Our Japanese matcha bread recipe makes a light and fragrant loaf that's delicious to eat alone or with a spread.
One of our favourite ways to enjoy this green tea-flavoured sweet bread is with a light spread of red bean paste and some butter. The combination with matcha milk tea is perfect for an afternoon at home.
For our Japanese matcha bread recipe, we'll show you how to make it using the tangzhong method to give it a spongy yet light texture. We'll also go through some common pitfalls and how to avoid them.
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Matcha Bread Ingredients
Our matcha bread recipes require several ingredients:
- Bread flour or all-purpose flour
- Milk (we use almond milk, but dairy is fine too)
- Unsalted butter
- Instant yeast
- White sugar
- Salt
- Egg
- Olive oil
- Matcha powder (culinary grade)
- Water
Our easy matcha bread is also sometimes called tangzhong matcha bread. It’s spongy and springy signature texture is partially thanks to an Asian technique. The method, Tangzhong, involves incorporating a cooked mixture of flour and liquid into a yeasted dough to impart fluffiness and moisture. Tangzhong may also be called water roux or mundane.
Matcha powder
The quality of the Japanese green tea powder will inadvertently affect the loaf's flavour. A general guideline is the brighter the green, the better the quality. So, we recommend using ceremonial-grade matcha powder. Check out our matcha powder review for a few inexpensive options.
Equipment
You would only need several pieces of equipment easily attainable to make this simple and sweet matcha bread:
- Loaf pan: You need a rectangular pan to mould this shokupan. We use a loaf pan that is 23.5 cm x 13.5 cm (9 x 5 inches).
- A stand mixer fitted with a hook attachment or a wooden spatula to
- to mix and then knead by hand.
- Rolling pin
- Wire rack for cooling
- Bread machine: While it's not necessary to use this for our green tea bread, a bread machine comes in handy when you're short on time. You can leave it all day to knead and bake the dough by pressing a few buttons.
Easy Matcha Bread Recipe
Ingredients
For the Tangzhong (Water Roux):
- 30 g flour
- 45 ml water
- 45 ml almond milk
For the sweet matcha bread dough:
- 420 g flour
- 240 ml almond warm
- 30 g unsalted butter softened
- 7.5 g instant yeast
- 30 g white sugar
- 2 teaspoon salt
- 1 medium egg
- 2 tablespoon olive oil to smear surface
Matcha paste
- 2 tablespoon matcha powder
- 1½ tablespoon water
Equipment
Cooking Instructions
For the Tangzhong (Water Roux):
- Begin by taking a portion of flour and mixing it with water and milk in a small saucepan.
- Heat the concoction on medium heat on the stove. Stir constantly until a thick paste forms. Switch off the heat.
- Cover the tangzhong tightly with plastic wrap and let it cool down.
For the Japanese matcha bread dough:
- First, mix the water with the matcha powder in a small bowl until a green paste forms. Set aside for later.
- Add yeast, sugar, egg, and milk to the tangzhong. Whisk thoroughly until the mixture is well-blended together.
- Add your measured flour and salt to the mixture. Knead the mixture using a wooden spatula until it turns into a loose but not sticky dough. Next, incorporate one tablespoon of softened butter at a time into the dough while slowly kneading it using a wooden spatula.
- Once the butter is well incorporated, place the dough on to a kneading surface. Make sure to lightly flour the surface first. Continue kneading the dough by hand until a smooth, stretchy dough is formed.
- Lightly flour a surface, and then divide the dough into two parts, one part taking up ⅔ of the original dough and the other only ⅓ of the original dough.
- Take on the bigger part and knead it softly until it forms a tight ball. Put it in a greased bowl and cover it up with cling film.
- Now, slightly flatten the smaller dough part and smear the green tea paste.
- Knead the dough until all the ingredients are thoroughly combined. Repeat step 6 for the green tea dough.
- Leave the two parts of the matcha bread dough to rise at room temperature for 1 to 1.5 hours. If your room is not warm enough, you can also leave it to rise in the oven set at 40°C (100°F). We prefer to leave it in the oven.
- After 1 to 1.5 hours, take the matcha doughs out and press on them to release air. Then gently fold them into a tight ball again, place them back into the bowl, and cover them up again. Repeat for both doughs. Leave it to rise and proof for another 45 minutes.
- After 45 minutes, roll the larger portion of plain dough into a 1 cm-thick oval with a rolling pin. When rolling it out, ensure the oval's width is no bigger than the length of the loaf pan. Otherwise, it will not fit when you want to put it in. Repeat with a portion of green tea dough. Place the green tea dough on top of the plain dough, and gently press these two doughs together with the rolling pin.
- Roll the dough up into a tight log, beginning with the short end. This step is optional, but at the final roll of the log, you can make some cuts to provide some texture to the top of the bread. Place the log with the seam side facing down into a loaf pan.
- Set the pan in a warm place with cover for about 40 minutes. Then, bake them for 45 minutes in the 180°C (350°F) preheated oven.
- Remove the loaf from the oven and let it cool on a wire rack for a few minutes. Once ready, cut your matcha bread into slices. Enjoy while still warm.
Nutrition
Calories have been calculated using an online calculator. Nutritional information offered on Honest Food Talks is for general information purposes and is only a rough estimate.
Cooking Tips
When mixing the ingredients, we made sure to avoid mixing the yeast at the same time with the salt. If you let the yeast touch salt directly, the salt may reduce the action of the yeast. There is a risk that the salt may kill the yeast.
Oil-free Japanese matcha bread
To make Japanese matcha bread oil-free, you can substitute the butter in our recipe for more applesauce or even plain plant-based yoghurt. However, it will make the loaf slightly denser and a little less fluffy.
Why did my bread not rise?
There are two possible reasons for this:
- The yeast you are using is no longer active. Check the expiration date on the packages of your instant yeast before you start baking. You might have also accidentally killed the yeast by using water that's too hot to activate it.
- Climate conditions. If you are living in a place with high humidity, it might result in the dough over-absorbing moisture, which contributes to over-proofing. Overproofing is when your dough has grown too big and burst, resulting in a denser loaf.
Why has my sweet matcha bread turned brown?
If your matcha bread did not turn out with that vibrant green hue, then either the Japanese green tea powder you use is very low-quality or oxidised over time.
Therefore, we recommend using ceremonial-grade green tea powder if colour and presentation are important to you.
Matcha Bread Fillings
In our easy matcha bread recipe, we will show you how to make a simple and plain green tea loaf. However, you can include any of the fillings below to spruce up your pastry.
Red beans
Matcha bread with red beans is essentially shokupan filled with red bean paste. It's also our favourite filling. The bitter-umami profile of the green tea complements so well with the sweetness of red bean paste, creating a complex yet enjoyable taste.
Most convenience stores and bakeries would have it on their shelves as a daily best seller in Japan.
Bananas
If you're a banana pancake kind of person, banana matcha bread will be a great breakfast rotation to break the boredom of having the same old thing every morning.
Moreover, bananas provide a natural fragrant sweetness to the pastry that many people love.
Chocolate
Chocolate is also a fan-favourite filling for this green tea pastry. You may come across an adorable turtle green tea shokupan that uses white and dark chocolate as its ingredients.
This version of shokupan combines a yeast-based green tea loaf topped with a layer of dark chocolate cookie crumble and filled with a decadent white chocolate filling. As a result, you get a turtle matcha bread that's almost too cute to eat. This pastry is surely inspired by another popular type of Japanese baked loaf called Melon Pan.
How to Make Vegan Matcha Bread
If you are looking for an easy matcha bread recipe that is eggless and dairy-free, no worries; we have you covered.
For a vegan version, the only difference compared to our main recipe is that we removed butter and egg and replaced it with coconut oil. We also added more almond milk.
Here are the measurements to use.
For the Tangzhong (Water Roux):
- 30 g flour
- 3 tbsps (45 ml) water
- 3 tbsps (45 ml) almond milk
For the sweet vegan matcha bread dough:
- 420 g flour
- 270 ml warm almond milk
- 2 tablespoon coconut oil
- 7.5 g (2 ½ tsps) instant yeast
- 30 g (2 tbsps) white sugar
- 2 tsps salt
- 2 tablespoon olive oil to smear the bowl's surface
Matcha paste
- 2 tbsps (30 g) matcha powder
- 1.5 tablespoon (22.5 ml) water
If you want a richer taste, you can swap the butter for vegan butter and whole milk for any plant-based milk.
You can also use zero-calorie sweeteners for calorie counters and the health-conscious bunch. Stevia or monk fruit sweeteners are suitable for adding a touch of sweetness.
How To Make Matcha Bread Without Yeast
Yeast or no yeast, you can still do the baking without much hassle. If you're running out of yeast, we have the right solutions for you.
There are three methods to bake an easy matcha bread with no yeast and they fall into the following three categories:
Physical leaveners: Egg and steam
If you have eggs and butter as well as like working with your hands, use this method. You can make this easy matcha bread by simply beating a whole egg or egg whites until it's fluffy (think souffle).
For the Tangzhong (Water Roux) Starter:
- 2 ½ tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons water
- 3 tablespoons whole milk
For the loaf:
- ½ cup warm whole milk
- ¼ cup unsalted butter
- 1 whole large egg or 3 large egg (whites only)
- 2 ¾ cups bread flour
- 2 tablespoons milk powder
- ⅓ cup light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon matcha powder
Chemical leaveners: Baking powder and baking soda
When chemical leaveners come into an acid or any liquid, they produce carbon dioxide, creating tiny bubbles that aerate the dough. You can choose to use either baking powder or baking soda to bake this sweet matcha bread.
For the Tangzhong (Water Roux) Starter:
- 2 ½ tablespoons bread flour
- 3 tablespoons water
- 3 tablespoons whole milk
For the loaf:
- ½ cup warm whole milk
- ¼ cup unsalted butter
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon baking powder or 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 ¾ cups bread flour
- 2 tablespoons milk powder
- ⅓ cup light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon matcha powder
Biological leaveners: Wild yeast and friendly bacteria
Wild yeast permeates around us: on surfaces, in the air, and in flour. You can draw in wild yeast by building a sourdough starter and then feed and maintain it. But this method is more time-consuming compared to the other two mentioned above. So, we do not suggest going this route.
Matcha Bread Calories
One slice of our easy matcha bread has about 200 calories. Our sweet matcha bread yields a saccharine flavour with a subtle bittersweet vegetal note. Therefore, it's ideal for many uses, from pudding to French toast.
Variations To Try Next
Japanese green tea can be used in a very versatile way as it adds a bit of bitterness and also light grassy notes to any recipe without being overwhelming. Check out these recipes below if you are craving other types of baked green goodness:
- bread roll
- matcha swirl bread
- mochi bread
- matcha sourdough bread
- matcha bread pudding
If you're looking for more ways to use up green tea powder, check out our other matcha recipes. Leave us a comment if there's other recipes you'd like us to show you.
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