Earl Grey Tea Bread

So, with finals drawing nearer what better way to de-stress than to make some bread?? Bread and .... hmmm, tea! I always like to "chill out" (or is it warm up?) with a nice cup of tea. My favorite by far is earl grey, with jasmine tea coming in a very tight second. If I'm in the mood sometimes I enjoy a nice cup of chai or matcha with a splash of milk, but I generally enjoy my tea straight... no sugar, no milk, no nothing. So in wanting to relax with bread and tea, I decided to be silly and mix the two! I used an old "sweet-bread" recipe that I had used before to make
Melon Pan but when combining the milk and butter in a saucepan (in Step 1), I added in the contents of 2 Earl Grey Tea Bags. As the milk warms up, the tea begins to infuse... at first it doesn't seem like the tea will have any effect on the taste, but as the bread goes through it's proofing process twice, the tea continues to permeate the dough, creating a lovely Earl Grey color, aroma and taste.

Also in variation from the Melon Pan recipe, I did not form the dough into individual rolls. Instead I used a special flower-shaped canape tin (see here) to form my bread. I placed enough dough into the greased+floured tin to fill it 2/3rds of the way (leaving room for expansion) and baked it for 40 minutes. I had some dough left over to make a very, very miniature loaf... good for appetizers at a party or something. I would serve is with some sweet butter or your favorite jam...

What a cute flower-shaped loaf... awww...

Here's the loaf, in it's uncut glory

Anyways... I should probably get back to studying don't you think??