Appetizer Recipes

Pull-Apart Japanese Milk Bread

There’s a reason Japanese milk bread is the It Bread of social media. It has the most wonderful texture — soft and fluffy as a cloud — and a comforting salty-sweet flavor. This recipe is especially fun because it bakes into gorgeous, personal-size pull-apart loaves. They’re so tasty, you can eat them all by themselves or dunked into whatever soup or cup of coffee is nearby, but a pat of salty butter and a spoonful of jam on a warm hunk of Japanese milk bread is pretty much snack heaven.

Yield: 12

Pull-Apart Japanese Milk Bread
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Appetizer

Pull-Apart Japanese Milk Bread

Ingredients

For the dough:

¾ cup whole milk
2 large eggs plus 2 yolks, divided
5 cups bread flour
¼ cup milk powder
½ cup granulated sugar
2 tsp kosher salt
2 Tbsp instant yeast
1 stick unsalted butter, cold, diced
Cooking spray, for greasing

For the tangzhong:

⅓ cup water
⅓ cup whole milk
¼ cup bread flour

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350º.

  2. To make the dough: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the milk and 2 whole eggs and whisk until incorporated.

  3. Add the flour, milk powder, sugar, salt, yeast, and butter and mix on low speed until a shaggy dough forms, about 3 minutes.

  4. To make the tangzhong: In a small saucepan combine the water, milk, and bread flour over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture is the consistency of thin batter and registers 149º on an instant read thermometer. Remove from the heat and allow it to cool slightly, about 1 minute.

  5. Pour the tangzhong on top of the dough and mix on medium speed for 15 to 20 minutes until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and starts forming into a ball. Transfer the dough to a large greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to rise at room temperature until doubled in size, 1 to 1 ½ hours.

  6. Grease two 6 cup jumbo muffin pans, transfer the dough to a flat surface and portion into 36 1-ounce dough balls, placing 3 dough balls in each muffin cup. Note: extra dough can be baked in another pan.

  7. Cover the pans with plastic wrap. Allow to rise at room temperature for 30 to 45 minutes or until the dough reaches the top of muffin cups.

  8. In a small bowl, whisk together the remaining 2 egg yolks. Brush the dough with the egg yolks. Bake for 16 to 20 minutes, until golden brown.

  9. Remove the buns from the muffin pans and serve immediately.

  10. Leftover buns can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days and reheated briefly in the oven.

Calculate nutrition information for this recipe.