Late night Sunflower seed Matcha Milk Bread (One rise)

This late night bread is baked using a single rise method requiring less than 2 hours from start to finish. The bread has a rich texture thanks to the dairy products and eggs, has a tender crumb and thinnest hint of crust. It is best eaten on its own or with a thin layer of coconut jam (kaya). Pre-slice the bread when the bread has cooled well. Store in a Ziploc and freeze to preserve freshness or consume with a 2 days for maximum enjoyment.

Wet ingredients -

1 cup  milk ( room temperature )

2 T whipping cream

2 eggs

Dry ingredients -

½  tsp salt

4 T fine sugar

5 T milk powder

1 T matcha powder

4 cups bread flour

1/2 plain flour

3 t instant yeast

Optional-

Handful toasted sunflower seeds, coarsely chopped

Combine dry ingredients.

Combine wet ingredients to dry ingredients.

Knead on low for at least 20 minutes or until dough comes together.

Knead on a floured top.

Divide to 2 halves and transfer to a greased/dusted Pullman bin, uncovered.

Leave to rise until 80% risen.

Place a low baking rack with a steaming plate of water.

Bake the bread in a preheated oven (180C) at 180C for 35 minutes.

Drop the bread on a hard surface to loosen the bread from the tin.

Remove immediately and cool well before slicing.

Matchia Cake ( Matcha and Chia Seed )

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This picture, not exactly aesthetic,  is to show the loose, crumbly texture. 

Today, I learned that surprises play a big role in bringing out the pleasure to my food.

This recipe was meant to go with unsalted butter but salted was all I have. And I thought it would not make much of a difference. So it was a pleasant surprise that my guests thought it was deliciously different from my previous cakes. 

What I have accidentally done was make a matcha flavoured butter cake  that tastes of caramel bordering on the savoury side, which my friends prefer. The chia seeds provided some crunch on an otherwise melt in the mouth cake.

Makes one medium sized cake

1 medium aluminium tray, ungreased

The following to be mixed and set aside :

1/4 t baking powder
1 cup cake flour

2 Tbsp matcha powder

250g salted butter, room temperature
100g soft brown sugar ( 30% less if you wish for a sweeter cake )

2 eggs, whisked
4 Tbsp hydrated chia seeds

Method :

1 Preheat oven to 160C.

2 Whisk butter until pale.

3 Add sugar. Whisk until fluffy.

4 Whisk in eggs followed by chia seeds until well incorporated.

5 Sift in dry ingredients.

6 Fold in the mixture until it is homogenous. ( I used a Kitchenaid beater   , lowest speed )

7 Baked in the prepared tray at 160C for 60 minutes. Cake is ready when    skewer put in comes out clean with a single crumb at the tip.

Matcha bun with Aduki bean filling

This bun felt like a 'been there done that' kind of bun. Yet when my girl decided to 'hoard' all the buns for breakfast, I knew this was different from  previous  buns.

It probably had to do with the Daiso Aduki Bean ( 200g , made in Japan). The bean paste was not creamy smooth, but has pockets of aduki skins among the  cream.  It provided texture and interest with every bite.

My favorite part is that its sweetness is tweaked towards the Singaporean palate and is a perfect marriage  with the mildly bitter matcha bun.  The addition of xanthum also made the task of forming aduki balls  a breeze, without leaving a sticky mess on  the hands.

At a convenient size of 200g, I managed to use up everything for just 10 buns.

Girl2 has almost outgrown her Japanese bun craze but this little gem has reminded her how much she still loves matcha and aduki.

Makes 10 buns.

Preparing water roux or tang zhong :

Mix 20g bread flour in 100g water ( 5 parts water : 1 part flour ) till it reaches 65C. Alternatively, keep stirring the flour liquid until it thickens, forming 'lines' or ridges when stirred with a whisk.

Remove from heat . Cover roux to prevent a skin from forming.

Cool to room temperature for further use.

Ingredients:

(A) 210g bread flour / 56g plain flour /40g powdered sugar / 1/4 teaspoon salt / 11g instant yeast or 1 satchet

(B) 1 small egg beaten / 85g water / 84g water roux

(C) 30g butter,melted

Filling :

Daiso aduki bean paste , 200g ( Made in Japan pack ), divided to 10 portions

Method :

Put A,B and C in the bread machine. Set to dough function. Retrieve dough after 40 mins.

Divide the dough into 10 portions using a pastry cutter. Flour work surface to make kneading manageable. Divide to 10 portions. Make 10 small balls and rest the dough for 10 minutes.

Flatten the dough with the palm. Place 1 portion  of red bean paste in the middle of the dough. Seal the bun, sealed side down on baking tray .

Proof for 40 minutes.

Mist the dome of the bun and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Preheat oven to 180C

Just before baking, mist spray buns again.

Bake for 18 mins.

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.

Matcha red bean cake roll

Strange bedferolls

Today, I came face to face with another baking demon. After all, I have psychological barriers as regards to making cake rolls, with their complexities and all.

To defeat it, I made one.

Now, I am just  one step short of my victory dance. The only shortfall is that the nicely baked skin got peeled off, even with my multiple precautions.  Aargh !

Maybe someone can be kind enough to explain why and how to circumvent this.

This recipe is greatly inspired by pengskitchen.blogspot.com

Let's roll in the good times !

Ingredient (fits a 9" x 9" tray )

Yolk base :

1 T matcha powder

30g + 1 T sugar

60g cake flour

1/4 t baking powder

1 T sour cream

3 egg yolks

1g  salt

50g corn oil

20g water

Meringue :

2 egg whites

40g sugar

1/3 tsp cream of tartar

The quintessential Japanese cake combination :  matcha and red bean

Method:

Oil baking tray and 2 pieces of parchment paper. Line the first parchment onto oiled tray, trimming off excess sides.

Sift dry ingredients for  yolk base into a bowl.

Combine sifted ingredients and the rest of it for yolk base until smooth batter formed, 1 -2 minutes.

Prepare the meringue. In a clean, dry  bowl, whisk egg whites & cream of tartar till foamy. Add sugar gradually and whisk  till soft peak forms, 1-2 minutes.

Take 1/3 of the meringue and stir into egg yolk batter with a flat spatula.

Fold  the remaining  meringue into the matcha batter.

Pour batter into lined cake tray and spread evenly. Tap the tray on the worktop to expel any bubbles trapped in the batter.

Baked in a preheated oven at 180  C for 15-20mins, until cake surface is nicely browed. I baked mine for 18 mins.

Remove cake from tray .Invert the exposed surface onto the second  oiled parchment. Carefully peel off the first parchment.

Cool cake thoroughly before spreading it with whipped cream and 1/2 cup of cooked red beans. Maintain a 1 inch border between cream and the edge of the cake.

Roll cake as like a swiss roll. Keep chilled with parchment intact for 1 hour before serving.

Note : Everything works out except the peeling of the nicely browned skin from the parchment. To cover up the defect, I dusted with a mixture of icing sugar and matcha powder ;-/

This post will be submitted to  Aspiring Bakers #9 - Swiss Rolling Good Times (July 2011) hosted by Obsessedly Involved with Food