Matcha red bean milk bread

Matcha ( green tea powder ) and red bean milk bread

This combination of matcha and aduki red bean bread is as Japanese as I can get.

If you are using a bread machine to knead the dough, like I did, it is almost a no-brainer.  Just roll in the red beans before the second proofing by hand and you are halfway to a sumptuous breakfast. Though made with the straight dough method, it still yields silky bread strands, due to all the sinful ingredients - whipped cream, egg, milk powder etc.

History has indicated that I am prone to consuming copious amount of Japanese-anything bread. To counteract this, I decided to go for a quick run in  my jogging circuit while waiting for the second rise.

But  I got 'distracted' and the run took more than an hour, surpassing the 1 hr rising time allocated for the second proofing. So it was to my horror when I saw green globs oozing out from the gap between the Pullman cover and base.  To add to my consternation, more green glob oozed during the process of baking. Nothing that a sharp pair of scissors could not solve but I lost 10% of the entire bulk as a result.

The majority of the recipe is adapted from that of the Hokkaido Milk bread recipe.

Matcha bread with Nutella is simply bliss

Ingredients:

Wet ingredients -

1 cup  milk ( room temperature )

2 T whipping cream

1  egg white (  + 1 egg, lightly beaten )

Dry ingredients -

1 tsp salt

4 T sugar

5 T milk powder

1.5 T matcha powder

4 cups bread flour

1/2 cup cake flour

3 t instant yeast

Additional ingredient -

1 cup red beans ( cooked to al-dente )

Method:

Mix the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. In the bread machine, pour in milk, whipping cream and top off with dry ingredients. 

Use the dough function of the bread machine. Add red beans 15 minutes after the start of the kneading. This first cycle takes 1.5 hours.

Remove risen dough from bread machine . Stretch dough lengthwise and roll, sprinkling cooked red beans.

Divide it into 4 portions. Rest dough for 20 minutes, covered.

Grease with butter a Pullman loaf pan. Stretch and roll each dough again. Place  rolls into  loaf pan.  Cover Pullman, leaving a tiny gap. Let the dough rise up to double, about 60 minutes.

Cover Pullman pan completely. Bake in a preheated 180 C oven for about 35-40 minutes. I baked mine for 35 minutes.

Cool pan and remove bread to cool completely before serving. Pairs well with Nutella spread and a cup of espresso.