Black Pepper Free Classic Milk Bread

Soft, pillowy, and impossibly tender, this Japanese-style milk bread is the kind of loaf that makes you want to clear your whole afternoon just to sit and eat it warm from the pan. The secret is the tangzhong — a simple cooked paste of flour and milk that gets folded into the dough and gives the finished bread its signature cloud-like crumb. Because the entire ingredient list is built around flour, milk, butter, egg, sugar, salt, and yeast, there is absolutely nothing here that sneaks in unwanted spice, making it a genuinely clean bake from start to finish. For anyone navigating a sensitivity to black pepper, store-bought breads can be a minefield of seasoning blends and "natural flavors" that are hard to verify — this one puts you fully in control. The shaping method, dividing the dough into four rolls tucked side by side in the pan, creates those beautiful pull-apart sections that make every slice feel like a little event. A glossy egg wash gives the top that deep, bakery-worthy golden color that is almost too pretty to cut into. Let it cool just long enough for the crumb to set, then slice thick and enjoy it plain, toasted, or with a generous smear of butter.

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