Jyan Isaac's Milk Bread
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Jyan Isaac Bread is the Santa Monica bakery known for its crusty sourdough loaves and burnished bagels. But baker Jyan Horwitz, founder of Jyan Isaac, also makes soft, fluffy shokupan, or Japanese milk bread. These loaves have the tender texture classic for milk bread. The key is in the “dough improver” known as yudane, a mixture of flour and milk prepared in a method that gelatinizes the starch of the flour — for fluffier bread. Volume measurements are provided here for reference, but using a scale to weigh all ingredients is recommended.
Jyan Horwitz of Jyan Isaac Bread makes soft, fluffy loaves of milk bread. Now you can too.
Prepare the yudane: Slowly bring the milk just to a boil (heat to 212 degrees) over low heat, stirring often to prevent burning. In a mixing bowl, mix the hot milk with the flour until smooth and stiff; don’t worry about overmixing. Cool to room temperature before using.
Make the dough: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine the cooled yudane, flour, honey, milk and yeast mixture, milk powder and salt. Mix on low speed to combine. Continue mixing on low-medium speed until the dough is smooth, about 3 minutes. Add the butter and mix on medium speed until the dough is very elastic, smooth and pliable, 10 to 12 minutes. To test for elasticity, take a small piece of the dough and gently stretch it between your fingers until it becomes thin enough to see light through it without tearing.
Transfer the dough to a bowl lightly coated with spray oil and let rise at room temperature until doubled in size, about 1 to 2 hours depending on how warm the environment is. Then transfer the dough to the fridge and chill until very cold.
Shape the dough: Punch down the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Portion the dough into six equal pieces of about 240 grams. Roll out each piece with a rolling pin into a rectangle about 5 inches wide, then roll up tightly.
Place three rolls into each of two bread pans. Proof until the molds are nearly full, 2 to 3 1/2 hours. Close the molds, if your bread pans have covers.
Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Put the bread in the oven and immediately reduce the temperature to 360 degrees. Bake until the bread is golden brown and its internal temperature reaches 205 to 210 degrees, 40 to 45 minutes. Remove from the molds and cool on a wire rack.
