Kaku Shokupan (角食パン, Pullman loaf)

The flat top is not decoration. Kaku shokupan is the loaf from the panya counter that slips neatly into an egg sandwich, four corners filled, crumb fine enough to bend without breaking. People see the sliding lid and think the bread has become a small engineering examination. It hasn't. The lid only asks you to watch the final rise.

One dough can become two loaves. Bake it open and you have yamagata shokupan, the mountain loaf, with a rounded crown and more oven spring. Slide the lid on and it becomes kaku, square, with a tighter, more even crumb because the dough rises into the shape instead of above it. I ask only one fussy-looking thing of you: close the lid when the dough sits just below the rim.

This version uses yudane (湯種), a scalded-flour starter. Pour boiling water over part of the flour and the starch pre-gelatinizes, which is the plain reason the crumb holds moisture for days. The straight method, ストレート (straight), mixes everything in one dough and gives you bread sooner, but yudane is honmono baking science, not a trick. It gives the home oven a panya softness without pretending you bought the loaf.