Tomorrow we’re baking Japanese Milk Bread together in the Saturday Bake-Along, and I’m going to be honest with you, I’ve been walking around today looking for excuses to make a sandwich. Toast. Anything. You see that crumb? Those layers? That’s what tangzhong does, and once you know how to make it, there’s no going back. The recipe is live in the Recipe Pantry right now. https://pantry.bakinggreatbread.com/recipes/japanese-milk-bread?variant=yeasted Get your ingredients together tonight so you’re ready to bake with us in the morning. Are you baking with us tomorrow? 👇 Dropw your answer below:

The ones who see the Saturday bake-along threads blowing up with 400 comments and think, "I'm not there yet." You belong here just as much as anyone. You don't need to understand baker's percentages to bake great bread. You don't need to know what autolyse means before your first loaf. You don't need to participate in every bake-along. Some of the best bakers I know started by just following a recipe exactly as written, not understanding why anything worked, and doing it again the next week. Understanding comes from repetition, not from studying. If you're quietly lurking and learning, that counts. If you tried something and it flopped and you didn't post it, that's fine too. Progress isn't always visible. What I'd love to hear from you: What's one thing you've been wanting to try but haven't yet? Drop it below. No judgment. Just conversation.

I was in Winston-Salem for Ryan’s track meet and while I was there I swung by Camino Bakery, owned by Cary Clifford. Here’s what got me: Cary started baking out of her home kitchen. Then a coffee shop basement. Then in 2011 she opened her first real location on Fourth Street, and today Camino has multiple spots across Winston-Salem, known for handcrafted breads, croissants, pastries, and seriously good coffee. That’s the journey right there. I shot a quick walkthrough video so you can see what they’re doing. The bread, the space, the vibe. It’s the kind of place that feels like a neighborhood, which is exactly what we’re building here in the Academy, just in a different way. If you’ve ever thought about taking your baking beyond your kitchen, watch this and let it sit with you. More on that conversation coming soon.

You just spent a week learning tangzhong. You felt what it did to your cinnamon roll dough. You watched how it changed the texture, the softness, the way those rolls stayed pillowy hours after baking. Now we're going to take that same technique and use it to make one of the most beautiful loaves of bread in the world. Japanese milk bread, also called Shokupan, is the softest sandwich bread you'll ever pull out of your oven. Cloud-like crumb. Barely sweet. Tears apart in layers. Stays soft for days without any preservatives. And the secret is the exact same tangzhong you made last weekend. This is what I mean when I say we're teaching you to think like a baker, not just follow recipes. Last week tangzhong gave you soft cinnamon rolls. This week it gives you the perfect loaf. Same science, completely different result. Once you understand what tangzhong does and why, you can use it anywhere. Here's what the week looks like: Tuesday: Tips for working with enriched dough (butter timing, kneading patience, reading the windowpane) Wednesday: The science behind why milk bread stays soft for days when most homemade bread goes stale overnight Thursday: Shaping techniques, the three-piece log that gives Shokupan its signature pull-apart look Friday: Game prep audio + recipe walkthrough so you hit Saturday ready to go Saturday: Bake-along. We're doing this together. The recipe is already in the Pantry: https://pantry.bakinggreatbread.com/recipes/japanese-milk-bread?variant=yeasted If you baked cinnamon rolls with us this weekend, you already have a head start. You know tangzhong. You know enriched dough. You know what butter does to gluten development and why we add it last. All of that carries forward into this bake. If you're new or you missed cinnamon roll week, no problem. This is a great place to jump in. The recipe walks you through everything from scratch, and we'll be here all week building up to Saturday.

Last week you stood at your stove stirring milk and flour into a thick paste for your cinnamon rolls. Most of you did it because the recipe said to. That paste is the only reason your rolls were still soft on Sunday. Today we're breaking down what actually happened in that saucepan, why it matters for every enriched bread you'll ever bake, and how a five-minute step gives you four to five days of softness without a single preservative. You'll learn: What starch gelatinization actually is (and why 65C changes everything) The difference between tangzhong and yudane, two methods that solve the same problem Why enriched doughs go stale faster than lean breads, and how tangzhong fixes it A universal rule you can apply to sandwich bread, dinner rolls, burger buns, anything you want to stay softer longer This is the science behind Saturday's bake-along. Understanding why your bread works is what separates someone who follows recipes from someone who actually knows how to bake. Watch the full lesson above, then tell me: did you notice how long your cinnamon rolls stayed soft? Drop your answer below. Recipe for Saturday: https://pantry.bakinggreatbread.com/recipes/japanese-milk-bread Tomorrow: The Three-Piece Shaping Method. The technique that gives shokupan its signature layered crumb. You aren't building a recipe collection. You're building a skillset.