A 100% sourdough leavened miche, right out of the oven.  This is my second crack at this recipe and used my local sourdough culture (Kanazawa, Japan) from start to finish.  It has a nice nutty taste up front and a smooth acidic finish to it.

Hello all!

I live in Japan, and although I loved baking bread regularly before moving here, I realize that Japan (at least Osaka, where I live) is a very different place to bake from what I am used to.  I used to live in Southern California, where I had no trouble with cinnamon rolls, buns, big fluffy challah, you name it!  Now that I live here (and I've been struggling with baking here now for 3 years and counting!), I find that recipes need to either be seriously altered for them to work, or I have to buy Japanese baking books.  I have a few baking books that are made for use with domestic ingredients, but I'm still learning Japanese, so my kanji reading skills are not yet 100%, and it becomes really tedious to make sure I understand a recipe completely - which takes all the fun out of it.

I'm looking forward to meeting all of you, and am wondering - are there any veteran bakers who live in Japan that have success with bread, and might be able to send a few tips my way when I get stuck?

P.S. I have the same trouble with cakes and cookies.  They don't rise - they tend to just sit there, goopy in the middle, and dense like a rock all around...It's incredibly discouraging, but I just found a baking supply store nearby, so I'm really excited to try again - which is why I came here!  :)

This forum looks extremely active!  I'm really ready to get in there and chit chat with you all about baking our favorite bread!

Copyu, I do hope that you, your family and friends are safe and back together following the earthquake. I saw footage at the time of the quake taken in Ushiku which if I'm right is over your way. That looked very frightening, a very long shake/shakes, I can't imagine what that was like. And today serious earthquakes in Niigata, I guess that's a separate event......so unnerving.

As for the tsunami..... words fail me. I haven't heard yet whether people were able to evacuate or how the tsunami warning systems worked, let's hope lots of people got away. I must say compared to the Kobe earthquake the promptness of the officials, the willingness to accept overseas help etc is great. A NZ USAR crew is on its way this evening (One from Japan just left Christchurch last night)

I'm booked to lead a fortnight's tour from March 28, but that will have to be assessed. Kiwis are rather earthquake wary with 2 major quakes in Christchurch in the last 6 months. 

You are in my thoughts.

Robyn

Couldn't resist sharing a link to David Lebovitz's post:

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2011/02/the-french-bread-machine/

and how about Sanyo's GoPan!  This rice bread machine was released in November and has been a hit in Japan with sales beyond their projections. In Japanese cooked rice is called 'gohan' and bread is called 'pan' so they've come up with a cute name for the machine  combining the kanji for rice and kana for bread  and assigning the pronunciation GoPan （米ぱん）

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20101229a2.html

Take a look at some photos: 

http://jp.sanyo.com/gopan/recipe/komepan/index.html

The first recipe is for white rice, the ingredients  are is as follows:

50g gluten

3g dry yeast

420g rice plus water (wash 220g white rice grains, drain and add water to total 420g)

16g sugar

4g salt

10g shortening (unsalted butter)

There is also a gluten free recipe and for brown rice etc.

The original breadmakers were made by adapting the machines which had been developed in Japan for making mochi (rice cake/dough). In these sticky rice was first cooked and then the machine kneaded the cooked rice until a soft dough formed. This is a further adaptation.

There's a video explaining how to use the machine,  turns out it 'mills' the rice, kneads etc etc. 

http://direct.jp.sanyo.com/eclub/pages/gopan.aspx#howto

Large mixers are very rare in Japan. None are offered in the major electrical goods shops, probably because kitchen space is at a premium. I saw a 'DeLonghi' in CostCo, once, [about $250] and recently came across the 'Bosch Compact' [about $400] in a baking supply store. That's it! CostCo Japan hasn't stocked any large mixers for the past 8  to 12 months

There are some glowing reviews, on-line, of the Bosch Compact, but they refer to a 400W machine. The one I'm looking at has virtually identical specifications and accessories, apart from the wattage. It's clearly labelled as 270W. This sounds a bit low, to me...

At near $400, I'm wondering if a purchase is going to be 'money out the window'. Does anyone have an "engineering" explanation, or some other reason, why a "400W" machine would be rated at 270W in Japan? Is it possibly a different standard in the way they calculate a machine's wattage here? (We get a very steady 100VAC from out power outlets, at 50 or 60Hz, depending on region) 

I'm a bit of a 'gambler', sometimes, but $400 is NOT 'chicken-feed' in this household. I usually make only a few of loaves at a time, baking once or twice a week. If you think it would be a crazy purchase, please chime in. Your input would be appreciated!

Best,

copyu

Has anyone ever heard of the mineral called "Petalite"? It's a lithium feldspar that, when used to bake, radiates infrared rays that exceed that of a stone oven. It's supposed to create really good bread! I watched "Yakitate!! Japan" to find that out. Can I really use it in clay, and more importantly, can I use it to make a mold with volcanic rock? Please help me!

This is Glacrwlf with a puzzling question: Where can I find ancient wheat? I read the latest chapters of Yakitate!! Japan, and I heard about this product. I want to find some ancient Filipino Wheat for my Filipay (Filipino Tinapay) and I need to know where to find any Filipino province that has it.

Hi, I am very excited to join in The Fresh Loaf.

I've never seen such a fruitful community for bread baking in Japan!

I'm a Japanese woman, living in Mie pref.. Japan. Well......near Nagoya.

My baking days started in April, 2008. I am just a new comer in the bread baking.

Though I often fail in baking bread,  I really love it and enjoy it.

Now "No bread baking, No Life!" is becoming to be one of may favorite words.

 If you are interested in Japanese homemade bread, please visit my blog.

I'm planning to translate some bread baking articles in my weblog into English gradually.

In case where you should have any comments or questions about Japanese bread,

feel free to send me e-mail shown below. Your message is always much welcomed.

Thanks and happy baking!

blog:http://in-the-fields.seesaa.net/

e-mail: teroli.in.the.fields@gmail.com

A Really Crappy Poem

By JMonkey

Hungry? Famished? Almost dead?
Jonesing for a hunk of bread?
Never fear, walk down the hall
To the machine that vends it all.
You'll find there bread in a can,
So long as you live in Japan.



Here's a link to the article.