I’ve done swirled, flavored milk breads before but they were based on another baker’s formula. This is my first time doing a swirled milk bread based on my 25% whole wheat Hokkaido milk bread recipe. If you look closely at the formula I’ve greatly increased the percent pre-fermented flour. The reason for this is that this dough is even more enriched than usual. Both the matcha paste and cocoa have extra sugar added to them. Without the extra fermentation from the larger amount of levain, there is a great risk that the dough would ferment extremely slowly. Despite the fact that this uses a stiff sweet levain which reduces the LAB. Given a long very slow fermentation they would eventually catch up and make the dough very sour. This has happened to me before so now I compensate by increasing the pre-fermented flour, which works very well.
7 g dark cocoa powder (5%) with 10 g sugar
8.5 g matcha 17 g sugar and just enough water to make a thick paste
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 76ºF, 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 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, diastatic malt and levain. Mix and then break up the levain into many smaller pieces. Next add the flours. 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. Once all the butter has been added and incorporated increase the speed gradually to medium. Mix at medium speed until the gluten is well developed, approximately 10 mins. 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, not quite as good as a white flour because the bran will interrupt the windowpane somewhat.
Place the dough on the countertop and fold to create a nice round of dough. Divide the dough into three portions. Form a tight boule with the largest portion. Place one dough portion into the stand mixer adding the cocoa sugar mix and mix until well incorporated. Remove and form a tight boule. Clean the bowl and the dough hook. Add the final portion of dough and gradually add the matcha paste until you get a good green colour that is well incorporated. I find that this dough is stickier than the other two because of the matcha. Form a tight ball on the counter.
Lightly flour a work surface and the plain dough boule. Roll out to at least 12” in length and almost as wide as the length of your pan, set aside. Continue to do the same with the other two balls next rolling the chocolate 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 chocolate dough.
Roll the laminated three doughs out to about 16-18” in length. Next tightly roll the laminated doughs starting with the short end until you have a swirled log. Score the dough diagonally across at approximately 1 cm intervals. Place the log in your prepared Pullman pan with the seam side down, buttering the pan or lining it with parchment paper. 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 9-10 hours at 82ºF. This is an enriched dough so it will be slow to proof despite the increase in pre-fermented flour.
Preheat the oven to 350F and brush the dough with the egg-milk wash. 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. You can brush the top of the loaf with butter if you wish at this point while the bread is still hot to keep the top crust soft.
