My husband travels for work a lot, which can be a bummer most of the time. Now that i'm not working, i've been able to tag along and it's been so fun. When he does go on these trips alone, he always brings me back a bunch of gifts. It's so sweet of him and I get so excited to open up all the little presents he wraps up for me. One time, I really wanted a cat and he randomly got me a stuffed animal cat from an airport in Nashville. Not exactly what I wanted, but nice try.

Adding the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients

He recently went to Japan with his dad and he got me so many different types of matcha, which is my absolute favorite. I've been drinking matcha tea and matcha lattes like crazy. Caffeine overload!

Stack each oval on top of each other and run the rolling pin a few times on top of the stacked dough so they all stick together.

Take one short end of the dough and fold it to the center of the oval, then take the other end and fold to meet the top. This will look like a folded letter.

The first time I had Japanese milk bread was in Japan. When Bryan and I started dating, we got drunk one night and randomly decided to book a trip to Japan. This was our very first trip together and it will always be one of my favorite vacations. We both fell in love with the food, culture, and all the beautiful cities we visited. I remember waking up every morning and going to different bakeries that sold variations of the soft pillowy milk bread. I was hooked! Since then, Bryan has been back two more times and here I am, still making milk bread. This is the first time i've added chocolate and matcha and it turned out amazing. I'm so excited to share this recipe with you guys and hope you love it as much as I do!

Run the rolling pin a few times on top of the rolled dough so it sticks together

Roll the dough up like you would a swiss roll

INGREDIENTS

TANGZHONG

1/3 cup bread flour
1 cup water

DOUGH

2 1/2 cups bread flour
3 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
1/2 cup warm milk, 110 degrees F
1 egg
120 grams tangzhong
3 tbsp room temperature butter
2 tsp matcha powder
1 tbsp cocoa powder
Egg wash to brush on buns

INSTRUCTIONS

Create tangzhong by mixing flour and water in a saucepan on medium heat. Stir with a wooden spoon until thickens. Mixture should get thick enough to form indentations when moving it around with your spoon. Pour the mixture into a bowl and press plastic wrap on the surface to prevent skin from forming.
In your stand mixer bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, and yeast.
Make a well in the center and add in warm milk, egg, and tangzhong
Mix with your hook attachment until a shaggy dough forms, about 1 minute
Cut the butter in small pieces and add it to the dough
Continue mixing for another 8-10 minutes. If the dough is too wet, add 1 tablespoon of flour at a time until the dough comes together. The dough should be smooth, but not too sticky. You will be able to tell when the dough is done by taking a chunk of dough and gently stretching it to a very thin translucent membrane before it breaks. When it does break, a circular hole-like shape on the stretched dough should form.
Take the dough out from the bowl and split it into 3 equal pieces. Return one of the pieces into the stand mixer and add in your matcha. Mix until combined. Clean out the mixer and add in the second piece of dough with the cocoa powder. Mix until combined. You should have 3 equal sized pieces: 1 matcha, 1 cocoa powder, and 1 plain. Place each one in 3 separate greased bowls and cover with plastic wrap. Put in a warm place and let rise for 1-1 1/2 hours or until it doubles in size.
Once the dough is done rising, punch and deflate dough. Remove dough from the bowls and shape into balls. Divide each ball into 3 equal portions. You should have 9 pieces total now.
Roll out each portion of the dough with a rolling pin into an oval shape roughly 8x6 inches. Take one piece of rolled-out matcha dough and put on top of rolled out white dough, and then the rolled out chocolate dough and put it on top of the matcha. Make sure the white dough is always on the bottom.
Run the rolling pin a few times on top of the stacked dough so they all stick together. Take one short end of the dough and fold it to the center of the oval, then take the other end and fold to meet the top. This will look like a folded letter.
Flip the dough over, so the fold is facing down and flatten with the rolling pin. Flip the dough again so the seam is facing upwards and roll the dough up like you would a swiss roll. Place the rolled up dough into the bread pan, seam side down. Repeat this process two more times.
Once you have the rolled up pieces in your pan, cover with plastic wrap and let rise for a second time for 45 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
When the dough is done rising, brush it with egg wash and bake for 25-30 minutes. If the top is browning too quickly, tent the bread with aluminum foil.
Let the bread cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove it from the pan and let it finish cooling on a wire rack.