I love the combination of matcha green tea and chocolate. I’ve made a few desserts in the past swirling the two and I’ve wanted to make a bread with these two flavors for a while.
So I recently made some matcha green tea and chocolate flavored breads using the tangzhong method, a natural method for creating a bread that is very fluffy and soft. You can read more about it here.
I ended up making small rolls rather than large ones. They look more like cake rolls rather than bread. The bread came out super soft. The chocolate flavor and matcha flavor was on the light side but still tasty. I like how the swirl affect looks on this bread. Next time I might switch the colors so that the chocolate one is on top because I don’t like how the green one turned brownish/yellow on top.
I am submitting this post to Yeastspotting.
Matcha chocolate swirl bread (base recipe adapted from two of Christine’s Recipes here and here, which she adapted from the 65 degrees book)
Yields Two 9 x 5 inch loaves
For the matcha bread:
3tbsp+2tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg
½ cup milk
120g tangzhong (click here for making tangzhong)
2 tsp instant yeast
3 tbsp butter (cut into small pieces, softened at room temperature)
1 1/2 tablespoon matcha powder
Directions
1. Combine the flour, salt, sugar, matcha powder and instant yeast in a bowl of a stand mixer. Make a well in the center. Add in all wet ingredients: milk, egg and tangzhong. Fit the dough hook attachment on your stand mixer and begin mixing on medium speed and knead until your dough comes together and then add in the butter and continue kneading. Keep kneading until the dough is smooth, not too sticky on the surface and elastic. I kneaded the dough for about 18-20 minutes. Each mixer may vary.
2. Knead the dough into a ball shape. Take a large bowl and grease with oil. Place dough into greased bowl and cover with a wet towel. Let it proof until it’s doubled in size, about 40 minutes.
4tbsp+2tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg
½ cup milk
120g tangzhong (if you make the tangzhong as described above, it should yield just about enough to make both loaves)
2 tsp instant yeast
3 tbsp butter (cut into small pieces, softened at room temperature)
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Directions
1. Combine the flour, cocoa powder, salt, sugar and instant yeast in a bowl of a stand mixer. Make a well in the center. Add in all wet ingredients: milk, egg and tangzhong. Fit the dough hook attachment on your stand mixer and begin mixing on medium speed and knead until your dough comes together and then add in the butter and continue kneading. Keep kneading until the dough is smooth, not too sticky on the surface and elastic. I kneaded the dough for about 18-20 minutes. Each mixer may vary.
2. Knead the dough into a ball shape. Take a large bowl and grease with oil. Place dough into greased bowl and cover with a wet towel. Let it proof until it’s doubled in size, about 40 minutes.
Swirling the two breads:
1. Transfer doughs after they have doubled in size to a clean surface. Divide each flavor of the dough into the dough into two equal portions. Knead into balls. Cover with cling wrap, let rest for 15 minutes.
2. For each ball of dough: Roll out each portion of the dough with a rolling pin into an oval shape. Take one end of the dough and fold to meet the middle of the oval. Take the other end and fold to meet on top. (here are some pics from a previous attempt making this bread without the flavors)
7. Beat an egg and brush egg mixture on top to create shiny eggwash finish.
8. Bake at 325 degrees F for approximately 30 minutes.
Matcha Chocolate Swirl Bread
Ingredients
For the Matcha Bread
- 2½ cups bread flour
- 3 tbsp+2 tsp granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup milk
- 120 g tangzhong click here for making tangzhong
- 2 tsp instant yeast
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter cut into small pieces, softened at room temperature
- 1 1/2 tbsp matcha powder
For the Chocolate Bread
- 2½ cups bread flour
- 4 tbsp+2 tsp granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup milk
- 120 g tangzhong if you make the tangzhong as described above, it should yield just about enough to make both loaves
- 2 tsp instant yeast
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter cut into small pieces, softened at room temperature
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Instructions
How to Make the Matcha Dough
- Combine the flour, salt, sugar, matcha powder and instant yeast in a bowl of a stand mixer. Make a well in the center. Add in all wet ingredients: milk, egg and tangzhong. Fit the dough hook attachment on your stand mixer and begin mixing on medium speed and knead until your dough comes together and then add in the butter and continue kneading. Keep kneading until the dough is smooth, not too sticky on the surface and elastic. I kneaded the dough for about 18-20 minutes. Each mixer may vary.
- When the dough is ready, you should be able to take a chunk of dough and stretch it to a very thin membrane before it breaks. When it does break, the break should be form a circle. (Here's a picture I took from another attempt without the matcha flavor)
- Knead the dough into a ball shape. Take a large bowl and grease with oil. Place dough into greased bowl and cover with a wet towel. Let it proof until it’s doubled in size, about 40 minutes.
How to Make the Chocolate Dough
- Combine the flour, cocoa powder, salt, sugar and instant yeast in a bowl of a stand mixer. Make a well in the center. Add in all wet ingredients: milk, egg and tangzhong. Fit the dough hook attachment on your stand mixer and begin mixing on medium speed and knead until your dough comes together and then add in the butter and continue kneading. Keep kneading until the dough is smooth, not too sticky on the surface and elastic. I kneaded the dough for about 18-20 minutes. Each mixer may vary.
- When the dough is ready, you should be able to take a chunk of dough and stretch it to a very thin membrane before it breaks. When it does break, the break should be form a circle.
- Knead the dough into a ball shape. Take a large bowl and grease with oil. Place dough into greased bowl and cover with a wet towel. Let it proof until it’s doubled in size, about 40 minutes.
How to Assemble and Bake the Swirled Bread
- Transfer doughs after they have doubled in size to a clean surface. Divide each flavor of the dough into the dough into two equal portions. Knead into balls. Cover with cling wrap, let rest for 15 minutes.
- For each ball of dough: Roll out each portion of the dough with a rolling pin into an oval shape. Take one end of the dough and fold to meet the middle of the oval. Take the other end and fold to meet on top. (here are some pics from a previous attempt making this bread without the flavors)
- Flip dough over with the folds facing down,and flatten dough with rolling pin. Roll out the dough until it forms a thin rectangle. Repeat with the rest of the dough balls, so that you should end up with two matcha rectangles and two chocolate ones. Make sure they are about the same size.
- Place a piece of chocolate dough on top of the matcha one (or you can reverse the order) and begin rolling up the dough along the wide/long side of the rectangle, so you will end up with a long skinny roll rather than a short and fat one. Place each of the rolls into 9 x 5 bread pans lined with parchment paper and put a piece of plastic wrap over the rolls. Let them rise until double the size, approximately another 40 minutes.
- Beat an egg and brush egg mixture on top to create shiny eggwash finish.
- Bake at 325°F for approximately 30 minutes.
Notes
The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a professional nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.
the bread looks so yummy!! cant wait to try it! do u think it will turn out fine if i halved the recipe?(:
Yes it should be fine if you halve it.
i just made this version AND the original milk bread version!!
i didn’t have regular milk so I used soy instead and instead of instant yeast i used active dry yeast and it still turned out fantastic!! so uberly soft and moist I couldn’t believe it. next time i might add more sugar to this version though 🙂
So glad yours came out well, and thanks for letting me know that soy and active dry yeast work too!
What a beautiful swirl on that bread! I love the 2 flavors in there also!
Thanks!
Thanks for your delicious Matcha chocolate swirl bread’s recipe. I really enjoyed eating it especially when I realize that Matcha is good for your health. I went around different sites searching for recipes that have Matcha in it. I was lucky to find Meringue Cupcakes Made with Matcha Green Tea Powder’s recipe at https://www.fourgreensteps.com/community/recipes/desserts-a-goodies-/meringue-cupcakes-made-with-matcha-green-tea-powder
Oh man, i saw this on Foodgawker and thought YUMMY! Turns out it was you!! =) YAY! Looks good, i bet it tastes great too !!! I need to get my hands on some matcha powder and make some of your magic recipes!
Haha! I do that all the time. I see something on foodgawker that looks really good and then I realize it’s someone I’m following.
Guess what, I’m currently waiting for my bread dough to rise! I’m also using the TanZhong method so can’t wait for fluffy soft bread!
I *love* your swirls!! they look like swiss rolls but much yummier and better in texture!
Oooh I can’t wait to see how your bread turns out! I was really happy with how the swirls came out. I wasn’t sure how it would work. Now I want to try making swiss rolls.
I’m a HUGE fan of matcha so this sounds absolutely heavenly!
I hope you get a chance to try it!