This is an Asian inspired recipe for a cottony, soft and fluffy sandwich bread. The bread has lots of “freckles”…chia seeds! This bread is great for sandwich or just as a toast.
As I promised last week, here is the recipe for the chia milk sandwich bread. This bread is truly light, cottony and stays fresh for a few days mainly because of the water roux technique and is widely used in Asian bakery. Apparently this “cooked” dough is able to retain more moist…I am not sure about the scientific explanation for it, but when comes to baking buns/sandwich bread I sure add the water roux (tangzhong) in my dough.
This recipe is pretty similar to your usual sandwich bread, only one extra step…and for me it is well worth it since the texture of the bread is much softer and lighter…
In this recipe I was able to bake 2 Pullman loaves, therefore all the stirring, mixing and kneading was done with the help of the Kitchen Aid mixer…please feel free to adapt according to your needs.
Oh! Since the texture of this bread is so soft and tender, it is great with peanut butter and jelly, egg salad…light stuff…if you know what I mean…
Ingredients:
Water roux or Tangzhong
- 40 g bread flour
- 200 ml water
Dough
- 4 tsp chia seed in 250 ml water
- 650 g bread flour
- 10 g yeast
- 7 g salt
- 45 g sugar
- 100 ml cream
- 20 g dry milk
- 40 g butter
Method:
Water roux
In a small pan, mix all the ingredients of water roux, place in a low heat and stir constantly until the temperature reach 65C (150F), or if you do not have a thermometer, cook until ripples form. Set aside to cool by covering with a plastic film.
Dough
Soak the chia seed in the water for at least 30 minutes.
In the mixer, add all the water roux, and all the other ingredients, except for the butter.
Turn the machine and stir for 2 to 3 minutes, until a ball forms.
Increase the speed to “2” and let it mix for 10 minutes. The dough will be very sticky, and less sticky as the gluten forms.
Add the butter and mix for 20 minutes more. Take a small portion of the dough (like a golf ball) and stretch gently until a very thin and transparent membrane (windowpane).
If the dough tears mix for another 5 minutes until you achieve the windowpane test. The windowpane test, demonstrated that the gluten is very well developed and it will create a very light crumb. The dough should be very elastic.
Remove the dough from the mixer and place in a bowl by covering with a plastic film.
Let dough proof until the dough tripled to its original size.
Knock back the dough and split into 2 portions (600 g each) and let it rest for 5 minutes on the counter. I end up with 1272 g of dough, and made 2 small buns with the 72 g of dough.
Divide each ball into 4 little balls. Flatten the ball and shape like a Swiss roll, flat again and roll it again like a Swiss roll. Repeat the same procedure with the remaining dough.
Place the Swiss rolls into the Pullman pan (23 x 10 x 10 cm or 9 x 4 x 4 in) and let it rise until almost 90% to reach the rim of the pan.
Cover the pan and bake in a preheated oven of 350F for approximately 30 minutes.
Remove from the oven and flip the bread into a wire rack to cool.
Slice the bread after is cool.
Store the bread in an airtight container.
If you enjoy this Asian inspired bread recipe, you might want to try Pumpkin Dinner Roll or Chinese Steamed Bun.
Did you know that chia seeds are from the mint family? And yes, they are the same seed used in the terracotta figurines. Chia seeds are a great source of omega-3 fat and fibers. This seeds are native of Mexico and Guatemala.
