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Coconut Masala Chai Sourdough (Spice Tea Bread)
One of my frequent food-brain thought patterns goes like this: “Wow, I love this blend of flavors. Hmm. I wonder if it can it be made into a bread.” A couple of examples of this in action include my recipe for Thanksgiving stuffing as a loaf of bread and this super-perfumey bread inspired by a Moroccan baked apple dessert.
Masala chai. I usually boil spices, ginger and sugar on the stove, and then pour the liquid through a strainer into a cup with a black tea bag.
The creation of this spiced tea-and-coconut bread followed a similar path. This fall when I was making Eric’s artisan sourdough rye bread (also known as aromatherapy bread), I started wondering what other scents and spice combinations might be captivating and delicious. Then, a baker I’m familiar with on Instagram @fullproofbaking posted a cardamom and cocoa swirl sourdough, which reminded me how much I love the spices in Indian masala chai: cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, clove and black pepper.
I decided to try to translate this tea into a sourdough bread. I knew I could use tea instead of water in the dough because there is an Argentinian tea sommelier, @naturalmente.anna, who does this, and I was excited to see how traditional black tea would affect the color and flavor of the bread (a gray tinge and a light tea aroma).
The final coconut masala chai recipe that I developed is bold on the spices and coconut, and subtle on the tea and wheat flavors. The sour tang varies with how long you ferment your dough. My most recent loaf was a 40-hour process with refrigeration during the bulk and final proof, and therefore, sour was a more noticeable part of the flavor profile than in quicker iterations.
I somewhat arbitrarily chose to make this a coconut chai rather than a milky “chai latte.” The creamy flavor and toasted coconut on the crust are delicious, and yet, my favorite way to eat the bread is with cream cheese, so the “latte” kind of happens anyway.
I made three versions of this bread, increasing the spices and whole grain as I went. In the final version, I replaced the sugar with honey, upped the flour a touch, and happened to use all purpose flour rather than bread flour (inventory).
I encourage you to explore additional possibilities with this recipe, using different wheat flours, reducing or increasing spices as you prefer, and trying additional ingredients. For example, I plan to try replacing some of the black tea with coconut milk, and possibly removing the shredded coconut from the dough to see the effect on the crumb/gluten. And chocolate–I was tempted to add chocolate chunks at the shaping stage every time I made the bread, but I wanted to make sure the tea flavor came through in the crumb, so I resisted. Soon though, chocolate will happen.
Coconut Masala Chai Sourdough (Spice Tea Bread)
One of my frequent food-brain thought patterns goes like this: “Wow, I love this blend of flavors. Hmm. I wonder if it can it be made into a bread.” This recipe is bold on the spices and coconut, and subtle on the tea and wheat flavors.
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Coconut Masala Chai Sourdough (Spice Tea Bread)