Marshmallow and Cumulonimbus – Milk Red Bean Bread
Uncle Box, Good day. Today Little Green told me that people nowadays are very strange; they don’t write poems and they don’t write letters anymore. I asked Little Green, what is a poem? And what is a letter? Then Little Green asked me who I wanted to write my very first letter to. Without even thinking, I said I wanted to write it to Uncle Box. And so, this letter came to be. The cumulonimbus clouds you pointed out to me a few days ago have turned into rain and fallen to the ground over the past few days. When the rain isn’t too heavy, Little Green and I go to the garden to splash in the puddles. The rain feels so heavy; when it hits the flowers, they quickly turn yellow and fall to the ground. So I cut some flowers and brought them home to put in a cup. Little Green said they were gardenias, big white blossoms giving off a lovely fragrance. I looked them up in your flower book, and it said that gardenias are the flowers of joy. So I felt happy the whole day. In the afternoon, Little Green and I went to the market. Someone was selling cotton candy under the big eaves of a coffee house. I thought it looked just like the cumulonimbus clouds we saw a few days ago, and it looked delicious. So Little Green and I bought one. Little Green ended up with sugar threads all over his mouth. He said the milk red bean bread you make tastes even more like cumulonimbus clouds than cotton candy does. I found that so funny. Has he really eaten a cumulonimbus cloud before? That’s the interesting thing that happened to me today. Little Green said that when you write a letter, you have to write about interesting things. Is that true? He also said that poetry is a bit difficult and has to be learned slowly. Once I’ve learned how, I’ll write a poem for you. I wish you: All the best! Guo Niu May 19, 2015
Ingredients
Steps
Pour an appropriate amount of boiling water into 50g of bread flour and stir quickly until it reaches the state shown in the picture to form the tangzhong. Let it cool and set aside (you can also refrigerate it overnight before using).
Combine all of the tangzhong, bread flour, cake flour, egg, sugar, milk, and dry yeast and knead into a dough.
Knead until the dough initially develops gluten and becomes elastic, then add the butter and salt and continue kneading until the gluten is well developed and the dough can be stretched into a thin, translucent membrane.
Seal the dough and let it rise until it doubles in size, then remove and deflate to expel the gas.
Divide into four equal portions, shape each into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and a damp cloth, and let rest for 15 minutes.
Roll out each piece of dough and wrap it around the sweet red bean filling.
Lift the edges of the dough up and pinch them together into a triangular shape.
Place the dough seam side down on a baking tray, cover with a damp cloth and plastic wrap, and let rise again.
When the dough has doubled in size, remove it. Lightly spray the surface with water, cover the dough with leaves or any pattern you like, and dust the surface with flour.
Remove the leaves to reveal the beautiful pattern. Make a slit with a blade at the triangular point of the dough. Preheat the oven to 200°C and bake for about 16 minutes.