11 February 2008

Sweet Potato Bread

I'm in an experimenting mood again. *naughty laughs* I've got some sweet potatoes left in my kitchen and they don't look like they're going to survive any longer. So I decided to experiment making Sweet Potato Bread.

I did a search to look for recipe I can follow, but didn't really find any satisfactory one. Most of the Sweet Potato Bread seems to be more of a dense kind of bread (which I do not really fancy). I decided to modify from my favourite Hokkaido Milk Loaf recipe and come out with my own version of Sweet Potato Bread.

This was the first time I'm modifying a recipe and wasn't really sure if it'll work out, since I have yet to really understand the chemistry of bread. I waited patiently and eagerly (like a child waiting for her new toy) for the dough to proof, bake and cooled. Couldn't wait till it's completely cold to slice it for taste testing...lol... The result was satisfying! The sweet aroma of the sweet potato blended well with the milk loaf and created a naturally sweet bread that is good even on its own. As usual, my three little testers love the product.




Sweet Potato Bread

Ingredients
Dry ingredients:
220g bread flour
30g cake flour
3g salt
3g dry yeast
25g sugar

Wet ingredients:
1 sweet potato, cooked and mashed (about 90g)
40g egg white
150ml milk
40ml whipping cream
15g melted butter

Method
1. Put all dry ingredients into the VM and mix for 15sec using variable speed 4 or 5.
2. Add in all other wet ingredients and mix for 5 secs.
3. Change to high speed. Knead dough by quickly turning the machine ON and OFF a few times. Stop the machine and use a wet spatula to scrape the dough from sides of container, pulling the dough toward the center of the mixture. Remove spatula and repeat the kneading process until the dough is well mixed and form a rotating ball on top of the blades.
4. Pour the dough into a slightly oiled loaf pan (this dough is too soft to be handled by hand). Cover the bowl with a damp cloth or cling-wrap and leave it to proof in a warm place till double its size (about 45 minutes).
5. When proofing is completed, punch down the bread dough to release the air and leave it to proof a second time till double its size again.
6. Brush some milk on the surface of the bread dough.
7. Bake at 170C for 30 minutes.
8. Invert onto wire rack immediately to cool.


I really love kneading bread dough with my VM. It just makes the whole process so easy, fast and fuss-free. The kneading process usually takes less than 15 minutes.

Mood: Creative

4 comments:

Sandy said...

hi hi
jus wondering how long does ur VM take to knead the dough into a ball? i have a food processor which comes with a kneading hook. the instruction booklet says 5min... by hand, i would take almost 30min.

KWF said...

Sandy, it depends on the recipe. I realised wet dough is difficult to knead with VM. Due to its power, wet dough tends to get overkneaded. For a not-so-dry dough, it'll typically take me about 15 minutes to knead it with VM. That's because I turn the dough around to ensure it gets well kneaded. By hand, it'll always be longer. I usually take about 30-60 minutes depending on how wet the dough is.

Sandy said...

hi KWF
thks! i kneaded my milk loaf dough in my food processor. high speed for 4min like the instructions say. the dough turned out smooth and elastic! better than my hand knead definitely. jus a little sticky, i needed to turn it out and give the dough a few kneads. the loaf turned out perfect! :) i'll take note of your tips.

KWF said...

Sandy, you can also knead the dough for a while using the machine, followed by hand, so that you will not risk overkneading the dough. Just choose a way you're comfortable with. :)