This is an Asian inspired recipe for pumpkin sandwich bread loaded with chia seed. This bread is great for sandwich, French toast or simply toast.
Yes, I had made numerous variation of bread and rolls using chia seeds and the same with pumpkin, but this is the first one where I mixed pumpkin and chia seeds all in one dough…the pumpkin give its nice deep yellow color and it packed with the goodness of chia seeds.
The recipe is pretty simple, similar to the other bread recipes that I have been using…
I use the water roux or tangzhong method to accomplish the Asian bread texture, and adjusted the liquid content since the seed were soaked in water before being used in the dough. The texture of these sandwich bread are awesome, light, springy and cottony…not to mention that stay soft for many many days.
When baking sandwich bread, I love using my Pullman loaf pan, the sandwich loaf comes out perfectly square…just slice it to your thickness preference…
Oh! I will be on vacation as this post goes live…so please forgive me if I cannot make my weekly visit to you, I will be literally trying to do “nothing”, which seems kind close to impossible due to my personality…nevertheless, I will just try to relax and enjoy the environment…
Ingredients:
Water Roux or Tangzhong
- 40 g bread flour
- 200 g water
Main dough
- 8 teaspoons chia seed
- 1 cup water
- 300 g pumpkin puree
- 800 g bread flour
- 5 tablespoons sugar
- 4 tablespoons dry milk
- 1 ½ teaspoons sea salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons dry yeast
- 50 g butter
Method:
Water roux or Tangzhong
In a small pan, mix all the ingredients of water roux, place in a low heat and stir constantly until the temperature reach 650C (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 15 minutes.
In the mixer bucket, add the water roux, and all the other ingredients, except for the butter.
Turn the mixer on the stir mode and increase to speed 2 until forms soft dough. The dough will be very sticky initially, and less sticky as the gluten forms.
Add the butter in and let it knead until the butter incorporates to the dough. Make sure that the dough is soft and elastic. I used speed 2 for approximately 30 minutes.
Remove the dough and place in a bowl by covering with a plastic film.
Let dough proof in a warm place until the dough tripled to its original size.
Knock back the dough and split into approximately 8 little balls and let it rest for 5 minutes on the counter.
Flatten the ball making sure that the air is removed and fold into thirds, then roll it like a Swiss roll.
Place the Swiss rolls into the Pullman (4 each) pan 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 25 minutes.
Remove from the oven and flip the bread into a wire rack to cool. Slice according to your like.
Store the bread in an airtight container.
I hope you enjoy this Asian Inspired bread recipe with chia seeds, for more, please check Chia Seed Dinner Roll recipe.
Did you know that chia seeds not only contain omega-3 fatty acid but it is a good source of fiber and minerals?
In case you are wondering…yes, these are the same seeds that were very popular as “chia pets”, which sprouted chia seeds were used to produce the terracotta figures.
