Yudane Bread: The Secret to Super Soft Bread

If you love soft, slightly sweet bread with a delicate texture, you have to try making yudane bread! This Japanese method creates an incredibly fluffy loaf by pre-gelatinizing a portion of the flour with boiling water before mixing it into the dough. In this post, I’ll walk you through the yudane method, how it works, and share my experience making my first yudane bread.

Watch my YouTube video on making my first yudane bread here:

What is the Yudane Method?

Yudane is a simple technique where an equal ratio of flour and boiling water is mixed together to form a paste. This process gelatinizes the starches in the flour, allowing the dough to retain more moisture, resulting in a softer, more tender bread. The method is similar to tangzhong, but yudane uses a 1:1 ratio and doesn’t require cooking over heat—just boiling water.

How Yudane Affects Bread Texture

By adding yudane to bread dough, the final loaf retains moisture for longer, keeping it soft even days after baking. The gelatinized flour also enhances the dough’s elasticity, making the crumb extra light and airy. If you love pillowy bread that stays fresh longer, this method is worth trying!

My Experience Making Yudane Bread

Here’s the recipe I used, adapted from an Instagram baker. The original version used the tangzhong method, but I modified it to use yudane instead. The baking process was pretty straightforward, although I struggled a bit with the final shaping. The dough was quite sticky, and I couldn’t roll it into a perfect shape. Still, I managed to get it into the bread pan, let it proof, and baked it.

The result? A beautifully soft loaf with a slightly sweet flavor and an amazing texture.

Ingredients:

For the yudane:

• 70g bread flour
• 70g boiling water

For the dough:

• 291g bread flour
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 24g sugar
• 20g butter
• 40g milk
• 166g water

For egg wash:

• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp milk

Instructions:

1. Prepare the Yudane: Mix 70g of bread flour with 70g of boiling water. Stir until smooth, cover, and let it cool to room temperature. I made it the day before and stored it in the fridge overnight. Before making the dough, I brought the yudane back to room temperature.
2. Make the Dough: In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the yudane, flour, salt, yeast, sugar, butter, milk, and water.
3. Kneading: Knead the dough until it’s smooth and elastic.
4. Stretch and Fold: Transfer the dough to a lightly greased container and perform a set of stretch and folds.
5. Bulk Fermentation: Let the dough rise for 60 minutes.
6. Preshape: Gently form the dough into a ball and let it rest for 15 minutes.
7. Shape: Roll the dough into a tight cylinder and place it in a bread pan.
8. Proof: Let the dough proof until nicely puffed. This took about 75 minutes for me.
9. Egg wash: Mix 1 egg with 1 tbsp milk and brush the surface of the loaf.
10. Bake: Bake in a preheated oven at 220°C (430°F) for 23 minutes.
11. Cool: Let the bread cool before slicing.

Have you tried yudane bread before? Let me know in the comments!

If you’re looking for another soft sandwich loaf, try my sourdough discard sandwich bread. It’s a great way to use up discard!