Japanese Nama Shokupan (Raw Toast) ❤️ Chef Wu Keji's Formula ❤️ Sponge Method

Chef Wu Keji's Nama Shokupan has an incredible feathery shred. The texture is super tender and pillowy soft inside, perfect for tearing apart and eating right away. The flavor has a gentle sweetness balanced by a tiny hint of saltiness, where everything feels just right.

🍞 Ingredients: (Makes two 450g Pullman loaf pans)

🎈 Sponge (Chongzhong): Bread flour 320g, water 181g, salt 1g, instant dry yeast 3.5g.

🎈 Main dough: Bread flour 218g, ice water 150g, instant dry yeast 2g, sea salt 8g (some fellow bakers mentioned this amount felt too salty and you can use 6g instead; personally I think this saltiness balances the sweetness just right, though different salts vary in salinity), sweetened condensed milk 27g, sugar 60g, heavy whipping cream 27g, butter 27g.

🍞 Instructions:

1️⃣ As shown in Picture 3, mix all the sponge ingredients together the night before to form the sponge dough. Refrigerate for about 15 hours.

2️⃣ After 15 hours, tear the sponge into small pieces and mix with all main dough ingredients except the heavy whipping cream and butter. Mix on low speed and then switch to medium speed until it reaches the thick membrane stage (medium gluten development). Add the heavy whipping cream and softened room-temperature butter, and mix until it pulls a thin, translucent membrane (full windowpane stage). At this point the dough surface will be smooth and will cleanly release from the mixer bowl.

3️⃣ Shape the dough into a tight ball, cover, and let it rest for a 30-minute intermediate fermentation. Gently degas the large air bubbles and divide into 4 equal portions (2 portions per loaf, making 2 loaves total). Shape into tight balls, cover, and give them a bench rest for about 10 minutes, then roll out, coil, and place into the pans.

4️⃣ Proof until the pans are 70% full. Bake at 180°C for about 32 minutes. (I used a small countertop oven today which runs quite hot; for a larger built-in oven, bake at 190°C for about 37 minutes, so adjust according to how your oven runs.)

5️⃣ Tap the pans firmly on the counter right out of the oven to release steam, unmold, and cool on a wire rack.

🌼 Baker's Notes:

1 This recipe comes from a video by Chef Wu Keji. Pictures 5 and 6 show the formula and instructions captured from the video.

2 The chef's original formula makes 3 loaves, and I scaled it down to 2 loaves.

3 The term 'cream' in the Taiwanese screenshot refers to butter.

4 Both the heavy whipping cream and butter are added later in the mixing process.

5 When adding ingredients, keep the yeast separate from the salt and sugar. I usually put the salt and sugar at the very bottom with the liquid, add the flour on top, and place the yeast on last so the yeast does not touch the salt and sugar.

6 After mixing the sponge, the chef recommends letting it sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before refrigerating. I put mine straight into the fridge, for your reference.

7 When adding water, the chef suggests holding back 1/5 of the liquid and adding it gradually as needed to prevent the dough from getting too wet.

#WaysToMakeToast