Recipe: Watermelon Bread

Hello hello! It's been quite awhile since I've posted something, thanks to the ever dreadful dissertation and me being a lazy bum, but hey I am back! Having been on hiatus from baking for a couple of weeks, I have finally decided to get back on the baking train by making the ever so adorable Watermelon bread! 

So, story time, a few weeks ago I was trying to make a tiramisu since I have a pack of mascarpone cheese sitting in the fridge for quite awhile now, and lets just say that it was so horrible that I had to stop my sister from compassionately eating the soggy pile of lady fingers before something goes wrong (sigh). I do not know what went wrong but I swear french desserts and I have a very complicated relationship (my first time making macaroons was terrifying, but more on that later). I guess I should just stick to the uncomplicated stuff for now until I get my confidence back.

Well back to the happy stuff! This time I have made a watermelon bread, and I am quite happy with how it turned out, though it could look a little prettier than this (there's first time for everything right?) Watermelon bread has been quite a phenomenon in Taiwan, made from the usual ingredient that you would find in a bread BUT only uses milk as the liquid for the dough. " But watermelon bread? what eww" Now before you go all turn off by this, no this does not literally tastes like watermelon, it just looks like one! The bread could taste like...well your normal bread but if you would like to spice it up a little, use green tea powder instead of edible colouring and viola! you have yourself a macha bread. Some people like to use some strawberry emulsion in the red colour portion to make the watermelon bread to taste like strawberry, sounds bizarre but its yummy, I promise. 

For my version of watermelon bread, I have chosen to take the healthier path and used all natural colouring to colour the bread. For the green part, I used green tea powder, the red part with beetroot powder and the black part with charcoal powder. Do not worry if you do not have any of these, just use the appropriate amount of edible colouring gel and you will get the same (prettier, even) result.

Well that's it from me, let me know how it turned out for you, and happy baking!

See recipe below!

Macha flavoured watermelon bread! 

So adorable!

Watermelon Bread

Recipe by Ashley Ooi (recipe adapted from Mic mic cooking)

Feeling hot this summer? Cool down with this macha flavored watermelon bread!

Prep time: 4 hours (including rising, assembling and cooling time)

Cook time: 30 minutes

Total time: 4 hours 30 minutes (including cooling time)

Ingredients

• 400g Bread flour (High protein flour)
• 250ml Milk
• 15g Granulated sugar
• 4g Salt
• 15g Unsalted butter
• 4g Instant yeast
• 2 Tbsps (add more if necessary) Beetroot powder
• 2 Tbsps (add more if necessary) Green tea powder
• 1 Tbsp Charcoal powder
• A few tsps Water (for mixing the colour powder)

Cooking Directions

1. Mix the flour, sugar, salt and yeast together.
2. Pour milk into the mixture, mix well until a dough is formed.
3. Knead butter into the dough until the surface of the dough is smooth and no longer sticking to your hands.
4. Put the dough into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let it rise for 15 minutes.
5. After the first rise, separate the dough into 4 portions : 50g, 220g, 110g, and the remaining dough (approximately 280g).
6. Add a few drops of water to dissolve the food powder in a separate container.
7. Mix the 50g dough with charcoal powder, put in a bowl and cover with plastic cover.
8. Mix the 220g with beetroot powder (or food colouring), put into a bowl and cover with plastic cover.
9. Slightly knead the 110g dough to punch the air out and cover with plastic wrap in a bowl. (This do not have colour)
10. Mix the rest of the dough (280g) with green tea powder. Take out 60g from the green dough and add charcoal powder to get a dark green dough. Set both aside cover with plastic wrap.
11. Let the dough rise for the second time for 45 minutes.
12. Cut the black dough into small pieces and roll into small cylinder shape.
13. Roll the red dough into the size slightly shorter than your bread tin. Place the black dough on top and roll the red dough into a cylinder shape.
14. Roll the white dough flat and wrap it around the red dough.
15. Cut the dark green dough into small pieces and slightly flatten it.
16. Roll the light green dough flat, place the dark green pieces on top and flatten it together.
17. Flip the green dough over and wrap the white dough, make sure to seal all holes until the whole thing is covered with the green dough.
18. Put into the bread tin and let it rise for 1 hour with the cover closed.
19. Bake in a 180 Celsius oven for 30 minutes or until the outside is slightly golden brown. 
20. Once the bread is done, remove it from the baking tin and let it cool on a wire rack.           

Here's some photo to help with the assembling instruction:

The dough after rising for the 2nd time

Roll the black dough into small cylinder 

Roll the red dough flat and place the black dough on top

Roll it together like so 

Roll the white dough flat and wrap the red dough

Roll the dark green dough and light green dough flat

Wrap the white dough and seal all holes, place into the buttered bread tin

                           

Love, 

Ashley