Earl Grey Tea Milk Loaf 伯爵奶茶麵包

White Toast

Been playing around with flour and yeast again today.  I needed a break from cake making as I've made ummmm.... five six cakes in the space of a week?  I had a trial run for a sponge baked in a roasting dish (wanted a shape that can be portioned easily) that ended up being a mango & cream filled sponge for Mum's b'day (belated as I was still "In Confinement" and wasn't allowed to go out and see her); a fruit pastry cake to take into work place to show off baby (I'm still on Maternity Leave); carrot cake for some friends that were visiting; a fruit filled sponge; chocolate chiffon filled with berries and cream (both sponges for my son's Full Month Celebration,) and another sponge filled with cream and fresh fruit for my "Uncle" (long-standing friend of my dad's who is like an uncle to us).  Good job I wasn't eating them all I'd soon look as if I was pregnant again!

I made a batch of 17 hour pre-ferment dough (it makes enough for two 1lb loaves) and I used half to make White Toast (I still couldn't help adding extra flour to the wet sticky dough!) the other half was turned into Earl Grey Tea Milk Loaf.  I changed it very slightly as I forgot I was making half the quantity in the book and made the full amount of Earl Grey Tea Milk Concentrate (7 tea bags steeped in hot milk). As I was out of eggs (can you blame me after the marathon cake-a-thon the past week has been?!?!  Actually, the chickens out in the back garden have some - it was too wet and rainy this morning to go out just for 40 g of egg!?!!) I just used double the amount of milk tea concentrate and skipped the egg part.  I guess it would result in a more intense tea aroma to the finished bread.

The recipe is again from Kin's Book, Natural Breads Made Easy.  (天然麵包香 ~ 獨角仙@藍色大門.)

Looks like wholemeal bread but the colour comes from the brewed tea

The finished loaf was beautifully moist and airy.  The scent of bergamot is apparent but is lost on eating.  However, there is a delicious - almost malty taste to the bread.  Certainly is different and I'm pleased with how it turned out.

See the little bubbles in the bread? 

The White Toast dough

Cutting the pre-ferment dough in small pieces

Adding the pre-ferment dough piece by piece

Adding butter

Butter kneaded until dough is of a stretchable consistency

Earl Grey Milk Tea Bread 伯爵奶茶麵包

Pre-ferment Dough
bread flour             70%   464g
water                    40%   265g
sea salt                   1%   7g
skim milk powder    2%   13g
fresh yeast              2%   13g *

Dissolve the yeast in water. Add bread flour, sea salt, skim milk powder and knead until soft. Cover the dough in cling wrap. Refrigerate to let it prove for 17 hours.

* Author forgot to quote yeast in the book - I'm assuming it is 13g here based on her other recipes.

  

Dough

bread flour              30%   199g
skim milk powder      4%   27g
sea salt                      1%   7g
sugar                        12%   80g
egg                           12%   80g
milk tea concentrate   12%   80g**
fresh yeast                  1%   7g
unsalted butter           10%   66g
ground Earl Grey tea leaves 2%   13g

**Milk tea concentrate: 133g milk, 20g Earl Grey tea leaves (I used 7 Earl Grey tea bags).  Heat milk and put in tea leaves.  Leave to brew for 15 minutes for thorough infusion.  Strain and take the amount required in recipe.  (I heated milk, added tea bags,, stirred with a spoon and left it to brew whilst I did the weighed the ingredients.  I squeezed the bags to extract the tea concentrate.)

• Cut the pre-ferment dough into small pieces.

• Knead all ingredients of dough together (except the butter). Add pre-ferment dough piece by piece.  Knead after each addition until soft and smooth. Add butter.  Knead until stretchable consistency.

• Put the dough into a big bowl. Cover with cling wrap and let it prove for about 25-30 minutes.

• Divide the dough into six small equal portions. Flatten each portion with your hands to drive the air out. Hand square it and cover with cling wrap. Set aside to rest for about 20 minutes.

• Flatten each piece of dough with your hands to drive the air out. Roll each out into a rectangular sheet with a rolling pin. Fold about 2cm from both sides towards the centre and roll it out again.  Roll the dough up (the width should be the same as the loaf tin) and put them into the mould.  Cover with cling wrap.

• Let it to prove for about 40-45 minutes or until the dough has risen to 80% of the depth of the loaf tin. Close the lid. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 170-180 deg C for about 30-35 minutes.