When panko, Japanese bread crumbs, first appeared here, American cooks leaped to embrace their spiky crunch. (The first article about it appeared in 1998.) But how could breadcrumbs arrive from Japan, a land without bread? The answer is here, in the lofty, feathery white bread that is a staple at bakeries in Asia. (Panko is often made from the heels of the loaf, called the “ears” in Japanese.) Milk bread was developed in Japan in the 20th century, using tangzhong, a warm flour-and-water paste traditionally used in China to make buns with a soft, springy texture and tiny air bubbles.

Milk bread with an incomparable crumb and buttery taste is a snap to make at home, using supermarket ingredients. Once the tanzhong is cooked and cooled — a matter of 10 minutes at the stove — you have an easy, rewarding dough. It can be shaped into coils or round rolls, like pull-aparts, instead of loaves, or you can paint it with cinnamon sugar, dulce de leche or strawberry jam when you roll it out.