Green tea red bean bread 抹茶紅豆吐司

Thank God it's Friday! I have been feeling so lazy lately, maybe it's because the weather has been lovely. Low 80s or high 70s during the day, and low 60s at night. It's really hard to get out of the bed in the morning. This weekend is tax free weekend, so we will definitely take advantage of that. For some reason, I am not as excited about shopping as I was when I was single. Now my husband is more into shopping than I am. He was very happy to hear that I planned to go shopping this weekend. :-)

Green tea and red bean (or azuki beans) go together very well. Their flavors compliment each other. Carol is very smart to put them together and made this wonderful bread. I had a bag of green tea powder from long time ago, and I should really use it up. This is a great project to do.

Ingredients (4" x 8" x 8"):

• 230 g bread flour
• 15 g cake flour
• 6 g green tea powder (1 Tbsp + 1/4 tsp)
• 1/2 tsp instant yeast
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 30 g sugar
• 1 egg
• 110 g milk
• 30 g butter (2 Tbsp)
• 1/3 cup azuki beans

Instructions:

1. Soak the azuki beans (1/3 cup) in double amount of water (2/3 cup) over night.

2. Steam the beans (with the water) in a steamer until soft.

3. Remove excess water and add 1/4 - 1/3 cup brown sugar, mix well. Set aside.

4. Mix all ingredients for the bread in the bread machine.

5. Let rise for 1 hr at room temperature.

6. Roll it out into a rectangular, about 4 inch in width.

7. Spread the cooked azuki beans evenly. Roll the dough up into a log.

8. Spread the bread mold with the non-stick spray, and put the log in. Let rise at room temperature until 80% or 90% full, about 1 hr.

9. Brush egg wash on top.

10. Bake at 170 C (340 F) for 30 minutes. Remove from mold and let cool.