This morning I made the panda bread. I watched a few panda bread making videos on the Internet before I set my hands to start the bread making. I find the one able to produce soft bread texture, to Asian's taste on white bread is the video uploaded by Gobby Hong. (Her video is in Cantonese)
I didn't follow her recipe, as I saw her bread loaf was not able to fill up the loaf tin. I used my own recipe. For this bread making I didn't measure the dough, all dough were divided by estimation.
The dough is divided into three dough. (See the first picture collage) The green tea dough is equal to the size of plain white dough. The dark cocoa powder dough is 1/3 of the size of green tea dough.
After that, the cocoa powder dough has to divide into four equal portions. The green tea dough has to divide into one big and one small (just enough to place between the ears, cocoa dough) The plain white dough has to divide into three dough with one big, one medium and one small (just enough to place between the eyes, cocoa dough)
Verdict: I know my son will not like the bitterness of green tea, I only add 3g of matcha powder to the bread. The soft bread texture is with a hint of green tea fragrance but you hardly able to taste the bitterness of green tea. And there is dark cocoa flavour on some parts of the bread, of course it is from the panda's eyes and ears! :) Hope the kids like their afternoon tea! :)
Follow closely the instructions given, you will get the successful panda bread too!
Recipe:
330g bread flour
70g all purpose flour
30g white sugar
220ml milk (gradually add)
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg yolk
10g instant dried yeast
18g butter
3g matcha powder (later add a few drops of milk to mixed together with the dough)
8g dark cocoa powder (later add two drops of milk to mixed together with the dough)
Method:
1. In the KitchenAid mixing bowl, add bread flour, all purpose flour, instant dry yeast, salt, sugar, and one egg yolk. Using low speed (speed 1), mix for a min, gradually add milk. Switch the speed to 2, mix the ingredients until it comes together to form a rough dough. Add the butter pieces, let the Kitchen Aid knead the dough at speed 4 until the dough form elastic window pane. (Important to get the elastic window pane)
2. Divide the dough into three portions, with two equals big portions and one small dough just 1/3 size of the big portion.
3. Grease a bowl with cooking oil, place the plain white big dough in it, cover with plastic cling and let it proof to double its size.
Add green tea powder to the remaining big plain white dough, add a few drops of milk to it, knead until the green is even. Grease another bowl, place the green tea dough in it, cover with plastic cling and let it proof to double its size.
Add the dark cocoa powder to the small plain dough, add two drops of milk, knead until the brown is even. Grease another bowl, place the dark cocoa dough in it, cover with plastic cling and let it proof to double its size.
4. Punch out the air in all dough. Take the green dough, flatten it into rectangle shape. Cut out a small portion of green dough (just enough to sit between the two cocoa dough, as shown in photos) The length of the dough has to be the same as your loaf tin.
5. Divide the cocoa dough into four portions. Roll it into log, the length of the loaf tin. Place two cocoa dough strips in the middle of green rectangle dough with an inch apart from each other. Place the small strip of green dough in between two cocoa dough.
6. Divide the plain white dough into three portions with two big dough nearly the same size (one bigger than another) and the third dough is just 1/3 of the big dough. Roll the small white dough into the length same as your loaf tin.
7. Flatten the big plain dough into rectangle shape. Lay it over the green rectangle and two cocoa dough as shown in photo. Place two more cocoa strips on top of the white dough with an inch apart from each other. Place the small white dough between two cocoa dough. Roll the medium size plain dough into a log same length as your loaf tin. Stack it on top of the small white dough in between two cocoa dough.
8. Wrap up the big white rectangle dough, seal the dough properly. Then wrap up the big green rectangle dough and seal the dough properly. Place it in the grease loaf tin, seal side down and proof until it reach 90% of the height of your baking tin.
9. Bake in preheat oven at 190C for 25 mins. (The time and oven temperature varies depends on your oven capacity)
Slice the bread only after the loaf is completely cool down.