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1
Measure 30 g of mizuame (sugar syrup) into a measuring cup, add warmed milk up to the 235 ml level, and mix well.
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2
Put all the ingredients into a bread machine, use the dry yeast program + the dough-only program up to the end of the 1st rising, and leave the dough as-is until it has doubled in volume.
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3
When the dough has doubled in volume, take it out and deflate lightly.
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4
Divide into 3 pieces, round off each piece, cover with plastic wrap to prevent it from drying out, and leave to rest for 15 minutes.
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5
Deflate the dough completely, and roll out each piece flat.
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6
Fold in the sides towards the center, and roll up the dough.
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7
(Make sure not to let any air in.)
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8
Roll up all 3 pieces of dough, put in the baking pan, and mist well.
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9
Cover the pan with plastic wrap and leave to rise for 45 to 60 minutes (2nd rising) until the dough fills the pan about 80% of the way.
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10
When the dough has filled the pan about 70%, start preheating the oven with the baking sheet inside to 180C.
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11
When the oven has heated up, dust the top of the dough with bread flour, and put the lid on.
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12
Put 4 layers of newspaper on top of the heated baking sheet, place the bread pan on top of that, and close the oven door.
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13
Lower the oven temperature to 160C, and bake for 18 minutes.
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14
Open the oven, quickly cover the pan with aluminum foil, and lower the temperature to 140C.
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15
Bake for another 12 minutes, for a total of 30 minutes.
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16
Since this just barely cooks the square loaf through to the middle, it's best not to change the baking at the higher temperature for 18 minutes + baking for a total of 30 minutes procedure.
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17
When the bread is baked, open the lid of the baking pan and drop the pan from about a 15 cm height to prevent the bread from collapsing.
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18
This bread is very soft so it's important to do this.
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19
This is how the loaf looks from the side.
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20
The top tends to brown so it's protected with a layer of bread flour just in case, but the sides are OK as-is.
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21
After the loaf has cooled down a bit, I tried opening up one of the seams (in between the 3 pieces of dough) with my fingers.
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22
Can you see how fluffy and soft it is?
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23
By deflating the dough very well after resting the dough, the finished bread should have a fine, even crumb.
