My Mind Patch: Earl Grey Tea Spelt Bread (Yudane)

A soft and springy texture bread with a faint Earl Grey tea flavour and donned in spread of fine Earl Grey tea dust.

A matching cashew nut butter in light Earl Grey matcha flavour was most suitable to enjoy the Earl Grey bread with. The smooth and fragrant cashew nut butter was freshly hand crafted in Singapore by Renew.sg Quoted from the label "Sugarless Cashew nut butters with citrus and floral notes, matcha and himalayan pink salt. | “Spices up the afternoon tea break!”" There seems to be a faint lavender scent left on my taste buds after each bite 😋 Uncertain about the lavender, it was just my guessing 😉

Earl Grey Spelt Bread video

White Earl Grey Cashew Nut Butter video

Yield: 4 mini loaves in a pan

Raw dough weight: 628g

Baking pan size: 26x9x7 cm Ikea long pan

Baking temperature: Preheat oven to 180℃, middle/lower rack, bake at 180℃ for 15 minutes, reduce to 170℃ for 15 (10) minutes, turn off oven and continue to bake for 5 (3) minutes.

My Teka HLB840 oven has a Temperature Surround feature which allows the bread to baked at a shorter duration and at middle rack. Normal oven may have to bake at lower rack.

Ingredients

240g bread flour

30g spelt flour/plain flour

40g raw sugar

2g instant dry yeast

2 teabags squeeze-dry Earl Grey tea dust

50g natural yeast/sourdough, 100% hydration*

39g yudane dough^

80g Earl Grey tea, cold #

70g low-fat milk, cold

10g whipping cream

20g beaten egg

15g cold water, to be added depending on dough condition

4g low sodium salt

30g unsalted butter, softened

Toppings

some egg wash

* 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.

^ 39g yudane dough is prepared by combining 20g of bread flour with 20g 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.

# steep 2 Earl Grey teabags in 100ml of hot water. Collect 80g of Earl Grey Tea after about 10 minutes of steeping.

Direcions:

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,

2. Shape the dough into a ball,

keep the dough in a plastic bag coated with a thin layer of oil, tie a loose knot at the end. Keep in another outer plastic bag, place in a big mixing bowl, cover with a lid, and refrigerate for about 14 to 16 hours, or overnight.

3. In the next day, remove the outer plastic bag, invert the dough, and let it thaws for about 90 to 120 minutes before shaping.

4. Transfer the dough onto a floured work top. Divide it into 4 portions.

Shape into 4 balls, cover with a plastic sheet, and let the dough rest for about 15 minutes.

While waiting, brush a coat of "Homemade Non-stick Baking Spread" over the interior of the loaf pan.

5. Roll out the dough to about 1 cm thick.

Flip over the dough, and fold in the two wings overlapping each other.

Roll out to achieve an even thickness. Finally, roll up like a swiss roll.

Lower the dough into the bread pan coated with a thin layer of homemade non-stick spread. Spray some water over, cover with a tea cloth, and let it proof for about 60~70 minutes, or till almost reaching the rim of the pan.

60~70-minute proofing later 👇

6. Start to preheat oven to 180℃ for about 8~10 minutes.

Apply egg wash over the dough.

7. Bake at 180℃ for 15 minutes, reduce to 170℃ for 10~15 minutes, turn off oven and continue to bake for 3~5 minutes.

My Teka HLB840 oven has a Temperature Surround feature which allows the bread to baked at a shorter duration and at middle rack. Normal oven may have to bake at lower rack.