March 13, 2011

Okara Bread/おからパン

It saddens me whenever I turn on the TV; NHK (state run) and all commercial TV stations have kept telling all the details about the recent unprecedented earthquake since it took place two days ago.
But, anyway, life must go on, and I've kept thinking of good uses for okara, and made "okara bread" for lunch today.
テレビを点ける度に悲しくなります。NHK(国営)、民放のテレビ局はすべて、二日前に起きた未曾有(みぞう)の地震についてずっと詳細を伝えています。
それでも、人生は続けていかないと。私はおからのいい使い道を考え続け、今日は昼食に「おからパン」を作りました。

Ingredients:
200 g "weak" (low-gluten) wheat flour (hakurikiko in Japanese)
200 g home-made "soy-milky" okara
2 tsp baking powder
Small amount of salt

材料:
薄力粉 200 g
自家製の、豆乳が入ったおから 200 g
ベーキングパウダー 小さじ2
塩 少々

I mixed all the ingredients (I forgot to add salt!), and added some (about 30 g) water to adjust the texture.
材料を全部混ぜ(塩を入れるのを忘れました!)、水を少し(30 g程度)足して、柔らかさを調整しました。

I divided the dough into two portions, and baked each portion in the toaster oven for 10 minutes.
生地を2つに分けて、どちらもオーブントースターで10分焼きました。

As you can see, it looks more like naan than bread.
ご覧の通り、パンと言うよりナンのようです。

I thought I would have it as Japanese pizza (with some pizza cheese, sesame seeds, katsuobushi (dried bonito shavings), and soy sauce), but my daughter came up to me and said she wanted to have it with retort curry. So did my son.
和風ピザ(ピザソース、胡麻、鰹節、しょう油で)にして食べようと思ったのですが、娘がやって来て、レトルトカレーと食べたいと言いました。息子も然り(しかり)。

Second portion:
2つ目:

My children had almost all of them. They said they were good!
子供たちがほとんど食べてしまいました。美味しいと言ってました!

Me? I had two slices of store-bought regular bread with leftover tonkatsu.
私は?残りの豚カツと市販の通常のパンを二切れ食べました。

11 comments:

Nerd Mom said...

The photos make it look like what we call a biscuit here in the US.

If you want something more like bread, you probably need to use a higher gluten flour.

Hiroyuki said...

Dheryl: Thanks for your comment. I had a little hesitation in calling mine "bread". More than a decade ago, I used to make such "bread" to make pizza. I should have called my okara bread "okara yaki" or something.

The site I referred to when making it shows photos of spherical ones.
http://darling.jpn.org/article/28495892.html
(Japanese only)
The recipe calls for okara and rice flour.

Nancy said...

Hi Hiroyuki-san,

I have been following your blog for awhile and I hope you and your family are doing okay and are safe and sound.

Nerd Mom said...

Looking at the photo of the inside of the spherical ones, it does seem very much like an American biscuit. It's the perfect texture for soaking up sauces and gravies.

Yangsze said...

Hi Hiroyuki,

Glad to know that you and your family are safe. I am so sad to see the devastation. It's so frightening.

Hiroyuki said...

nance and YSC: Thanks for your comments. We are safe, suffered little from the unprecedented quakequake. The real sufferers are still there, even after four days after the quake.

Hiroyuki said...

Cheryl: I think the spherical buns are more like scones than bread. The thing is, I was not interested in making bread in the first place, but my intention was to use the okara I had in the freezer. My wife suggested okara cookies or something, but I didn't want to sweeten the okara, so I ended up making the okara bread.

Nerd Mom said...

Biscuits in the US are similar to scones in texture, but not sweet.

I think I'll pass your recipe and that link to the spherical buns along to some of my friends who deal with food allergies. I think both would be useful to them.

Hiroyuki said...

Cheryl: Thanks! I have totally forgotten the difference between American and British English in the meaning of buscuit and cookie!!

I will post about the difference between buscuit, cookie, sable, and cracker in Japanese some day.

Here is a brief description of how to make the buns:

10 pieces of okara-and-rice-flour "mochi-mochi" (mochi-like texture) bread

Ingredients:
100 g okara
70 g rice flour
2 tsp olive oil
25 g grated cheese
Small amount of salt
80 ml milk
(No baking powder required)

Mix all ingredients well, divide into 10 ping-pong ball-like pieces.

Bake in an oven at in 180-190C for 20-25 min.

Anonymous said...

Hiroyukisan -

I am glad to read that you and your family are safe!

Hiroyuki said...

Anonymous: Thanks for your comment.

We still suffer from the aftermath of the unprecedented earthquake.