Pandan Sencha Sweet Bread

Playing with different flavour combination again. I was left with about 1 tablespoon of fresh pandan paste, so combine with the faint flavour sencha or Japanese green tea, to give my new sweet milk bread a new aroma 😄 The best aromatic part of the bread was the brown crust 😍

Tried to give the egg-washed crust a tea leaf scoring on each loaf, though was not very well cut, the leaf outlines were still vaguely visible on two crusts🍃🍂

I found adding fresh pandan paste to the bread dough seemed to weaken the gluten - more difficult to get smooth window pane. That's was my personal experience 😉 But the aroma of the bread was wonderful 😍

Yield: 3 mini loaves in one 23x13x6 cm pan

Raw dough weight: 604g

Baking temperature: Preheat oven to 190℃ for 10 minutes, bake at lower rack, at 180℃ for 15 minutes, lower to 170℃ for 10 minutes, off oven and bake for about 5 minutes.

Dry ingredients

230g bread flour

30g superfine wholegrain flour/plain flour

40g raw sugar

3g instant dry yeast

10g full cream milk powder

Wet ingredients

50g natural yeast/sourdough, 100% hydration*

29g yudane dough^

15g condensed milk

16g fresh pandan paste+

125 + 25g sencha or Japanese green tea, cold 25g to be added depending on dough condition

15g beaten egg

3g low sodium salt

25g rice bran oil/mild flavour vegetable oil

some beaten egg as egg wash before baking

* 50g natural yeast can be replaced by 25g each of bread flour and water + 1/8 tsp instant dry yeast. Let the mixture stands for about 1 hour or more till double in volume, before use. You can also keep the mixture in the fridge overnight and thaw it for 1 hour before use.

^ 29g yudane dough is prepared by combining 15g of bread flour with 15g of very hot or boiling water into a sticky dough. Wrap the yudane dough in cling wrap, and cool down before use. Use a silicone spatula to scrape out the sticky yudane dough from the cling wrap.

+ Blend 20g fresh pandan leaves with 50g water, and collect 16g of fresh pandan paste.

The wet ingredients

Directions

1. Knead the dough following your preferred method. 

For my method, you can refer to my recipe Yudane Milk Bread. After kneading the dough to window pane stage, 

Mix all the dry ingredients, except the salt, together.

Gradually add in the wet ingredients, except the rice bran oil.

Combine the ingredients into a ball, cover with a lid, and let it rest for about 15 minutes.

Knead the dough using an electric hand mixer fitted with a pair of dough hooks. Add in the salt.

Knead in the rice bran oil.

Knead into a smoother dough.

Perform about 500 sets of "slapping and folding" till reaching window pane stage.

2. Shape the dough into a ball, cover with a lid, and let it proof for about 60 minutes, or till double in size.

I missed the 60-minute timer alarm, and let the dough over inflated 😱

3. Turn the dough onto a floured work top, deflate the dough, and divide it into 3 portions.

Shape the cut dough into three balls, cover with an inverted bowl, and let them rest for about 15 minutes.

4. Roll out the dough into an oval shape.

Flip over, and fold in the longer edges to meet along the middle line. 

Roll flat again.

Roll up the dough starting from the shorter edge into a swiss roll.

5. Place the dough into a long baking pan coated with homemade non-stick spread. Cover with a tea cloth and let it proof for about 30 minutes of till double in volume.

End of 30-minute proofing👇

6. Preheat the oven to 190℃ for 10 minutes.

While waiting, brush a coat of egg wash over the top of the dough.

Score a tea leaf design over the dough with a razor blade. This step is optional.

7. Bake at lower rack, lower the oven temperature to 180℃ after closing the oven door, and bake for 15 minutes, further lower to 170℃ for 10 minutes, turn off oven heating and bake for about 5 minutes.

Un-mould the hot bread soon after leaving the oven. Let the hot bread cool down over a wire rack.

8. Cut the bread after cooling down. Enjoy smelling and eating it 😍😋