Matcha and White Chocolate Turtle Bread

In this instructable I'll show you how to make super cute, Japanese inspired, matcha infused, chocolate filled turtle bread.

If you ever had any sort of Asian cake, Japanese especially, you will know what type of bread I'm talking about. Fluffy, soft, almost cloud like dough. Not too sweet, but plenty satisfying. There is a special method widely popular in Asia when it comes to making bread. They use tangzhong, cooked flour and milk/water paste that, once incorporated within the dough, will keep the bread soft, light and moist.

Tangzhong paste:

• 1.5 tablespoons pastry flour
• 120ml milk

Sweet bread:

• 270g strong bread flour
• 5g yeast (2 teaspoons)
• 10matcha
• 100g white sugar
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 30g melted butter
• 70ml milk
• 1 large egg
• green food dye

Dutch crunch paste:

• 50g rice flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon yeast
• pinch of salt
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon sunflower oil
• 60ml water

*****When using matcha as both a flavouring and a colourant, use good quality, baking grade matcha. Flavour can be achieved using inferior matcha powder, but the colour will be too pale or even brown. I used a combination of matcha powder and a bit of green dye to give the turtles nice, vibrant colour. If you are not a fan of matcha, you can leave it out and just add more vanilla paste.

Start by whisking the cold milk and flour in a saucepan. Once everything is incorporated and there are no lumps, heat it up and cook on medium for 2-3 minutes, until the paste cooks and thickens. You have to stir it continuously and vigorously, so it doesn't burn.
Once cooled, transfer it to a bowl and cover it while it cools down.

Normally, when I make yeasty dough I just use a bread maker, but mine recently broke, so I did it all completely by hand.

I sifted all dry ingredients and dried yeast into a large bowl and mixed it thoroughly.
In a separate container I put melted butter, milk, vanilla paste and an egg and mixed it well.
Once tangzhong cooled down, I added it to wet ingredients and stirred well.
Then, I made a hole in the middle of the dry ingredients, poured wet ingredients into the hole and combined roughly with a knife or fork, much as you would when making pasta from scratch.
Since I didn't have any machines to aid me with this task, I had to get my hands dirty and knead the dough myself. Tedious task, but if you imagine the lump of dough is your boss' head, it will go much easier.
It takes about 10 minutes of continuous kneading to get it to the right consistency. Have some flour nearby if the dough is too sticky and you need to sprinkle some.

Put the dough ball in a container and cover with a tea towel and let it rise in a warm room for 1.5 hours.

Mix all dry and wet ingredients. Paste has to be spreadable, thick enough to stay on top of the turtles without sliding, but thin enough to be easily maneuvered. If the paste is too thick, add a teaspoon of water and mix again to achieve the desired consistency.

After the dough have risen, sift some flour on your kitchen table and put the whole dough on top.
Take a large knife and cut the ball into 8 equal pieces.
Put two pieces aside, they are used to make heads, tails and limbs.

Take each of your 6 pieces of dough and flatten it as much as possible, place two squares of chocolate ( or 1 tablespoon of chocolate chips or any other filling) in the middle and seal the filling inside the ball by crimping the edges together.
Form a small ball and place it on a baking sheet covered by silicon pad or baking paper.

Repeat that with all 6 pieces.

Take the two remaining dough pieces and cut one of them into 6 equal pieces (heads), and the second one into 30 small balls (24 legs and arms and 6 tails).
Take the head piece and flatten it a little bit on one side, then slide the flattened part under the body of the turtle. Then use the same method to the legs and arms and tails until all turtles are formed.

If you have black sesame seeds or flaxseed on hand, use them to create eyes. I never keep seeds in the house, but I buy seeded bread, so I simply shook the bread bag and extracted a handful of loose seeds. You only need 12 anyway, so that's an easy way to cut costs.

Press the eyes in place using a blunt end of a bamboo skewer.

Before the turtles have a chance to rise, use a spoon to distribute and spread the rice flour mixture (Dutch crunch) evenly throughout the body of the turtle.

Once that's done, you can cover the baking sheet with a towel and let it rest in a warm place for 30 minutes before baking.

Bake at 350F for 18-20 min.