Matcha Strawberry Mochi Sourdough Braided Milk Bread

I haven’t done this style of bread in sometime, I found a package of freeze dried strawberries in the back of a cupboard so it inspired me to use it.  Matcha and strawberries are great together.  Although I have made this style of bread before, I’d never done with with my mochi formula which uses sweet rice flour as the tangzhong.  I have to say this worked out very well, the strawberry flavour comes through with the matcha without either overpowering the other.

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For a 4” x 9” pullman pan

8.5 g matcha 17 g sugar, just enough boiling water to make a thick paste

11 g of powdered freeze dried strawberries

Instructions

Levain

Mix the levain ingredients in a jar or pyrex container with space for at least 300% growth. 

Press down with your knuckles or silicone spatula to create a uniform surface and to push out air.

At a temperature of 76-78ºF, it typically takes up to 10-12 hours for this sweet stiff levain to be at peak.  For my starter I typically see 3-3.5 times increase in size at peak.  The levain will smell sweet with only a mild tang.

Tangzhong 

In a sauce pan set on medium heat, stir the milk and glutinous rice flour until blended. Then cook for several minutes until well thickened, stirring regularly with a spoon or heat-resistant spatula. Let cool in the pan or, for faster results, in a new bowl.  Theoretically it should reach 65ºC (149ºF) but I don’t find I need to measure the temperature as the tangzhong gelatinizes at this temperature.  You can prepare this the night before and refrigerate it, ensure that it is covered to prevent it from drying out.

If you plan on using a stand mixer to mix this dough, set up a Bain Marie and use your stand mixer’s bowl to prepare the tangzhong.

Dough

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the milk (consider holding back 10 g of milk and adding later if this is the first time you’re making this), egg, tangzhong, salt, sugar and levain.  Mix and then break up the levain into many smaller pieces.  Next add the flour.  I like to use my spatula to mix until there aren’t many dry areas.  Allow the flour to hydrate (fermentolyse) for 20-30 minutes.  Mix on low speed and then medium speed until moderate gluten development this may take 5-10 mins.  You may want to scrape the sides of the bowl during the first 5 minutes of mixing.  Next add room temperature butter one pat at a time.  The dough may come apart, be patient, continue to mix until it comes together before adding in more butter.  Again, knead until well incorporated.  You will want to check gluten development by windowpane during this time and stop mixing when you get a good windowpane.  You should be able to pull a good windowpane.

Shape into a ball and divide into approximate thirds.  Shape the largest third into a boule and set aside covered with a towel.

Take one dough ball and gradually add the strawberry powder, slap and fold until the strawberry is fairly even throughout the dough.

Take the final dough ball and gradually add the matcha paste, slap and fold until the matcha is even throughout the dough.

You can either do shaping immediately or wait to allow some rise, 3-4 hours and then shape.  Either will work, waiting to allow some rise will create a more even crumb.

Lightly flour a work surface and the plain dough boule.  Roll out to at least 12” in length and about 8” wide, set aside.  Continue to do the same with the other two balls next rolling the strawberry dough out to 12” and placing that on top of the plain rolled out dough.  Finally rolling the matcha dough out again to 12” and finally placing that on top of the strawberry dough.  Optional roll out further if it has contracted in length.

Using a ruler and pizza cutter, cut the dough into evenly wide strips about 1.5-2 cm wide along the length of the dough but leaving about 2-4 cm of dough uncut at the end furthest away from you.  When all the strips are cut, twist the strips in alternating directions, clockwise and then counter clockwise.  Once all the strips are twisted, roll the whole thing into a log starting furthest away from you getting a nice tight roll at the start.  Once rolled transfer to your pullman pan on a parchment sling with the ends of the strips at the bottom.

Place in the proofing box set to 82-84ºF to proof until the dough comes to approximately 1 cm below the edge of the Pullman pan.  This takes about 8-8.5 hours at 82ºF, the yeast isn’t likely to be osmotolerant so it will take longer than you would normally expect.  You could consider spiking the dough with some IDY if you’re in a bit of a rush or want a less sour bread perhaps 0.5%.

Preheat the oven to 350F and brush the dough with the egg-milk wash about 30 mins prior to your dough reaching within 1 cm of the rim of the pan.  Just prior to baking brush with the egg-milk wash again.

Bake the loaves for 50 minutes or until the internal temperature is at least 190ºF, rotating as needed to get even browning. Shield your loaf if it gets brown early in the baking process. After 50 mins remove the bread from the pan and bake a further 10 mins by placing the loaf directly in the oven on the rack with the oven turned down to 325ºF

Remove from oven and place on a rack to cool completely before slicing.

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My index of bakes.