29 March 2008

For that sweet tooth of mine

Bought a covered bread tin recently. Now I can have taller loaves (hopefully). Tested out the bread tin with my usual Cream Cheese Bread. Made the loaf for Kat and her family. It didn't turn out as "square" as I wanted it, but still ok.



Today I tried a new bread. Saw the recipe from a chinese site a few weeks ago. I told myself then to add this to my to-do-list. I had the main ingredient, mango, today, so I see no excuse to give it a skip.



This recipe uses a water-roux starter (湯種)too, but not the 65°C water-roux starter. I've changed the recipe slightly to increase the amount of mango used.

Tang Zhong Mango Loaf

Water-roux Starter

Ingredients
90g Bread Flour
65g boiling water

Method
1. Place the bread flour into a bowl. Pour in the boiling water and stir with a spoon. Use hand to knead into a dough when cooled enough to handle. The dough will be like a normal bread dough.
2. Covered and keep refrigerated overnight for 24 hrs. (I only kept for about 15 hrs.)

Main Dough

Ingredients
150g fresh mango (I use Honey mango)
80g water
50g sugar
3/4 tsp salt (3g)
20g milk powder
30g unsalted butter
260g bread flour
1 & 1/8 tsp yeast (4g)
water-roux starter

Method (manual)
1. Blend mango and water to puree in a blender.
2. Place 175g of the mango puree into a large mixing bowl. Add in all ingredients (except the water-roux starter) to mix to a dough.
3. Divide the water-roux starter to small pieces and add them to the dough.
4. Knead the dough till smooth and elastic (about half an hr). You can perform the membrane test to see if the dough is ready.

5. Round it up into a smooth ball and place it into a well greased bowl to proof till double in size. Cover the bowl with a damp towel.
6. When proofing is completed, punch down the dough to release the air and let it rest for 10 minutes.
7. Divide the dough into 3 portions. Roll each portion into swiss roll style and place them into a bread tin for second proofing till double in size.

8. Baked in preheated oven at 180°C (covered tin) or 170°C (uncovered tin) for 30-35 mins.




This is a sweet loaf. The bread is soft. The mango aroma is not that strong, in my opinion. I think it'll depend on the kind of mango you use in the recipe. But overall still a tasty bread.



Besides bread, I also tried making my own azuki bean paste. I love japanese bean paste which has a slightly coarse texture. I think the paste would be great for buns, mochi, bao and so many more...I'm a bean lover...lol...

Homemade Azuki Bean Paste

This recipe yields one big tub of paste. You can reduce it to a smaller amount to suit your need.

Ingredients

500g azuki beans (red beans)
150g sugar
1/2 tsp salt
water

Method
1. Wash and soak the azuki beans for a few hours or overnight.
2. Boil the beans in a pot with just enough water to cover them for 5 mins. Drain and fill the pot with tap water. Boil for another 5 mins and drain again. This double boiling is supposed to give the beans a better texture.
3. Fill the pot with water till about an inch (2cm) above the beans. Add the sugar and salt and bring it to a boil.
4. When boiled, lower the heat and simmer till beans are cooked and falling apart. You may need to add water if the beans get too dry.
5. When done, drain off excess water as much as you can. Mash the beans with a fork and leave to cool completely before storing.
Note: I boiled my beans till only a little water is left. Then I scoop the beans out with a ladle with holes and drain each scoop for about 2 mins before transferring them to another bowl for mashing.


After note (added on 1 Apr 08):
I used this in my Shanghai Red Bean Pancake. Realised the bean paste is only mildly sweet when you use it in other recipe. Eating it alone, especially when just done, will give you a misconception that it is very sweet. Do take this point into consideration when you do your own taste testing. Additional bean paste can be stored in freezer.


Mood: satisfied

10 comments:

Yuri said...

hey wf, i bought a covered bread pan too! but not motivated to bake :( i bot the pork too, but after much hiccup, finally waiting for the plum sauce mixture to cool so that mean can be marinated. may not be able to bake it today tho... love azuki too! where did u get the recipe?

Gina Choong said...

oy, the bread tin is not square mah. So obviously can't get square bread.

KWF said...

yuri, why not motivated to bake? I'm very motivated to try new things everyday. In fact, I think I'm too motivated! hahaha... I came out with my own version of azuki bean paste recipe after reading a few from the net and getting a rough idea on how to do it.

Gina, what I meant was the top not all "straight". Compared my 2 breads and you'll know what I mean.

ting said...

wow more bread coming from your kitchen :) your family is so lucky! i love anything with red beans it it too, and i guess making it myself would be good cos i don't like mine too sweet. will try it sometime!

Rei said...

WF, you can make An-pan already! ^_^

KWF said...

ting, we eat bread for bf almost everyday, so better to bake them myself. :) If you want a not-so-sweet azuki bean paste, remember not to do in large batches as they probably can't store too long.

rei, yes! That's what I wanted to do as well :)

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi KWF, thanks for sharing your azuki bean paste recipe! I have been wanting to make my own red bean paste for ages, but most of the recipes I came across were too complicated to me...as anything that has got to do with the stove all seems so difficult!! Yours look like something that I can handle ;)

KWF said...

HHB, give it a try. But I'm not too sure how well this keeps. I just took a peep the other day, seems still ok. Will probably make use of them soon.

Simonne said...

KWF,
Can i know what is the size of your bread tin? Or pullman tin , are they the same? Sorry for the silly question.

I think should get a bread tin, else i could never bake a tall bread like yours

KWF said...

Sukkimi, it's not a silly qn. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure too! hahaha...but I think they're the same, i.e. covered bread tin. Mine is a non-stick which measures 21x9.5x10cm. The reason why I got a bread tin was also to bake taller breads.