Japanese Milk Bread Lab73 recipes

Japanese Milk Bread Lab · Calculator

Design your own Japanese milk bread

The sliders start at the typical loaf: the median of 73 recipes for each ingredient, in grams per 100 g of flour. Move any of them within the range that 90% of recipes use (the 5th to the 95th percentile) and the grams update, with where your choice sits among the recipes and what that ingredient does.

This scales ratios; it is not a tested recipe. Each ingredient moves on its own against the flour, and a combination no recipe uses may not bake the way you expect. For the method, pan and oven, follow the real recipes nearest your numbers.

Flour

350 g, about 2 3/4 cups, makes one typical loaf.

Start from a recipe

Grams per 100 g of flour

  1. 240 g · 68%about 1 cup

    In the middle: 47% of recipes use more, 52% less.

    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.

  2. 46 g · 13%about 3 1/2 tbsp

    In the middle: 46% of recipes use more, 49% less.

    Butter kneaded in late, once the gluten has formed, for the tender, pull-apart crumb.

  3. 44 g · 13%about 1/4 cup

    In the middle: 49% of recipes use more, 49% less.

    More sugar than a Western sandwich loaf, which gives the faint sweetness and the deep brown crust.

  4. 49 g · 14%about 1 large egg

    In the middle: 49% of recipes use more, 49% less.

    An egg in the dough makes it richer and more golden; many recipes use milk alone.

  5. 6 g · 1.6%

    In the middle: 45% of recipes use more, 43% less.

    Around 1.5 to 2%, a little lower than lean bread.

  6. 6 g · 1.8%

    In the middle: 47% of recipes use more, 47% less.

    Instant or active dry yeast for two rises.

Your Japanese milk bread

Your Japanese milk bread in grams, with approximate volumes
IngredientGrams
Flour350 gabout 2 3/4 cups
Liquidmilk, buttermilk, yogurt, cream and water240 gabout 1 cup
Butterbutter, oil and shortening46 gabout 3 1/2 tbsp
Sugarwhite sugar, brown sugar, honey and syrups44 gabout 1/4 cup
Eggwhole eggs, yolks and whites49 gabout 1 large egg
Salt6 g
Yeast6 g
Total741 g

741 g in all from 350 g of flour, counting only the groups above.

Closest real recipe: Japanese Milk Bread (theflavorbender.com).

BakeThe median of 66 recipes is 350°F (175°C), most for 28 to 38 minutes at their own size. A bigger or smaller batch, or a different pan, changes the time.

The 3 real recipes nearest your numbers

Measured on liquid, butter, sugar, egg, salt and yeast at once. These are published, tested recipes: follow one for its method, pan and timing, or load its percentages and adjust from there.

  1. 1

    Japanese Milk Bread · theflavorbender.com

    liquid 70% · butter 16% · sugar 13% · egg 13% · salt 1.6% · yeast 1.9%

  2. 2

    Japans Melkbrood · 24kitchen.nl

    liquid 71% · butter 14% · sugar 11% · egg 19% · salt 1.6% · yeast 1.6%

  3. 3

    Milk Bread Recipe for Bread Machine · kimchimari.com

    liquid 69% · butter 16% · sugar 14% · egg 14% · salt 1.6% · yeast 1.9%

How the calculator works

Every recipe is reduced to baker's percentages: grams of each ingredient group per 100 g of flour. The starting point is the median of all 73 recipes for each group separately, so no single recipe is exactly the starting loaf. Grams are your flour weight times each percentage, rounded to the nearest 5 g above 50 g and the nearest gram or half gram below.

“More than 80% of recipes” counts the recipes with strictly less of that ingredient per gram of flour. The nearest recipes are measured on every ingredient at once, each scaled by how much recipes vary on it, so a wide-ranging ingredient does not outweigh a narrow one.

Only the groups listed are counted. Vanilla, spices, mix-ins and toppings are left out unless they have their own slider. 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.