Green Tea's blog

Well.  It has been numerous weeks since my last entry and I have discovered I just don't have the dedication it takes to keep a bread blog.

So... I mean to do a post on these sooner or later.

Mm... I think I may do a post on these also. (Well eventually.  :D)

I became very enthusiastic with my scoring.... (ah, thank you, Russ for your advice on my blog post before...)

And this was my first sourdough bread from the new member of our family, Loxley (a.k.a. the Loch Ness Monster of the Fridge)  I absolutely love sourdough... I find the oven rise is always so much more!  So far my favourite game into the kitchen is to take out 3/4 cup of sourdough starter and 3 cups of flour, then improvise the rest.

Here's another sourdough which i made with spices, buttermilk, fresh orange juice, raisins, dried cranberries and mostly whole wheat flour.

This is the dough for the blueberry buttermilk bread, without the blueberries yet added in.  The specks are lemon thyme.

And here it is cooked...

This isn't much of what bread I've been baking, but it's a tad bit.  Unfortunately i don't have the dedication to take a picture of every bread either!!

Update: Thank you to Kuret. I'll have to work on that so until then I just got rid of the pictures! :)

After some successfully delicious baking sessions...

Spinach Cheese Boule - made wonderful sandwich bread

Pain de Provence - absolutely amazing!!!  SO good as toast! (but, yes, I really need to work on my scoring, not just my usual complete degassing of a bread as I attempt to slice...)

...I finally decided it was about time (as I started bread baking last November or so?) to try to develop my own recipe.

And I chose the obvious.

With the reference of numerous other bread recipes, I ended up with my Sweet Green Tea Bread.

(The glaze was stolen and slightly altered from Beth Henspengers Sweet Vanilla Challah (so good!!) in her book Bread for All Seasons)

Anyhow, here was how it was supposed to go:

Sweet Green Tea Bread

Preferment
1 tbsp active dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water or milk
1 cup all purpose flour

Dough
2 ½ cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
6 tbsp green tea leaves
1 cup strongly brewed green tea (with or without the tea leaves)
1 well beaten egg
3 tbsp very soft butter

Glaze
1 egg yolk
¼ tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp sugar

Sesame seeds (optional)

Preferment: Mix the yeast, warm milk or water and flour together, set aside ½ hour minutes.

Glaze: blend ingredients, set aside.

Dough: In a large bowl blend the flour, sugar and salt. Grind half of the green tea into powder. Blend the (dry) green tea into the (liquid) green tea, add egg and let it sit for a few moments until the (dry) green tea is soft.

Add the green tea mixture into the dry ingredients and then beat in the butter, lastly mix in sponge.  Knead with generously floured surface and hands until smooth and satiny (or until whenever you think it is ready- it was more of a guess on my amateur behalf).

First rise- until double in bulk.
Second rise- mostly degas, shape into one large loaf or two small ones and let the dough rise until double in bulk again.

Bake- Glaze and sprinkle with sesame seeds before putting in the oven preheated to 350ºF (with a preheated pan in bottom). Pour water in the pan and spray the oven walls and bake for around 30-50 minutes.

Looks just like one big cha sui bao! (Chinese barbaque pork bun)

And... here was how it really went.  I forgot to put in the butter and went very much off schedule for near the ending moments of the final rise I ended up having to leave the poor bread on its own for around three hours... although I did pop it in the cellar to try to slow rising!

Despite that it turned out wonderfully and the smell that filled the house was heavenly!

Now if I were to make it again... I think I would cut the ground green tea down to only 2 tablespoons, I have to admit there might have been just a bit too much. 

Please, if you have an advice for improving my recipe please, please reply!  It is probably in dire need of improvement!