The night before, mix all the ingredients of the preferment together. a shaggy dough. Cover and let rest at room temperature overnight.

The next morning, make the tangzhong by whisking the milk and flour over high heat constantly until it thickens into a paste. Add the tangzhong to your preferment from the night before, along with the milk, egg, honey and salt. Mix and slowly add about 1 ½-2 cups of the flour, or more if needed, until a soft, sticky dough forms. Don’t add all the flour at once, it’s better to add more at the next stage, when it gets kneaded, than to add too much now. And you may find you don’t need to add any more flour at all. Cover the bowl again and allow it to sit for at least 10 minutes. (I usually let it sit about ½ hour, and even longer is fine.)

After the dough has rested, add the dough to your mixer’s bowl and start kneading the dough. If the dough seems extra sticky, add more flour as your mixer is kneading it. You want your dough to be soft but not too sticky. After kneading for about 5 minutes, the dough should start to look stretchy and supple. As the mixer continues to knead, cut your softened butter into slices and slowly add it into the mixer. At first, your dough may be a buttery mess, but after another 10 minutes or so of kneading with the butter incorporated, it should come together to form a soft, stretchy dough that’s slightly sticky but easy to work with.

If your dough is still overly sticky at this point, add a little more flour, slowly, as the mixer is kneading, but no more than ¼ cup at a time. After a few more minutes of kneading if it’s still too sticky, add another ¼ cup and keep doing that (but don’t exceed 3 cups by too much, total unless your dough truly needs it), until you have a soft, stretchy, sticky (but manageable) dough. Be patient and give your dough plenty of kneading time. I’ve been known to let this dough knead for ½ hour in my mixer, or even more.

Grease a large bowl, roll your dough in the oil to cover all sides, and let the dough rise in the bowl until it has almost doubled (could be as long as 3 hours, depending on how warm or cool your home is on baking day). After the dough has almost doubled, gently scrape it onto a work surface to shape your loaf.

Rub or spray some oil on the top of your loaf (to keep it from drying out as it finishes rising), cover your pan, and set aside to rise again for about 3 more hours. When your dough has risen well, uncover your pan and score the dough.

Bake at 350 for about 35-40 minutes, or until an instant read thermometer inserted into the center of your loaf reads 190-200 degrees. Let the loaf cool slightly in the pan, then gently dump it out onto a cooling rack. Brush the top of the loaf with butter while it’s still warm, to keep the crust soft, let your bread rest for about 20 minutes, and enjoy!