Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Soft Green Tea Loaf (超软录茶土 司)

With my kids away to camp this week has really given me ample time to catch up on my to-do list. Besides the usual chores, I was happily soaking myself in some cookbooks, I manage to browse many food websites which I haven't done for awhile. :P Although I still didn't have the leisure to bake up a storm in the kitchen, but at least I still can do simple bakes like the bread I'm posting today. This recipe was actually from a Taiwan website and it uses both Tang Zhong(汤种) and pre-fermentation method, much like the wheat bread loaf I posted last month. But this recipe requires a much longer fermentation time in the fridge which will result is the most springy and delicious soft bread ever. So try to plan ahead when you want to bake this bread, makes it a whole lot easier.
I had planned to bake this bread for my parents. Firstly they are big fans of the breads I baked and secondly they made some meat dumplings (my favorite) for me! I know...bread for dumplings, pretty good deal right, lol! Plus, this is such a delicious recipe, I have actually baked this twice already! Just prep the starter dough and you can bake it anytime within the 2-3 days. ;)

If you prefer to have plain milk loaf, just omit the green tea powder. I made slight modifications to the original recipe. Here is my version:

Ingredients for Green Tea Loaf (makes 2 of 9X5X4 loaves)
Set A:(Tang Zhong) 湯種麵團: (note that you can double this and freeze half to bake next time)
1 tbsp green tea powder
35ml fresh milk
15g unsalted butter
2g sugar
1/8tsp salt
35g bread flour
  • Mix everything together in a mixing bowl and then place in air tight container. Chill in the fridge for 16 hours. (if you freeze this, remember to defrost it room temp before use)
Set B : (Pre-fermentation dough)
350g bread flour
All of the pre dough from Set A
2g instant dry active yeast
215ml fresh milk
10g caster sugar
  • In a large mixing bowl, add in everything in and mix well till it comes together to form a dough. Place in an air tight zip lock bag and leave it at room temperature for an hour.
  • After the hour, chill this pre dough in the fridge for 36 hours. (I actually let it to chill for 48 hours)
Set C:
150g bread flour
1.5 tbsp green tea powder
All of Set B pre dough, torn into smaller pieces
5g salt
4g instant active dry yeast
60g caster sugar
90ml fresh milk
70g whole beaten egg

Set D:
50g unsalted butter

  • In a large clean mixing bowl, tear up the pre dough and add in the rest of the ingredients in Set D.
  • Knead till the dough doesn't stick to the bottom of the mixing bowl. Add in the butter and continue to knead till elastic stage. In other words it reaches the window stage and when you pull a portion of the dough, it doesn't tear so easily.
  • At this point, cover and let dough proof for at least 1.5hours or until it's double in size.
  • Then punch out the air and divide the dough into 2 equal portions. My yield about 550g per portion.
  • Pre heat the oven 175C.
  • Shape and place in your loaf tins and let proof until it fills up to 80% of the tin. Note that you can add in sweetened red beads if you like the matcha and red beans combo. Just place some on the rolled out dough and roll it up like a swiss roll and place in the tin to proof.
  • Bake in the oven for 28-30 minutes. Cover the bread top with aluminum foil if it is browning too fast.
  • Once baked, remove from oven and let cool in tin for 5 minutes before removing it. Cool the loaves completely before slicing. You can freeze the bread after the 3rd day and steam it when you want to consume. It'll be just as soft and springy! Yummy!
All the waiting and baking to find excellent bread recipes did pay off for me. Now my girls prefer to eat home baked breads versus those sweet boxed cereals or even off the shelf breads. So I do make it a point to bake bread for them at least once a week. ;)
The faint green tea scent actually accentuates when I ate it plain with butter, very nice. ;) If you like Matcha flavor, do add it in. I have chose not to add too much fearing that my girls doesn't like the tea scent. But feel free to up it to 2 -3 tbsp in Set D if you want a stronger Matcha flavor.
I am very happy with this recipe and planning to try out with other flavors like passion fruit and Earl grey. ;) If you want to try this out, prep the dough 2 days ahead. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I find that pre fermented dough that has been chilled up to at least 1 day reaches window stage much easily rather then those direct or Tang Zhong method. ;) I guess I just have to bake more to find out!

okay all, have a great day!

21 comments:

鲸鱼蓝蓝蓝 said...

汤种就是软
我最喜欢了~~~:)

Joyce @ Chunky Cooky said...

Your bread looks so soft and fluffy!! Are u using a Kitchenaid also ???

Honey Bee Sweets said...

Thanks so much Joyce! Yes, I use my KA to knead...too lazy to knead it by hand. ^_^

茵茵 said...

ooh, this looks good! I like the picture whereby you showed the windowpane test, the texture of the dough is so fine! By the way, did you buy the loaf pans from Daiso?

kitchen flavours said...

Wow, lovely loaf! Nice soft texture! And they rose really well! I can imagine how good it must be spread with homemade kaya!

Min said...

Very soft bread, I love green tea flavour too, match very well just with a spread of butter :)

WendyinKK said...

Wow, love the thiiiiiin membrane.

lena said...

bee, i really admire you testing various techniques of bread baking..this method seems to be taking longer time to complete and good to hear that the starter can be keep frozen! wow, blue nail colour..very trendy wor!

Honey Bee Sweets said...

茵茵, I got my loaf pans from States while I was back a couple years ago. DAISO has loaf pans? Gotta go check it out, thks!

Honey Bee Sweets said...

Thanks kitchen flavours! You are right, these bread are best enjoyed simply with butter and home made jam. ;)

Honey Bee Sweets said...

Thanks Min! Yes, I love it with just butter. ^_^

Honey Bee Sweets said...

Hahaha, Wendy.....I lovvvvveeeee it too!

Honey Bee Sweets said...

Hahaha...Lena you noticed?! Trying to be hot mama you see, lol! No lah, its for fun, I already washed it off, heehee!

Fiona said...

Hi Honey Bee Sweet

I've attempted to bake bread at home twice using the tang zhong method but both times yielded bread which was not soft. I followed the recipe so I am not sure what could be wrong.

First, I used bakers' flour not bread flour as I can't find bread flour in Australia. Is it the same?

Second, it is winter here so I do the proofing in the closed microwave with a jug of hot water inside to keep the temperature up. I also leave it to proof longer due to the cold weather. However, my final proofing before baking always can't rise well. Do I have to cover for this final proofing?

I hope you can help me in my queries. I'm very determined to attempt again until I get nice soft bread, inspired by you.

thank you.

Honey Bee Sweets said...

Hi Fiona, before I can help u, first of all, which recipe are you referring to? And also I'm not sure if baker's flour protein content is similar to bread flour. Bread flour usually has higher protein level which thus results in its elasticity texture.
Did u check if your yeast has expired? And sometimes if you over knead Or over proof a dough it may end up a poor result in the end.
Cold weather's tend to reduce the speed of the yeast growing.
Sorry but it might be due to so many things and unless you are following exactly one of my recipes, I might not be able to guide u better.

Sonia ~ Nasi Lemak Lover said...

Wow , impressed with your thin window pane, how long kneading time to achieve this?

Honey Bee Sweets said...

Thanks Sonia. ;) mmm.... I think for this recipe was about 20-25mins on my KA at speed 3-4. :))

My Little Space said...

Nice bread! We never had enough of bread...aren't we? hehe....
Kristy

Cclairt said...

Hi Honey Bee Sweet

Thank you for sharing your recipes and baking experience. Serves as encouragement for those like me just starting on our baking journey. For this bread recipe, would you know if it will work with all purpose flour as I find bread using bread flour too dense for my liking. Prefer airier bread :-p

Cclair

Honey Bee Sweets said...

Hi Cclair, the only reason that I can think of why your bread turns out dense is either you have under knead or over knead your dough. Bread flour contains higher gluten which causes the bread loaf To rise and gives its shape & structure. Hence by replacing bread flour with plain flour to replicate the same recipe is quite unimaginable. I suggest not substituting it. Plus if you reach the window panel in your kneading, I can guarantee that your bread will not be dense but soft and light to your liking. Happy baking!

Cclair said...

Thank you. Can't wait to try this recipe. Having a matcha craze nowadays :-)