurbaking.com
- 4breadtopia.com
- 3baketotheroots.de
- 3chefsimon.com
- 3foodnetwork.com
- 3kimchimari.com
- 3kirbiecravings.com
- 3tarasmulticulturaltable.com
- 2amourdecuisine.fr
- 2hungryhuy.com
- 2iamafoodblog.com
- 2rasamalaysia.com
In 6 languages: English 57, French 7, German 5, Dutch 2, Italian 1, Spanish 1. Lines in other languages are read in their own units and words, and each recipe page links to the original. 44 sites in all. No site contributes more than 12 recipes.
How the numbers are made
Every ingredient line is converted to grams and grouped (butter and oil count as fat; white, brown and liquid sweeteners as sugar), then divided by the flour weight. That baker's percentage is the only comparison that holds across recipes of different sizes.
94% of the 815 ingredient lines got a weight. 56% of those weights were printed by the source; the rest were converted from cups and spoons with standard densities, so treat single recipes as close, not exact. Frosting, glaze, streusel and other toppings are listed on each recipe page but left out of the percentages.
A recipe outside the plausible range for any ingredient is left out rather than allowed to stretch every chart; it is usually a different dish with the same name or a misread line. Of the pages fetched, 97 were left out: 35 outside the plausible range on some ingredient (liquid 15, yeast 12, butter 4, salt 3, sugar 1), 34 with no flour, or none that could be weighed, 22 with a title that names a different dish, 2 too many lines without an amount, 2 duplicates of other pages, 1 a listing page, not a recipe page, and 1 with an ingredient in amounts that could not be weighed.
Every recipe page links to the original, which is where the method is. Recipe Lab does not republish instructions or photos.