Milk roll is a soft, round type of
bread
Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour (usually wheat) and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diet. It is one of the oldest human-made f ...
initially appearing in the United Kingdom in
Blackpool
Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...
in
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. It is made using milk instead of water, as well as white flour, yeast, and sugar. ''Shokupan'' (Japanese: しょくぱん） is a traditional Japanese milk bread.
Milk roll is soft and light-textured, with a soft crust. The loaf is approximately 7" in diameter and approximately 500g in weight.
Warburtons
Warburtons is a British baking firm founded by Thomas Warburton in 1876 and based in Bolton, a town formerly in Lancashire, England, and now in Greater Manchester. For much of its history Warburtons only had bakeries in Lancashire and it remai ...
first launched their Blackpool Milk Roll in 1969.
The exact origin of milk breads is unclear. There is evidence from a British baker, Robert Clarke, that knowledge of milk bread in the United Kingdom dates back to 1862 and came from Japan, shortly after the isolationist country had been forced open to the rest of the world.
''Shokupan'' was featured by the
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
in a newsletter published on August 24, 2022, and the article describes it as "richer and more resilient" than American white bread and notes that it is served in a fashionable "fruit sandwich" containing whipped cream, yogurt, and ripe fruit in Japanese convenience stores and cafes.
[Cullen, Matthew, ''Behold the fruit sandwich'', ''Evening Briefing'', the New York Times, August 24, 2022] Older Japanese milk breads have a soft texture from adding more fat and
water roux
''Tangzhong'' (), also known as a water roux or ''yu-dane'' ( ja, 湯種, translit=yu-dane) is a paste of flour cooked in water or milk to over which is used to improve the texture of bread and increase the amount of time it takes to stale.
...
to the bread recipe, giving the bread a firm texture. It helps the bread keep longer. That same quality enables the fruit sandwich to remain firm.
Shape and structure
The British Milk roll is baked in a two-part cylindrical mould with ridges to indicate slice-cutting positions. The soft crust is caused by steam being trapped within the mould, because no surface is directly exposed and steam cooked, the crust is unusually soft making it preferable for children.
See also
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List of breads
This is a list of notable baked or steamed bread varieties. This list does not include cakes, pastries, or fried dough foods, which are listed in separate Wikipedia articles. It also does not list foods in which bread is an ''ingredient'' which is ...
References
Breads
Milk dishes
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