Japan #3, the amazing 40-minute bread from Yakitate!! Zack blogged about it recently, posting the recipe, which was incredibly helpful to me, because a) Kuroyanagi speeds through the directions in the anime, and b) leaves out the yeast ingredient.

I made two wee loaves. The first one sucked because I didn’t really know how my new microwave works with power settings. I thought I had been entering Power Level 1 5 or whatever, but I had been blasting the poor dough on full power. So yeah, I sure did kill the yeast on the first loaf (instant yeast, by the way). The second one was more successful. I’m still going to have to futz with the microwave settings a bit (Power Level 1 instead of 2 for the fermenting bits, I think). I used active dry yeast in the second loaf. I also had to stretch the milk with a little bit of water (I only borrowed half a cup from my parents). The baking time should be extended, I think, by five to ten minutes.

This recipe makes tiny little loaves of bread. They’re like rolls, really. Dense rolls. I think more fermentation time is needed, to tell the truth. I will mess with the recipe and if I make any progress, I’ll let you know.