Matcha & Kinako Buns and Loaf

I suppose besides Matcha (green tea), Kinako (toasted soybean powder) is quite a popular flavour in Japan and also now in Singapore. Coincidentally I have just fallen in love with Kinako recently. Trying all possible means of incorporating it into my bakes. After my recent posts of "Thick and Fluffy Kinako Pancakes" and "Kinako Tofu Buns with Kinako Crumbles". And now, I created Matcha & Kinako bread, haha! Somebody stop me.

This time I experimented with straight dough method since I didn't have the time to prepare the pre fermented dough before hand. Luckily the bread still turned out great. Soft and delicious. :9 Let's take a look at what we need!

Ingredients for Matcha Dough

280g bread flour
35g matcha powder
35g caster sugar
1/2 tsp salt
200ml fresh milk
4g instant active yeast
20g unsalted butter room temp

• In th mixing bowl, add in all the ingredients except the butter.
• Knead it well till the dough comes together and pulls away from th side of the bowl. That will take about 10-12 minutes. You can stop the kneading for 2 to 3 minutes break in between. 
• Add in the butter and continue to knead till it is very elastic and reaches the window panel.
• Leave dough in a greased bowl, covered and let proof till it doubles in size or for 1hr.

Ingredients for Kinako Dough (similar to my "Kinako Tofu Buns with Kinako Crumbles" recipe)

270g bread flour
120g silken tofu, drained overnight in fridge
35g caster sugar
35g Kinako powder
1/2tsp salt
200ml fresh milk
4 g instant active yeast
20g unsalted butter room temp

• In th mixing bowl, add in all the ingredients except the butter.
• Knead it well till the dough comes together and pulls away from th side of the bowl. That will take about 10-12 minutes. You can stop the kneading for 2 to 3 minutes break in between. 
• Add in the butter and continue to knead till it is very elastic and reaches the window panel.
• Leave dough in a greased bowl, covered and let proof till it doubles in size or for 1hr.

Shaping and Baking:

• Once the dough is proofed, punched out the air. 
• Weigh 2 portions of 150 g for both the Matcha and Kinako doughs. So you will have 4 of the 150 g dough.
• The rest of the dough, I weighed out about 30 g of dough portions. Roll round and set aside, covered for use later.
• For the four 150 g dough portions, roll them into long tubes, about 30 cm long each.

• You then braid the 4 dough together. I actually learn how to braid with the Youtube videos here. Try it! And check out mine...ehh not bad for first time haha.

• Preheat the oven and grease the loaf tin. Place the shaped dough into the loaf tin. Let it proof for 1hr or till the dough rises to fill 90% of the tin.

Matcha Cream Cheese Filling:

200 g spreadable cream cheese

25 g matcha powder

40 g confectioner's sugar

• Combine all of the Matcha Cream cheese filling together and mmix well till it is smooth and creamy. Chill the mixture while you work on the dough.
• Next you take one 30 g matcha dough and one 30 g kinako dough. Combine the two doughs together side by side by sealing the edge as show below.

• Flatten the dough and scoop about 1 tbsp of that matcha cream cheese in the middle. Close the dough and seal the edges. Making sure that the matcha and kinako dough is still 50-50 side by side. 

• Repeat till all the dough and matcha cream cheese is used up. Let the buns proof for 40 minutes. I placed a chocolate baking stick over the buns for decoration (optional of course). :)
• Bake the buns in the peheated oven at 175C for 15 minutes till golden brown. Bake the bread loaf (covered) for 30 minutes at 175C.

I made about 6 to 7 buns with the remaining dough if I remember it correctly. :) Remember to remove the loaf from the baking tin immediately once it is out of the oven. Cool all the baked breads on the rack completely.

Showing a little of the matcha cream cheese inside. Slight bitter from the tea powder, sweet and creamy cheese with the soft fluffy buns...yum. :9

Not forgetting the loaf of bread I baked as well. :) It looks pretty good if I may say so myself! :)

Seriously my kind of breakfast. Soft bread, cold butter. Or fluffy buns with some sweet cream cheese filling. Home baked bread is the way to go guys!

Hope you all will give this a try! If you are adventureous enough, perhaps you can attempt the same recipe using cocoa powder in place of the matcha powder. I think it will match up nicely too! 

Happy Baking guys!