Panda Bread

I finally made a panda bread!!! I feel so bad to my former roomate in Japan, Risi, because I promised her a loooongg time ago that I would make a panda bread for her birthday. It never happened. But, I do really really want to try making one though. Bunbun got me a new mixer and I had to try it out so I chose this panda bread recipe for the try-out.

Before making this panda bread, I've seen a couple of image results of this panda bread in Google. Some has this nasty green color, seems like it was artificial coloring. I don't want my bread to look like that, so I stick with the green tea powder for the green coloring. And i was right indeed! The color turned out beautiful with green tea powder, but I do have some issues with the texture of the finished bread. It hardens too fast.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 3/4 tbsp salt
• 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup milk + 1 egg yolk (both should total 1 cup together)
• 1 tbsp green tea (matcha) powder, mixed with 2 tsp hot water
• 3 1/2 tsp cocoa powder, mixed with 1 1/2 tsp hot water

How to make:

1. In a small bowl, microwave milk and egg yolk for about 30 seconds. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine flour, sugar and yeast.
3. Add in butter, salt and milk mixture, stirring on low speed with the dough hook attachment.
4. Increase speed to medium and knead until dough comes together and pulls away from the sides, about 5-10 minutes. If the dough is sticky, add a tbsp of flour at a time until it is smooth and elastic.
5. Divide dough into three pieces, two about equal and one about 1/3 the size of the other two.
6. Place one of the large pieces in the stand mixer bowl and mix with green tea/water mixture OR green tea food coloring until desired color is reached.
7. Remove dough from bowl and place in a lightly greased bowl, covered, to rise until doubled.
8. Clean stand mixer bowl, then place smallest piece of dough in stand mixer and combine with cocoa powder/water mixture until color is blended through. Remove dough from bowl and place in a separate, lightly greased bowl, covered, to rise until doubled.
9. Place plain piece of dough in a separate, lightly greased bowl, covered, to rise until doubled. All pieces should double in about an hour
10. Once dough is risen, on a floured surface, divide plain dough in thirds, with one piece being half the size of the other two (as you did before). Use one of the larger pieces to form the face. Divide the cocoa dough in quarters and use two quarters to form the eyes.
11. Quickly place the smallest piece of plain dough between the eyes to keep them in place. Stretch remaining piece of plain dough over the whole bread to lock everything in place.
12. Take last two quarters of cocoa dough and form the ears.
13. Divide green dough in two pieces, one twice the size of the other. Take the small piece to fill in the space between the ears. Take the larger piece of green dough and stretch over the whole bread to lock everything in place.
14. Place dough in a lightly greased loaf pan, cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
15. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 190 degrees C.
16. Once dough is risen, bake for about 30 minutes or until golden brown on the outside. Allow to cool completely on a cooling rack before slicing or serving.

 If you're confused how to separate the dough, here's the diagram how to do it ;) I literally made a mathematical equation from the directions above and translate it into a picture!

 

And if you are confused how to put everything together, just follow the picture diagram below:

The original recipe from Japan advised cake flour, but I used the Australian all purpose flour. After I found out that the bread hardens too fast, I googled about cake flour and how to substitute it. After some research, I found out that it is totally different... What I mean is that you can't substitute a cake flour with an equal amount of all purpose flour (especially Australian all purpose flour, some say it's too harsh). Some mixed it with cornflour or potato flours. But I think next time I'll just buy some from the Asian store or get the (more expensive) specialty flour. 

Source: Tablespoon