The Journey Begins…
Well, here we go! My first weekend of adventurous baking started with the Hokkaido Japanese Milk Bread and ramen noodles made from scratch. Please note that I am a home baker looking to step outside of my comfort zone in the realm of baking and cooking to challenge myself, learn some history, and discover that almost all dishes can be made at home making the culinary world accessible. Although, my plan is not to find authenticity in everything I bake but to experience the world using what I can find in my local grocery stores while still flavoring the world. In my posts, I will provide my inspiration, a little history, a link to the baking recipes, my baking process with photos, and my final comments. And so it begins…
Why bake Japan and the Japanese Milk Bread?
So, why Japan first? This past spring, my husband and I watched a documentary about a well-known Japanese Corn Bread made onsite in the New Chitose airport in Hokkaido. Being from the south (American south), when I hear cornbread, I think of a quick bread made primarily of cornmeal mixed with butter, buttermilk, and egg and then baked in the oven in a cast-iron skillet. Hold your horses with the Japanese version!! This version is a yeast roll stuffed with corn… that’s right, no cornmeal. My husband and I were so intrigued, I decided to locate the recipe (or something like it) and give it a shot. That’s when I discovered the corn is not as significant as the bread itself, hence a loaf version I made in the photo. From my search, the base of this Japanese Corn Bread is the Hokkaido Milk Bread made with the Tangzhong roux mixture (simply flour and milk or water cooked on the stove until thickened) which differentiates it from the typical yeast bread. This was the first bread I wanted to try on my culinary adventure. Thus, Japan became the first country to taste.
How About a Little Japanese Baking History?
Perhaps a taste of Japan should come with a touch of history. Hokkaido is the second largest island in Japan and is known for producing high quality milk. Supposedly, this high quality milk inspired bakers to create the flour and milk/water mixture with the idea to increase the moisture in bread ultimately producing a very light, fluffy, and rich loaf with a touch of sweetness. This extra moisture keeps the bread soft and fluffy even a couple of days after it is baked.
As for the ramen… well, its origins date back to the Chinese, but today it is found in most Japanese restaurants. So, I guess we can say… Japanese, too? Actually, in 1958, Andō Momofukuis (a Taiwanese-Japanese inventor and businessman) invented the instant ramen, thus making instant ramen Japan’s biggest invention of the 20th century. Woo, hoo! Way to go Japan!
MY Hokkaido Milk Bread Journey
For my Hokkaido Japanese milk bread journey, I chose and adapted a recipe that uses milk as the liquid in the Tangzhong roux; however, water or a mix of both is commonly used. This decision was based on what the famous Japanese Corn Bread recipe includes. Enjoy observing!
2 separate mixtures for 2 loaves:
back- 2 separate large bowls of flour and salt, 1 egg for each loaf, 2 separate small bowls of milk, yeast, and sugar, Tangzhong mixture is front and center (eventually divided and added to each of the 2 mixtures
(after a little more kneading by hand, of course)
Hokkaido Japanese Milk Bread
Ingredients
Tangzhong Mixture: makes 2 loaf pans
- ⅓ cup bread flour
- 1 cup milk
Dough Ingredients: makes 2 loaf pans
- 1 cup + 2 tbsp warm milk ~110˚F (44˚C)
- 4 tsp dry yeast
- 6 tbsp sugar
- 5½ cups bread flour start with 4½ cups and add more as needed up to 5½ cups
- 2 tsp salt
- 3 large eggs divided
- 4 tbsp butter softened
Instructions
Tangzhong Mixture Preparation
- Whisk and cook: Whisk the bread flour and milk in a small saucepan on low to medium heat until it thickens. (The mixture is ready when the whisk drags through the mixture leaving behind thin lines with the consistency resembling whipping cream just prior to forming soft peaks.) If you have a thermometer, the mixture should read 150˚F / 65˚C. Avoid reaching a full boil as the milk can easily scorch and take much longer to cool.
- Let cool: Set the Tangzhong mixture aside to cool between 100 ˚F -110 ˚F (38˚C -44˚C).
Dough Preparation
- Yeast mixture: In a medium bowl, whisk warm milk, yeast, and sugar. Set aside about 10 minutes to allow time for the yeast to activate. The mixture is ready when it has increased in size and is frothy on top.
- Dry ingredients: In a large bowl or standing mixer (like a KitchenAid), combine 4 ½ cups of flour and salt.
- Wet ingredients: Once the Tangzhong mixture has cooled, stir it in with the yeast mixture, add 2 lightly beaten eggs, and mix well.
- Add wet to dry: Pour the Tangzhong mixture over the dry ingredients.
- Knead all but butter: Using the dough hook of the standing mixer (or a spoon, if working by hand), turn the machine on low and allow the mixer to combine the wet and dry ingredients.
- Add butter: Add the softened butter and mix well.
- Add flour as needed: Add more flour about ¼ cup at a time if the dough appears too shaggy (and really sticky). Continue to add in the flour until the dough no longer clings to the edges of the bowl but is still slightly sticky. Allow the mixer to knead the dough 5-8 minutes. (If you don’t have a standing mixer, at this point you’ll want to begin kneading by hand on a lightly floured surface for about 10 minutes).
- Knead by hand: Remove the dough from the mixer and begin kneading on a lightly floured surface for an additional 10 minutes (if kneading by hand, continue to knead another 5-10 minutes) The dough is ready when an indention bounces back and is less sticky. You may divide the dough in half and knead each separately (~ 10 minutes each).
- Let rise: Form the dough into a smooth ball and place it in an oiled bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap (sprayed with cooking spray) or a towel and let the dough rise for an hour or until it has doubled in size. Ideally, you’ll place the bowl in a warm area. I usually set my oven to 200 ˚F / 93˚C and place the covered bowl on top of the stove near the back.
- Divide dough: Once the dough has risen, divide it in half using a knife (serrated works well) and each half into fourths. This will give you 8 total dough pieces.
- Flatten dough rounds: Form each dough piece into a ball shape and then flatten each in a round disc about 6 inches in diameter.
- Roll up dough: Roll up each flatten piece like a cinnamon roll and lay it in a greased 9”x 5” or 8.5”x 4.5” loaf pan. You will need 2 loaf pans and place 4 dough rolls in each pan.
- Let rise: Cover each loaf pan with either plastic wrap or a towel and allow them to rise in a warm space for 45 minutes to an hour.
- Preheat oven: During the last 15 minutes of rising, set the oven to preheat at 350 ˚F/ 180 ˚C.
- Brush on egg: Once the dough in each pan has risen, crack an egg into a small bowl and beat it well. Carefully brush the egg over the top of each dough loaf.
- Bake and cover: Place both pans in the 350 ˚F preheated oven for 30-35 minutes. Cover the loaves with foil at 15-20 minutes (only if they are getting too brown) to prevent the loaves from overbrowning.
- Bake and eat: Let cool in the pans for about an hour. Once cooled, remove the loaves, slice, and serve, or slice and freeze in freezer bags until ready to use. After frozen, take out desired slices when ready and thaw on the counter for an hour, or heat (20-30 seconds) in the microwave until thawed and warm.
- Eat and Enjoy!!
Video
The Ramen Noodle Journey
If I bake a bread specific to a culture, I might as well go all the way and make an accompanying dish for a complete meal, right? So, that leads me to ramen. I admit, I don’t eat ramen noodles… ever; however, I can’t deny that it has a long history in Asian cultures and is considered a staple. Remember I told you that my husband and I try to eat clean, whole foods? Well, unfortunately, ramen has a bad health reputation in the western world due to all of its processing before it makes it to our mouths. BUT… it doesn’t have to be that way. So, I ventured to make it from scratch and serve it with broth and lots of veggies. What’s wrong with that minus a little extra effort? Check out the ramen noodle recipe here thanks to Instructables Cooking for an easy to follow recipe.
My Final Comments
The bread tasted much like a brioche. It was light, fluffy, rich and buttery. I actually ate it for lunch today as sandwich bread; it was super yummy with Havarti cheese and spinach (buttery cheese on sweet bread with fresh clean leafy spinach to cut the richness of the cheese and bread? Can’t go wrong with that!!) I would definitely make it again, though I would cut back on the baking time by around 5 minutes or so since it turned out really dark.
The ramen noodles had a nice pasta flavor of their own; be sure to salt the water like you would pasta. I would also make those again. I didn’t link to the broth recipe I made, but what you see in the bowl is basically chicken broth, soy sauce, fish sauce, a little chili powder, and some Chinese 5 spice along with sauteed cremini and shiitake mushrooms, Bok Choy, scallions, and a soft boiled egg. The broth was just ok; I would change it up next time, but the noodles were worth it!
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, please let me know. I would appreciate a like, a follow, or even a comment. I’ll post a preview later this week for next weekend. Hmmmm… what shall we make next?