I have been baking orange-coloured breads 4 days in a week, that is considered quite a feat considering I hardly ever repeat a bread more than once. On 23 Oct (Thurs), I baked this orange sweet potato bread in my Primo bread machine, it was my first attempt and it rose so high that I nearly got a heart attack watching it rise through the window of my BM! This foto above was taken when there was still 15 min left. I decided to err on the safe side, and I quickly transferred the bread tin to the oven to continue baking at 180C so as to brown the top.
In the end, the top crust became wrinkly due to exposure to cold air. Neverthless I was very happy with the results. I have achieved a very soft and fluffy high-hydration sweet potato loaf using the straight dough method, without the use of any dough starters. Can you see how soft it was?
Crumb shot of my 1st attempt of Sweet Potato BM Loaf.
3 days later on 26 Oct (Sun), I decided to do a 2nd attempt of my Orange Sweet Potato BM Loaf after doing some fine-tuning on the recipe. This time round, I decided to reduce the amount of yeast from to 2.5 tsp so that the loaf do not rise too high and I could bake it in the BM from start to end. Thanks to my meticulous calculation, I managed to get another tall and fluffy loaf without hitting the top of my BM! Here I am showing you the step-by-step pictures of what happened in my BM. (It is an exception rather than a norm, as I usually do not take step-by-step pictures. )
So are you tempted to try this sweet potato bread? If you are, here is my recipe created from scratch through 2 rounds of testing. If you wish to use this recipe in your blog or FB, kindly link back to this post.
Ingredients
425g bread flour
1 tsp salt (6 g)
2.5 tsp instant yeast (7.5g)
50g sugar
60g whipping cream (can be replaced by plain yoghurt)
75g fresh milk
190g sweet potato, steamed and mashed with fork
1 egg (60g), at room temp
60g unsalted butter, softened, cut into cubes
(Note that the instructions are pretty BM-specific, I do not usually write this way. I would suggest that you check out other breads in my blog if you are looking for oven-baked bread recipes.)
Method in BM
1. 1st add wet ingredients, then add dry ingredients. Add salt and sugar at different corners, dig a hole in the middle and add in the yeast. Add the butter only after a rough dough is formed, about 5 min after kneading. (Note that you should not add the milk all at one go, add about 40g milk and add the remaining as you go along. If you find the dough too wet, you can adjust by adding additional flour a little at a time before or after butter is added.)
2. Use "Dough" mode 20 min and press stop, then press "Sweet" mode (light crust, 1000g), the whole process of "Sweet mode" will take 2h 55 min. Total kneading time for the dough will be 50 min, of which 20 min is from dough mode and 30 min is from sweet mode. The dough must be kneaded until it can be pulled into a thin stretchable membrane. (Pls note that the method stated above applies only for my Primo BM, pls do not ask me to advise for other BMs. You are advised to use your own judgement in choosing the appropriate program on your BM.)
Method in Oven
1. Use BM or stand-mixer to knead until thin stretchable membrane.
2. Cover and proof for 60 min in a warm place or until doubled in volume (1st proofing).
3. Punch down to release gas, then rest for 10 min covered.
4. Divide the dough into 2 portions, roll up each dough as a swiss roll and place it in a greased 450g pullman tin (you will need 2 of such pullman tins as this will make 2 loaves). Cover and proof for 60 min in a warm place or until doubled in volume (2nd proofing).
5. Apply egg wash on top and bake in preheated oven at 180C for about 30 min.
Notes:
- You can use either orange or purple sweet potato, but you must first steam it and drain off excess water, then mash the sweet potato with a fork. The weight of 190g is after removing excess water and mashed.
- If you are using a stand-mixer with dough hook, the time required for kneading until window pane stage (or thin stretchable membrane) maybe half of the time required of my BM, or even less.
- Pls note that different bread flours absorb liquid differently. I would keep the amounts of all ingredients fixed except for the milk and bread flour which I will adjust accordingly based on the wetness or dryness of the dough. You are advised to adjust flour and liquid accordingly until you reach the desired dough consistency. Pls do not follow blindly.
Crumb shot of my 2nd attempt of Sweet Potato BM Loaf.
I am submitting this post to "My Treasured Recipes #3 - Taste of Autumn (Oct/Nov 2014)" hosted by myself, Miss B of Everybody Eats Well in Flanders and co-hosted by Charmaine of Mimi Bakery House