The easy salt bread I bake once a week that my kid is crazy about

Mama Lieu made salt bread for the first time!

dear friend,

Have you tried salt bread (or shio pan) yet? It’s a popular bread found commonly across East Asia, from Taiwan to South Korea to Japan, and I like to think of it as a cross between a croissant, a baguette, and milk bread. What you get is a bread with an ultra crispy and crunchy exterior and a hollow, fluffy interior with a crumb similar to milk bread’s.

You can make ube salt bread, and other flavors of salt bread!

So why is the outside so crispy and crunchy? Well, this bread is, first of all, made with a lot of butter. You can use salted or unsalted, depending on your palate. What you do is roll the bread dough around a stick of butter, and as the buns bake, the butter oozes out from the center and settles into a pool in the pan.

Then the oven heats the butter until it’s hot enough to fry the bottom of the bread, creating that signature crispy crunch. And since the bread is baked baguette-style, by spraying water over the dough to create steam, you also get a crisp top. It won’t be as crispy as the bottom, but it will have a nice crunch when you bite into it.

And like all well-made salt bread, the center will have a hole. This is where the butter once nestled. It may have completely melted, but its little home remains.

The classic look of salt bread, with the butter hole in the middle

I do want to say that since I use water rather than cake flour in this recipe, the resulting bread is more chewy and toothsome rather than super soft and fluffy on the inside. I enjoy this texture more. I have written a more in-depth version of a salt bread recipe for King Arthur Baking, which you can check out here.

So how do you enjoy salt bread, exactly? Well, across Asia, bread is commonly a whole meal by itself. Load it up with some jam and more butter, and you have breakfast or an afternoon snack with tea. Of course, you can also use salt bread as mini-sandwich bread or in place of your dinner rolls.

I also like making salt bread into different colors and flavors. You can easily make chocolate, ube, matcha, black sesame, or pandan salt bread with a few inclusions. For example, add ube extract to the cold water, and your bread will be a beautiful purple. Add ube halaya and cheese to the butter before you roll the dough over the butter log, and you get a salt bread with a yummy filling!

Salt bread is one of those recipes where you make it once and want to keep going to improve your technique and change up the flavors. Should this be a beginner baker’s first bread recipe? I would say try making no-knead bread or easy milk bread first. Then get into salt bread.

What I do like about salt bread, however, is that you don’t have to incorporate tangzhong or yudane, but if you’d like to, you can. You can even use your favorite milk bread dough to make salt bread. The result will be a fluffy, tender, soft, and tall interior, with a crispy exterior.

At the end of the day, salt bread is simple but deeply satisfying. It’s buttery, crisp, and comforting in a way that makes you want to slow down, brew some tea, and eat it warm with your hands. It’s the kind of bread that reminds you why baking can feel so grounding in the first place. Just note that this will take a few hours to complete, so if it’s already 7 pm, you might want to save the baking for tomorrow.

Before you start with the recipe, here are some additional tips:

• After rolling the bread dough over the butter log, be sure to proof in a space that isn’t too warm. You don’t want the butter to melt before you bake the bread. This will result in a salt bread without the center hole.

• Use very cold butter. If your kitchen runs warm, chill the butter log again after shaping and before proofing. Cold butter is key to creating that center hole and crispy bottom.

• Don’t overproof. Slightly underproofed is better than overproofed for salt bread.

• Line your pan well. Butter will leak out as the bread bakes, and that’s a good thing since it’s what fries the bottom of the bread. Parchment paper or a lined pan makes cleanup much easier.

• Space the buns apart. Give each piece enough room so the butter pools under each roll instead of merging into one large puddle. This helps each bun develop its own crispy base.

• Bake until deeply golden. Pale salt bread won’t have the same crunch. You’re looking for a rich golden-brown bottom and a lightly crisp top.

• Let the bread cool slightly before eating. As tempting as it is, letting the bread sit for a few minutes helps the structure and keeps the butter from running everywhere.

• Eat the same day if you can. Salt bread is best fresh, when the contrast between the crispy exterior and chewy interior is at its peak.

xoxoxo,

Kat Lieu

---

Yield 8 salt bread

Author Kat Lieu

Prep time

40 Min

Cook time

20 Min

Inactive time

3 Hour

Total time

4 Hour

Print

With ImageWithout Image

The best chewy and delicious Salt Bread (shio pan) recipe by Kat Lieu

Cook modePrevent screen from turning off

Ingredients

For the dough:

• 2 ½ cups (300 grams) organic King Arthur Baking bread flour
• About 7/8 cup plus 1 tablespoon (205 grams) ice-cold filtered water
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon instant yeast
• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt or 1 teaspoon red miso

For the shio pan:

• ½ cup (1 stick/ 113 grams) salted or unsalted butter, very cold
• Flakey sea salt or pretzel salt
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted, for brushing over the bread (or use the hot melted butter pooling in the hot baking sheet)

For serving

• Your favorite jam, optional

Instructions

1. The flour/liquid ratio is important in this salt bread recipe, so measure carefully. Your best bet is to weigh the flour; or measure it by gently spooning it into a cup, then sweeping off any excess.
2. To make the dough: Combine the salt bread dough ingredients, then mix and knead — by stand mixer — until a smooth and cohesive dough forms, about 5 minutes on low speed. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes, covered or uncovered. After 10 minutes, the dough will appear stickier and looser. Mix again until a smooth, elastic dough forms, about 10 minutes on low speed.
3. At this point, the bread dough should pass a windowpane test. If it doesn’t pass the test, mix or knead the dough for another minute.
4. Shape the dough into a ball and rest in a lightly floured bowl (or in the stand mixer bowl) covered, until puffy, and nearly 1.5 x to double in bulk, about 60 to 70 minutes.
5. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
6. Slice a cold stick of butter in half lengthwise. Cut the two long halves lengthwise again to make four long strips, then cut each strip in half lengthwise once more to get eight even batons. Place the butter pieces in the freezer while you prepare the dough.
7. Gently deflate (degas) the dough and divide it into eight equal pieces; if you have a scale, each piece should weigh about 67 to 75 g. If you prefer, divide the dough ball by cutting it into eight even wedges.
8. Shape each piece into a teardrop. Place on the parchment-lined baking sheet, cover, and let rest for 15 minutes to relax the dough and make it easier to roll.
9. On a lightly floured surface, parchment paper, or a silicone mat, roll each piece into a long, thin triangular strip about 15 inches in length using a rolling pin (a silicone mat can help guide the size). Place one baton of cold butter at the wide end and roll the dough over it, gently pulling the dough lengthwise as you go, like shaping a croissant.
10. Return the shaped rolls to the prepared baking sheet, spacing them at least 2 inches apart. Proof until puffy and nearly 1½ times their original size, about 60 minutes.
11. About 20 minutes before baking, heat the oven to 400°F with a rack in the center.
12. Lightly spray the dough with filtered or distilled water and sprinkle with pretzel salt or flaky sea salt. For extra steam, you can place a tray of water on the rack beneath the bread. Bake until deeply golden brown and the bottoms are crisp, about 18 to 20 minutes, depending on your oven.
13. Remove from the oven and brush the tops with melted unsalted butter. You can use the butter pooled on the baking sheet. Bake for an additional 1 to 2 minutes so the top will crisp up too. Then remove from the oven again and let rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Sprinkle a little salt on the bottoms of the bread, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
14. Serve with your favorite jams, like ube halaya, or enjoy plain with tea or coffee.
15. Store leftovers, well wrapped, at room temperature for up to two days; freeze indefinitely.

• If you'd like to make purple bread using ube extract, add teaspoons of ube extract (with color) to the bread dough mixture at the same time you're adding the water.
• I have also rolled cheese and ube halaya with the butter for a delicious filling! 

Recommended Products

108 Asian Cookies

Modern Asian Kitchen

Silpat Silicone Mat

All rights reserved for the respective recipe author and modernasianbaking.com

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @katlieu on instagram and hashtag it #subtleasianbakes