Black Sesame White Rice Loaf

It's only been a week since I last baked and it almost seems like a month to me. ;-P Frankly speaking, I have not been doing much recipe reading lately too...kind of lost touch of my hobby for awhile. But I am determine not to slag too long because it would also mean I am wasting too much time. :( Life's too short for that and there are so so many recipes out there that I would love to try out! However, at the moment, I am @ my MIL's place, so can't really have the liberty to bake up a storm in her kitchen....Anyway, today I will post up one that I have baked a couple weeks back but simply didn't have the leisure to post it up. It's Black Sesame White Rice bread loaf. As the name implies, it's namely black sesame paste and rice as the main ingredients for this dough.....and thus this gray look on the loaf:

I was kind of inpsired by some of the Taiwan bloggers out there using black sesame paste to bake bread and since I did purchase a bottle during my trip to Taiwan, I figured why not?! Interested? Here is the formula for the dough:

Ingredients for Black Sesame White Rice Bread loaf: (24cmX10cmX10cm)
Set A:
150g cooked white rice
325ml water

• Combined rice and water in a small sauce pot and cook under low heat till the mixture is thicken and the water is adsorbed. Scoop up and let cool.
  
• Place mixture into blender and blend till thick watery mixture with no evident grain of the rice. Set aside for later use.

Set B:
400g bread flour
all above rice mixture
4 tbsp black sesame paste
7g instant active dry yeast
1/2 tsp salt
50g caster sugar
100ml ice water (adjust accordingly to moisture of dough)
40g unsalted butter

Method:

• Mix all ingredients in main dough except for butter together in a large mixing bowl to form a soft dough. Place on work area to knead or mixer to do the kneading. Knead the dough till it is not sticky, about 20 minutes.
• Add the unsalted butter in and continue to knead till the dough is shiny and elastic. To test if the dough is ready, pull a small piece off and stretching it with your fingers. If dough is very elastic and pulls to almost see through without breaking, then it's done.
• Place dough in a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap and allow to proof for at least 90 minutes to 2hrs.
• Divide the dough into 4 equal portions. Roll round and cover to rest for another 10 minutes before shaping the dough.
• Using a rolling pin, roll the dough flat into an oval shape and roll up from one end to a swiss roll shape. Place it in a greased bread tin. Repeat for the rest of the 3 dough balls.
• Let the dough proof for 40minutes to an hour to almost the rim of the tin.
• Preheat oven to 180°C. Brush simple egg wash solution over the proved bread and sprinkle some black sesame over the top.
• Bake in the oven for 40 to 45minutes till the top is golden brown. If the top charred too fast, simply use an aluminum foil to over the top and continue to bake till done. Remove from mould after 5 minutes and let cool on rack.

Due to the poor distribution of the heat from my small oven, the bread top did not have a evenly baked brown top. And because I added some raisins into the left 2 sections of this loaf, it kinds of "hinder" the loaf to rise higher there too. :-P The overall texture and taste was great. The nutty taste and aroma from the sesame paste was really nice! Plus the starter rice mixture also helps makes this a really soft bread, yummy!
Overall a bread loaf worth trying out, especially if you like sesame. :) Spreading some cold butter over it makes it a great breakfast to have with a cup of your favorite beverage. Yum-O! Can't think of how to spend this coming holiday? Bake a fresh loaf of black sesame rice bread loaf for your family! They will love it.... ;) Happy bakes!