The May Daring Kitchen challenge was brought to us by the talented Tandy of Lavender & Lime, who used the technique to make a delicious looking sundried tomato and rosemary bread.
I completed the challenge on the same day we cooked Luxembourg and we were on a major savoury overload with our crazy Luxembourgish rieslingpaschteit (that's pork pies shaped like submarines to the non initiated) so we needed something sweet to balance it out. I love the Daring Kitchen technique challenges where you can experiment with your own recipes and this was a great excuse to crack out my Japanese Hokkaido bread dough (softest bread in the world ladies and gents). I teamed it with the jar of sweet purple yam paste purchased from oriental treasure which I've been meaning to find a use for and left over pearl/nib sugar from the gaufres de chasse we cooked for Belgium week. It was a real winner, the violet filling oozing out looked absolutely stunning, they tasted divine and were gone before they had a chance to cool.
Full disclosure, I have posted these under Japan because of the hokkaido element, but other than that they're not strictly Japanese.
ingredients
TANGZHONG
- 45g strong bread flour
- 185g water
BREAD DOUGH
- 190g full fat milk heated to lukewarm temperature
- 14g dried yeast
- 70g sugar
- 1 medium egg
- 85g butter, grated
- 540g strong bread flour
- 1.5tsp salt
filling
- 340g purple yam spread
TO GLAZE
- 1 egg beaten
METHOD
TANGZHONG
- Add the flour to a small saucepan and slowly pour in the water, whisking all the while until it is fully incorporated and smooth.
- Heat over medium, whisking continually until it thickens and leaves traces when you drizzle it over the mixture.
- Remove from the heat, transfer to a bowl and place clingfilm/saran wrap directly on top of the liquid to prevent a skin from forming. Leave to cool to lukewarm temperature.
BREAD DOUGH
- In a jug, stir together the yeast, a teaspoon of the sugar and the warm milk, cover and leave in a warm draft free spot for the yeast to activate.
- Add the egg to the yeast mix and stir.
- In a large bowl mix together the flour, salt and butter.
- make a well in the centre and pour in the yeast mixture together with the tangzhong.
- Stir from the inside out, gradually incorporating the wet into the dry. Once a dough begins to form, turn out on to a work surface and knead with your hands for approximately 15 minutes until you have a smooth glossy dough.
- Transfer to a clean bowl, cover and leave for 60 minutes in a warm draft free spot until doubled in size.
- Punch the air out of your dough and divide into 12 equal sized pieces, roll each into a ball.
- Preheat the oven to 175°c.
assembly
- Roll each ball into a rectangle approximately 12cm by 18cm and spread generously with purple yam spread.
- Roll up into a sausage ...like you would a swiss roll.
- Slice down the centre of the roll and fan out slightly being careful to leave the last layer of dough on the bottom intact.
- Twist and bring the two ends together to form a circle. Cover and allow to rise for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with pearl/nib sugar and then bake for 25 minutes until golden.
