It's bread making time! I find Sundays are the best day for making bread as it needs a lot of time and usually takes a good half day. I don't own a bread maker so this loaf was made with 100% my hands! haha! Green tea and red bean are a match made in heaven! I don't normally like red bean but I think red bean paste is sweeter and has a nicer texture~
Marbled Green Tea bread with Red bean filling
1 packet of dry yeast (7g sachet)
500g plain flour + 50g for dusting
1 egg, lightly beaten
A pinch of salt
80g unsalted butter, at room temp
1 tbs green tea powder
1. Stir in sugar with warm milk then add yeast. Allow to rest for 10 minutes for the yeast to be activated.
2. Pour about 400g of flour into bowl and mix thoroughly. Add in egg and then salt and mix.
3. Dust working surface with flour then knead dough by hand for about 10 minutes until it starts to firm up. Add butter and continue kneading. The dough is quite sticky so you may need to continue to add more flour, just be patient with it.
4. When the dough becomes smooth, less sticky and holds its shape, divide it by half. Add green tea powder to one half and knead until powder fully incorporated. Knead the other half for a few more minutes. Apparently if the dough is well kneaded, you can stretch it paper-thin without breaking....
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| the two balls of dough resting... |
5. Place dough in lightly oiled bowl and cover with cling wrap. Leave in a warm place to rise for about one hour until doubled in size.
6. After one hour, take dough out and give several good punches to release the air. Knead for a few times and leave to rest for about 5 minutes.
7. Roll out dough into rectangular shapes of equal size. The thinner it is, the more swirl you can make.
8. Spread an even layer of red bean paste to the rolled out white dough, then place green tea dough on top and roll it up. Seal the end and carefully place into bread tin for a second proof. Leave in warm place for about 40 minutes until it doubles in size.
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| Red bean paste spread on white dough |
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| Sandwich together! |
9. Preheat the oven to 190oC and bake bread for about half and hour. For a shiny, golden crust, brush a thin layer of egg on top. Leave on rack to cool and slice.
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| Shiny loaf of bread! |
I found that the top of the bread cooked very fast but when i sliced into it, the middle was not fully cooked. So don't be scared that the top is browning because you need to leave the bread in for the full half hour OR you could place a piece of foil on top to prevent it from browning so quickly. Also another tip is be patient with the bread! You actually have to knead it quite a bit... and although you may get sore hands/arms, it'll be worth it! Trust me!
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| the different layers~ |
You can see that the texture of my bread wasn't as light and fluffy but a bit dense and that is because I didn't take time to knead =p haha! But a lot of love was put into this bread! :)
