Sun tanned Panda Bread loaf & Mooncakes

Have been away back home in Singapore for the few days. It was a super long school break due to Hari Raya for the kids here in Malaysia, a total of 10 days! Now I just worry that they might get grouchy when school starts next Monday....ain't looking forward to that. :-P Like any other school holidays, I am always looking for ways to have fun with my girls in baking when they are home with me. Besides, I was itching to bake since the long break.This time, I decided to bake another fun bread recipe which I sooooo want to make for the longest time. :) Yup, the Panda bread...err....for my case, specifically the "Sun tanned" Panda bear bread, haha! Why suntan? Well, I thought chocolate flavored bread will probably taste much better then plain ones...anything is better with chocolate, at least in my philosophy! So brown==sun tanned? Hahahaha!

I can't stop smiling when I sliced open the bread loaf and seeing that cute bear face inside. :D I was so worried that it won't turn out right...like the ears sticking together or one eye drooping down etc. Luckily it was still acceptably recognizable, heehee! This recipe was inspired by Florence (Do What I like) which she also extract it from Cookpad. However I modified it to make it into an oat bread version. I shall post this recipe here for my own future reference.

Ingredients for Panda Bear Oat Bread:
50g quick cook oats
125ml fresh milk
500g bread flour
100g cake flour
50g caster sugar
5g salt
3 tbsp milk powder
1 egg
300ml fresh milk
6g instant active yeast
40g unsalted butter, rm temp

Coloring & Flavoring:
1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp bamboo charcoal powder
3 tbsp pandan juice + 1 tbsp cake flour
(3 pine screw leaves blended with 3 tbsp water)

Method:

• Cook the oats and milk in a pot at medium low heat till it becomes a thick paste consistency. Let cool on a plate for later use.
• In a large mixing bowl, add all the other ingredients for the bread except for butter and mix well. Add in the above oat mixture and knead to form a soft dough. Continue to knead for 20 minutes till it's not sticky and elastic.
• Add in the butter and continue to knead the dough till it's smooth.
  
• Divide the dough: 200g for charcoal powder mixture, 400g for cocoa powder and the remaining for the pandan mixture.
• Knead the flavoring into the dough respectively and let proof in separate greased containers, covered for 90 mins. Punch out the air, and let proof again for 30 minutes before shaping.
• For shaping details, please refer to the original recipe here. Good luck!
• After shaping, place the whole dough into the bread tin (10cmX10cmX25cm) covered, to continue proofing for another hour. Preheat oven to 180°C.
• Bake in the oven (covered) for 42 to 45mins till done. Let loaf cool in tin for 10 minutes before unmoulding. Then remove from tin and let cool on rack completely before slicing.
  

Ta-dah! The bread is soft and fragrant, again no evident oat taste at all. Neither of the flavorings overpower the other, just a slight scent each, so it was great overall. My girls were absolutely amused when I showed them the bear face in the bread. Better yet, they like eating it, which little did they know the wholesome oats I added in which makes this a fun, tasty and healthful loaf. Tripe score!!!

Okay, this is computer edited version, please don't be mistaken the bread has taken a life of it's own, haha! Well, at least this is the version I hope I come close to making the bread to look like. ;) It was really fun making this loaf, so do try it out yourself. Hopefully in the future I can come up with more interesting bread on my own and post for everyone to try. ;)

And since the amount of dough I used was more then enough to fill the bread tin, I kind of portion out like 1/6 of the left over dough to make a large oval yam bun.
The combination was delicious. Wish I have more yam left over to make more of these buns. Okay...left over yam? Well, I made yam filled mooncakes last weekend right before I left for my holiday. The left over filling was frozen and was still good as a filling in the bun. This is a homemade yam filling which is good for any baking. Here is a view of the mooncakes I made:
In case any of you out there wonder why I did not blog about the mooncakes I made this year...well I did not have time!! I was crazy busy making over 60 of these mooncakes...to be given away to friends and family. Which I guess by now has already been devoured or digested...I hope! Sorry, forgotten to take a picture of the inside of the mooncake this time...just use your imagination! BTW, those with red dots are with salted egg yolk. :) This is not the first time I made these Spiral Skin mooncake...which happen to be my favorite kind. However this time round I used pork lard for the dough which turned the skin into this super crisp and fragrant texture..yummy! Luckily the comments I got so far from my friends and family were good ones, so I was really glad I made the effort to make them for everyone to enjoy. BTW, it still not late to wish everyone out there an awesome Mid-autumn festival this year! Go easy on the mooncakes...cheers! ;)