Friday Bread Basket 9/30/22

Shokupan's Labyrinth

I’m not sure that the scale of this loaf is obvious (I probably should have set a Bic lighter next to it), but it’s a 3-kilogram shokupan I made awhile back in order to give me enough bread to run through the Balmuda toaster I am testing for Serious Eats right now. (And to make a buttload of tomato-mayo sandwiches all throughout August. ICYWW, I baked it in the honkingest of the pullman pans shown here.) Fittingly, this week’s Friday Bread Basket—our weekly roundup of links and items relating to bread, baking, and grain—is all about shokupan.

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White on white bread

I’m generally a fan of crusts on bread, but I also hate waste, so I kinda like the idea of this move in Japanese bakeries to create a “crustless” shokupan, eliminating the need to remove and discard the edges of the loaf before making it into sandwiches:

Many Japanese people enjoy eating fluffy, soft, and chewy white milk bread, known as 食パン shokupan, baked into square loaves.

Whether it's in delicious egg sandwiches or "Lunch Pack" sealed sandwich pockets, almost all shokupan sandwiches sold in Japan have their crusts removed.

Crusted bread lovers do exist but the prevailing perception is that crusts aren't as tasty as the bread inside. This could be a remnant from the days when bread crusts were harder, but this perception has remained and shops all over Japan continue to do this since it corresponds to an expectation that still exists among customers.

I think all they really did was bake the loaf at a lower temperature for a longer time, which is something I plan to test out myself soon. (Also: I plan to share my recipe with you soon too, here and in the form of a virtual workshop on milk bread/shokupan.)

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folu @notfolu

to be exact- thick milk bread toast with mascarpone, pistachio butter, olive oil and fresh cracked black pepper and an iced coconut water matcha with bergamot syrup #humblebragdiet

folu @notfolu

toast w/ mascarpone & pistachio butter

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The fruitwich

Chris Simpson for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Sophia Pappas.

One classic use of shokupan is the fruit sando: chunks of colorful fruit, embedded in enriched whipped cream and set between two (crustless) slices of the bread. Ligaya Mishan recently wrote a love letter to this Japanese delight for the Times:

The fruit sandwich looks like dessert but isn’t, or not exactly. At the same time it confounds Western notions of what a sandwich should be. One friend I tried to explain it to was mystified: Why bread? Why not just eat fruit and cream? But that’s the fun, I said. The bread frames fresh fruit as a marquee ingredient in a way savory dishes rarely do, making it new. It takes what might otherwise be ad hoc (a peach eaten over the sink, a banana grabbed en route to the subway) and organizes it into a tidy dish unto itself — a lovely little meal that feels slightly illicit, as if for a moment there are no rules.

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Seriously great news

Curried egg mayo - shot by Robert Billington for Serious Sandwiches

Last, but definitely not least, this week saw the launch of a new Substack that I could not be more excited about: Serious Sandwiches, from Helen Graves and Holly Catford, the duo behind of my favorite print pubs, Pit Magazine. Here’s what is on offer with their new endeavor:

• Each week, we’ll publish a selection of free recipes that riff off a classic sandwich or ingredient (except for every 4th week(ish), when we’ll publish a wild card sandwich). We’ll also publish one free bread recipe a month from the incredible Rebecca Maven at Frog Bakery. Our paying subscribers get to delve deeper into each theme with an article written by one of the best food writers working today. In other words, our bread is buttered on both sides. Want cool recipes? We got you. Want something more substantial to chew on? We shall provide. 

• There’s more to say about each sandwich than will fit into one newsletter - that’s what the Sandwich Board is for. This discussion thread for paid subs drops at the same time as the newsletter and we’ll link to it at the beginning and end, so you can head right over and tell everyone why your version is THE BEST, and why our addition of Worcestershire sauce is just plain WRONG. We want to build a sandwich community, so get involved! 

• Some weeks will focus on a classic sandwich, like this one, but we reserve the right to Get Weird and have fun directions planned. It’s gonna be a ride, so buckle up (not too tightly, ooft) and remember to always channel plenty of BIG SANDWICH ENERGY. 

They launched with a bang yesterday, with a dive into egg-mayo (aka egg salad) sandwiches, including Rebecca’s recipe for shokupan. Sign up today so you won’t miss a single sandwich!

Egg Mayo

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That’s it for this week’s bread basket. I hope you all have a peaceful weekend, see you next week.

—Andrew