Japanese Milk Bread

Gather the ingredients.

To make starter, whisk bread flour, milk, and water together in a medium saucepan until smooth. Cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat until mixture thickens into the consistency of mashed potatoes, about 2 minutes.

Cover with plastic film, pressing against surface of milk-flour mixture to ensure it doesn’t form a skin. Set aside and allow to cool until barely warm, about 10 minutes.

To make dough, in a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, yeast, and salt.

In a small bowl or measuring cup, stir together milk and melted butter (the butter will clump). Measure out 1 1/2 tablespoons of mixture into a small, separate bowl, and reserve for brushing top of loaf.

Pour remaining butter and milk mixture into bowl with flour. Add starter and egg. Vigorously stir to combine until it forms a rough, scraggly dough, 2 to 3 minutes.

Knead dough in the bowl until it forms a rough ball, about 30 seconds. (Alternately, you can use a stand mixer for this entire step).

If dough is still sticky, lightly dust a counter with flour (if dough is tacky, but doesn’t stick to your fingers, then proceed without any flour). Scrape dough onto counter and knead until smooth, about 5 minutes. If dough starts to stick to the counter or your hands, add a tablespoon of flour at a time as needed (you shouldn’t need more than an additional 2 to 3 tablespoons of flour at most).

Lightly grease a large bowl with butter. Add dough, cover tightly with plastic film and set aside in a warm spot to rise until doubled in volume, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter sides and bottom of a 9-inch loaf pan. 

Divide dough into 4 equal pieces. Roll each piece out into a 6-inch by 10-inch rectangle (do not flour the surface!). Starting with shorter end facing you, fold dough in thirds like a letter.

Turn dough once clockwise, then roll the dough out into a 4 x 10-inch rectangle. Roll each piece into a cylinder. 

Arrange rolled pieces of dough next to each other in the prepared pan. Cover with a lightly floured towel or slip into an oven roasting bag and set in a warm spot until doubled in volume, about 30 minutes.

Brush top of the dough with the reserved milk-butter mixture (the butter will have solidified; don’t worry, it’s still okay to brush it on). Bake on center rack until top is deeply golden and an instant-read thermometer inserted into center of bread reads 190 F, 40 to 45 minutes.

Transfer pan to a wire rack and let cool 20 minutes in the pan. Unmold the bread and set it on a wire rack to cool completely before slicing. Store leftover bread in a zip-top bag or wrapped tightly in plastic film for up to 5 days.