Marbled Green tea bread with Red bean filling

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

Recipe adapted from My kitchen of love

Ingredients

300ml warm milk

60g caster sugar

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....

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.

Red bean paste spread on white dough

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.

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!

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! :)

A healthy bake~

This post is for all the health conscious people out there who don't like to use so much butter/oil when baking. Actually I don't really like to use heaps of butter when I'm baking either =p and neither does my mum.

Very healthy and super yummy ^^"

So when I saw that this month's Aspiring Baker's theme is "Lightened up cakes" hosted by Qi Ting of A Dessert Diet .. I thought this recipe for Fruit and Nut loaf would be perfect! It uses no butter or oil and only half a cup of sugar~ Despite the lack of fat, this loaf is still delicious as the sugar from the natural dried fruit makes it sweet :) 

Fruit and Nut Loaf
(recipe from my mum :P)

2 cups self-raising flour
1 cup coconut (+ extra toasted for decorating)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup chopped dried apricots
1/4 cup chopped dates
1/4 cup sultanas
1-2 cups warm milk
1 tsp cinnamon
honey for glazing

1. Preheat oven to 180oC and line a rectangle loaf tin.
2. Place flour, coconut and brown sugar in bowl and mix in large bowl.
3. Add in walnuts, apricots and dates and mix.

~ You can really add whatever dried fruit you like :)

4. Add sultanas to warm milk, pour into bowl and mix until it comes together.
5. Pour mixture into lined loaf tin and bake for 40-45 minutes or until skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
6. In the last 5 minutes of baking, place some shredded coconut on baking tray and toast in the oven.
7. When loaf is ready, spread honey on top and sprinkle on toasted coconut.

Best eaten warm :)

You wont feel guilty eating this one 

Baking with weetbix ~

I think I have been in a loaf/bread phase because apart from macarons, that's what I have been baking ^_^ They are very simple to make because there is no "creaming" method involved. Just throw all ingredients in a bowl.. mix mix mix.. pop it into the oven and hope it turns out alright =p

Looks so healthy right?

I guess you are thinking HUH!? You can bake with Weetbix!?? well apparently you can ^^" I found this recipe on the side of a weetbix box. Actually it was a Coles brand whole wheat biscuit cereal. My mum who usually eats Weetbix for breakfast said that the Coles brand tasted different so I thought.. hm.. maybe if no one is going to eat it I can use it to BAKE ^__^

So here is the recipe! The original recipe was for banana and date loaf but i didn't have any dates so substituted with cranberries =) I think any dried fruit would be good :)

Banana and cranberry loaf

Ingredients
5 whole wheat biscuits, crushed
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour, sifted
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup dried cranberries
2 ripe bananas, mashed + 1/2 banana sliced for decoration
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup milk
1 large egg lightly beaten

1. Preheat oven to 180oC. Grease and line loaf tin.
2. Combine wheat biscuits, flour, sugar, cranberries, banana and cinnamon in large bowl. Mix in milk and egg until well combined.
3. Spoon into lined loaf tin and decorate sliced banana on top. Sprinkle a few crushed wheat biscuits on top and bake for 45-50 minutes or until skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Decorated with bananas ^^

sliced up and ready to eat =D

Surprisingly a tasty loaf and healthy too! You wouldn't even realise there were weetbix in there! (my colleagues couldn't either ^^)