I was given a tin of matcha powder and the first thing I wanted to bake with it is none other than a loaf of bread. I decided to use my usual straight-dough method (直接法) to make the bread. For years, I’ve been fixated with this desire to make my own bread at the start of each week, I think it’s a throwback from my childhood when we’d get a loaf or two on the weekend and have it throughout the week for breakfast.
Matcha is synonym with Japan. It’s a specially grown and processed green tea leaves that has been grind into fine powder. It’s consumed differently from any other tea that comes in tea bags or leaves. Matcha tea powder is dissolved typically using a special tool, in water or milk.
Matcha tea is usually served in the traditional Japanese tea ceremony where the matcha tea powder used is of a high quality. It is referred to as ceremonial grade matcha. The lower quality matcha is used for other purposes and is often referred to as culinary grade matcha. In the culinary world, matcha tea powder not only gives flavour but also dyes the food such as mochi, ice creams and noodles.
As I mentioned earlier, there are different qualities for matcha tea powder. And since we’re not going to use the ceremonial grade matcha to make our bread, I should warn that even that, there’s a difference in quality for the powder. How do we know that? Well look at the colour of your matcha tea powder. It should be very vibrant green. If it’s not vibrant green, then either that powder is a very low quality one or it has been oxidised in time. Yes it can get oxidised.
This is one of my favourite breads to make at the moment, it’s got a nice super-soft chewy texture, plus it’s visually pleasing; each swirly slice makes me smile. The making of this matcha swirl loaf is definitely a project for a weekend afternoon, preferably a gloomy drizzly one like the one I had last weekend, which proved perfect for staying in and making bread. This vegan matcha swirl bread uses matcha tea powder for that vibrant green colour.
IF YOU EVER GIVE THIS RECIPE A TRY, DO LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW AND/OR TAG @FRUITYEMZ AND HASHTAG #FRUITYEMZ ON YOUR INSTAGRAM POST! I WOULD LOVE TO SEE ALL YOUR YUMMY CREATIONS 🙂
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