This is Hokkaido Milk Bread
I know, you've probably heard a lot about bread recently, but this bread is special
It's light and feathery and it's kind of like eating a cloud
It's also THE bread in Japan. It's so important that its name literally translates to food bread in Japanese
Hi guys, I'm Alexi. I'm a Bright Trip contributor, and today I'm going to teach you about Hokkaido
milk bread as we try to make it. So Hokkaido milk bread is really important in Japan specifically
but also throughout Asia. It's the staple bread throughout the continent, and it's even the source
of one of Japan's other famous exports. The heels of the loaves are actually used to make panko
breadcrumbs. So Hokkaido milk bread is made up of eight things, flour, sugar, salt, yeast, eggs
butter, milk, and sweetened condensed milk. Check out the episode description for the full recipe
if you want to follow along. Two things really make Hokkaido milk bread special, Hokkaido milk
and shenzhong. Shenzhong is a Chinese cooking technique where you pre-cook a little bit of the
flour into a paste. This creates a gel that locks in a lot of the moisture so it can't evaporate
What you're left with is a bread that contains a lot of moisture and stays fresh for a way longer
time without the use of preservatives. Okay, we will let the shenzhen cool while we start mixing
up our other ingredients. So we're going to mix together our dry ingredients first, starting with
the flour, sugar, yeast, and salts. So we'll go ahead and get those combined. The other key ingredient
it is Hokkaido milk. And Hokkaido milk is a specialty that you can really only get in Japan
It's milk from the Hokkaido region that's just exceptionally good. It's thick and creamy and has
this slight sweetness that you don't normally see in milks. So I live in Atlanta and I definitely
cannot get Hokkaido milk here unfortunately. So what I'm going to do is combine this normal boring
supermarket milk with a little bit of sweetened condensed milk to get some of that creamy richness
that you get in Hokkaido milk, along with a touch of the sweetness
So we're going to combine this and put it in with our dry ingredients, and then we're
also going to add one beaten egg, as well as our starter
And we'll get that all mixed up. So at this point you might be understandably a little bit confused because milk and bread are just not ingredients that we typically associate with Japanese cuisine at all So how did these two things become popular
and how did milk bread become the essential staple that we see in Japanese and Pan-Asian cuisine
today? So while we make this, we're going to take a little trip back in time to answer that question
Though most of Japanese history, milk and bread were exceptionally rare. Milk was really only drank for medicinal purposes and not really as a food source
Bread, on the other hand, was first brought to Japan in the 1500s by Dutch and Portuguese missionaries
After it was introduced, bread didn't really take off. It was mainly only eaten at Christian religious events
So when Christianity was banned in Japan in the 1600s, bread went with it
Now that we've got our dough a little bit together, we're gonna add in some butter to finish off the dough
and then we're gonna turn it out onto a floured work service so we can knead it for about 10 minutes
Both foods didn't start to take off in Japan until the mid 19th century during the Meiji era
The Meiji era was a time of profound change in Japanese society
It went from being this closed, highly regulated society where small lords ruled over smaller collections
farmers in the countryside and that was really the main system of government until the Meiji era
where they modernized it very quickly to make it this really open democratic society that had a
lot of connections with the international world. The Japanese government during the Meiji era
changed everything including the food. They actually instituted a nutritional strategy to use for school children and to recommend to families and a big part of that nutritional
strategy was milk. During this period, the Japanese government established a bunch of
national dairies throughout the country to make milk production more widespread, and they even
publicized in the newspaper that Emperor Meiji drank milk twice a day to encourage citizens to
follow suit. This is also when milk bread is thought to have been invented specifically. Bread
during this era was still really considered a snack food, so that's why you see breads that are
more sweet in Japan as opposed to Western breads, which tend to be more savory and eaten as a
staple. In the 1920s, Hokkaido milk was born. Hokkaido is the northernmost island of Japan
and in the 20s, it was really the last frontier. Settlers started moving in. When they did
they realized that the area was perfectly suited for dairy farms. It has a much cooler, foggy
climate with really short summers It also the least densely populated area of Japan so there lots of space for cow farms Once the government realized that Hokkaido was perfectly suited for milk production they heavily subsidized the industry They paid for
the construction of farms, for farmers to buy cows, and they actually set up rules allowing for the
formation of milk cooperatives for the marketing and sales of milk throughout the country
Because of these incentives and because of the climate, dairy started popping up throughout
Hokkaido and Hokkaido was cemented as the primary dairy producing region in Japan. The next big
moment for milk and bread in Japan was in the aftermath of World War II. Rice, which is the
staple in Japanese cuisine, was really expensive and was rationed at the time. Meanwhile, U.S
occupying forces were importing wheat, yeast, and powdered milk. These ingredients were incorporated
into the school lunch system called kaiushoku in order to combat post-war food scarcity
Because of this, milk became a food staple for Japanese school children
In the 1950s, bread actually began replacing rice as a side for soups and fried cutlets
Meanwhile, milk was so ubiquitous that Japanese neighborhoods had their own milk bin
Both products only gained more popularity from here. In the 1970s, Japanese convenience stores, called Konbini, started carrying sandwiches
which really cemented bread as a staple of Japanese cuisine. Milk was a really, really popular seasonal drink, so it was actually a drink in the summer
kind of like ice cream. In 2011, Japanese households actually spent more money on bread than on rice for the first
time in history, and bakeries across Japan gained prominence, especially Kyoto, which
is now known for its bakeries. Hokkaido milk is used to make most desserts in Japan today, along with tofu, ice cream
makeup, and of course Hokkaido milk tea, which is Japan's answer to Taiwanese bubble tea
At one point, they even created beer milk in Japan. Oh, this isn't that beer
I just think it's hilarious that Harrison Ford did a Japanese beer commercial in the 90s
It's very this. Hokkaido milk bread was at the center of it all, as bee bread in Japanese cuisine
It earned a place in international bakeries like the Korean Paris Baguette and the Chinese Baidog
Now that we've kneaded our dough for about 10 minutes, and it's come together in this nice round ball
we're gonna rest it in a lightly oiled bowl covered in a towel for about one hour
or until it's doubled in size. One hour later. So as you can see here, we've got our nice risen dough
and the next step is gonna be for us to cut it into four pieces and to roll it out So Hokkaido milk bread actually comes in two different styles It can be in a rectangular shape called kakushoku
or it can be in a rounded domed loaf called Yamagato shokupan
I cut it in thirds. Oh! It might be a little uneven, but it'll still be delicious
So now that we have our four pieces, we're gonna go ahead and start rolling them out
Kakushoku, the rectangle loaf, you need a special loaf pan to make that
So we're going to be making the rounded version today, which just uses a regular loaf pan
We're going to go ahead and roll each of the four pieces out and tell us about the size of our loaf pan
Okay, this looks about the right size. So next, you're going to take the two long sides and fold them in about an inch like this on each side
so you have more of a standard shape. Okay, and then we're going to take the short end and we're going to roll it up onto itself
so we get this cute little pudgy roll. Go ahead and place that into your pan
Now at this point, you're gonna have your four little bread babies all squished together
in your pan. We're gonna let this rise for another 45 minutes so it can get nice and fluffy
In the meantime, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. We're gonna brush them with an egg wash so they get that characteristic bakery glisten
Then we're gonna bake them for about 30 to 40 minutes until golden brown
When you take it out, you'll have the softest bread in the world
You can thank me in the comments. So there you have it. That is how Hokkaiba Milk Bread became a Japanese staple and an international
cult classic. We can thank an emperor who tried to make milk happen, a collective of
socialist cows laboring together on a milk cooperative, and an international war that
caused global trauma and devastation. Let's wrap it up with some beat roll
If you want to learn more about Japan, you should definitely check out the Tokyo Demystified
Course on Bright Trip. It covers a ton of topics including ramen, how to do the city with kids, and a little
bit of the history of this fascinating and truly massive city. There is a ton of information in this course, so check it out at this link
You can also find the link in the description for more information. I hope you enjoyed this video
If you made Hokkaido milk bread, drop a comment to let me know how it went. And make sure to subscribe for future videos like this
Dewa matane