SOURDOUGH SHOKUPAN

In 2017, I spent some time working at Loafer bread, a sourdough bakery in Melbourne I highly admire from the quality of ingredients. I’ve never seen a bakery with such ethics in product sourcing. A Japanese baker who has been working there for a while, Satoshi, used to make Shokupan for a side gig he was working on (now Little Cardigan). His Shokupan had a texture like i’ve never imagined, it was so soft, so fluffy, so light.. I thought to myself, how good could that be if it was sourdough… And I went on a quest to replicate the praised Japanese staple. In 2019, after diving more into the panettone methods explained by Thomas Teffri-Chambelland in his book Panettone and sourdough pastries, I developed the first version of my sourdough Shokupan.

A few weeks later, I started a new subscription based business, delivering Shokupan around Melbourne and popping up at various restaurants and cafes for the most amazing sandwich creations.

Today I’m sharing with you the recipe I developed in 2019 using a liquid sweet starter.

Ingredients

Sweet liquid starter (Day 1, 10am)

• 35 grams starter

• 35 grams water

• 35 grams strong white flour

• 8,5 grams white caster sugar

First Dough (Day 1, 2-4pm)

• 1000 grams strong flour

• 500 grams water

• 235 grams white caster sugar

• 180 butter

• 105 sweet starter at peak

Second dough (Day 2, 7-9am)

• 2500 grams strong flour

• 1110 grams water

• 125 grams white caster sugar

• 500 grams milk roux (Tanghzong)

• 155 grams milk

• 60 grams salt

• 150 grams butter

• 2020 grams first dough

Method

Day 1

Sweet liquid starter

1. Mix the flour, water, starter and sugar, Let ferment at 28ºC for 4-6h.

Milk roux (Tangzhong)

1. Mix with a whisk 85 gm of flour with 425gm of milk, Transfer into a pot and bring to 65ºC while constantly whisking. Cool down before using.

First dough

1. Mix the flour, water, sugar and starter for 18-20’, until the dough looks nice and smooth.

2. Add the butter and mix until well incorporated and the dough looks smooth and almost shiny.

3. Let ferment overnight at room temperature (22-26ºC). It should take 14-18h

Day 2

Second dough

1. Mix the well fermented first dough, the flour, water, milk, sugar, salt and tanghzong until the dough looks very smooth. (20-25’)

2. Add the butter and mix until smooth and almost shiny (5-8’) FDP 28ºC

3. Let ferment for 1h, then divide in balls of 380 grams

4. Pre-shape in round and tight shape. Let sit for 20’

5. Using a rolling pin, flatten and roll the dough. Fold the top towards the center, repeat with the bottom.

6. Flatten and turn by 90ºC. Repeat the rolling and flattening.

7. Roll right towards you and put the shaped dough in a 900gm tin, seam down.

8. Put 3 balls per tins. Let ferment for 4h at 28ºC or until the dough touches the lid.

9. Bake at 190-200ºC in a deck oven, or 170-180ºC in a convection oven, for 32 min.

Let sit for a few hours before slicing and enjoy the softest bread ever.