Pandan bread

Yield : two 14x8x4 cm cake tin of bread

Ingredients:
200g bread flour
110g low fat milk
20g evaporated milk
30g raw sugar
1 tsp dry yeast
20g salted butter, softened
5g pandan leaves, cut into small pieces
(Pandan is also known as screw pine)

Syrup glaze
1 tsp sugar syrup
1 tsp water

preparing the glaze.

Direction:
1. Blend low fat milk, evaporated milk and pandan leaves in a food processor. This is to grind the pandan leaves into particle size. Keep warm the pandan milk mixture in a rice cooker.

Pandan leaves and milk.

2. In a clean mixing bowl, pour in the bread flour and dig a well in the middle. Add a tsp of raw sugar and yeast to the well. Sprinkle the rest of the sugar at the edge of the flour. Add in about 3 tsp of pandan milk mixture into the well to activate the yeast. Wait for about 1 minute, then pour in the remaining pandan milk mixture and stir to mix all ingredients together.

Add pandan milk mixture to the
yeast to activate it.

Use the hand to knead the dough at the
initial stage

3. When all the ingredients form into a big lump, use an electric hand mixer fixed with dough hooks, to start kneading. The first kneading takes about 5 minutes, or until the dough surface become smoother.

Start kneading using the dough hooks.

4. Add in softened butter, 10g at a time. Continue to knead till all butter incorporates with the dough. After adding the second 10g butter, the second kneading takes about 3 minutes, or until the dough no longer feel sticky. At the end of the second kneading, you should be able to stretch the dough into a thin film.

After about 5 minutes of kneading,
add in the softened butter.

When the kneadind is done, the dough is
smooth and elastic.

5. Shape the dough into a ball, and place on a lightly greased parchment paper. Place the dough into a rice cooker to begin the first proofing. Switch on the 'keep warm' mode for 5 minutes, turn off, and let the dough sit in the cooker for about 50 minutes.
 

Shape the dough into ball before
putting inside a rice cooker to proof.

1st proofing in the rice cooker.

Using the 'keep warm' mode of the
rice cooker to proof.

6. To test whether the first proofing is complete, coat your index finger with flour, then poke into the middle of the dough, if the gap did not close up, then the proofing is done. Otherwise, continue your proofing for another 5 minutes and test again.

When the 1st proofing is done, the gap will
not close up.

7. Take out the dough from the rice cooker, and lightly deflate the dough. Fold the sides of the dough to the middle, roll it up, and let it stand for 10 minutes.

Deflate the dough after the 1st proofing.

After 1st proofing, fold in the 4 sides and
roll into a ball.

8. While waiting for the dough, lightly grease and sprinkle flour to 2 cake tins. Preheat the oven to about 50 degree Celsius  for 10 minutes, getting ready for the second proofing.

Grease the cake tins and sprinkle flour onto them.

9. Cut the dough into 4 equal portions using a dough cutter. Shape the doughs into 4 pillow shapes, and put into two cake tins.

Divide the dough into 4 portions.

10. Place the doughs together with a small cup of hot water into the warm oven. The hot water is to keep the dough moist. The second proofing takes about 20 minutes to complete.

Allow some gaps between the doughs and the tin, to
allow room for expansion.

Put a small cup of water in the oven to keep
the humidity high during proofing.

Doing 2nd proofing in the oven
set at low temperature.

11. When second proofing is done, start baking the bread dough at 170 degree Celsius for 10 minutes or when the top of the bread start turning brown, then turn off the upper heating. Continue the lower heating for another 15 minutes. To test whether the bread is done, press the surface lightly, if it springs back, then the bread is done.

Turn off the upper heat, when the top
of the bread turns brown.

12. Remove the hot bread from the oven, and brush syrup glaze evenly on the bread surface. Return the bread to the oven for 2 minutes, then take out to apply the second coat of glaze.

Brush the glaze on the hot bread.

13. Cool the bread in the cake tins on a wire rack.
You may savour your bread when it cools down :)

The cooked pandan bread cooling on a rack.