Traditional Sweet Bread I (Sponge Method)

My favourite childhood bread was a sweet loaf of bread characterised by its round appearance. Not a very tall bread but with soft, springy and a slightly dense texture. The bread could be served plain, and I just need to tear the bread slice into bite size, and munched. One slice was never enough for me 😜

However, this traditional bread seems to disappear from my local bakery shelves. Even if I could find one, the texture was too airy, and not sweet enough 😞

I could not find any recipe online regarding this sweet bread, so I came up with my own recipe to reminisce the old sweet taste 😋

Yield: 2 loaves in a pan
Pan size: Wiltshire enamel coated pan 21x13x6cm
Raw dough weight: 603g
Baking temperature: Preheated oven to 190℃, bake at middle rack at 180℃ for 15 minutes, 170℃ for about 20 minutes.


Sponge
10g bread flour
2g instant dry yeast
10g water
30g natural yeast *

* natural yeast can be replaced by 15g each of bread flour and water.

Mix all the ingredients and let it stands for about 60 to 90 minutes.


Milk Roux
3g bread flour
2g glutinous rice flour
10g hot water
15g milk

1. Mix and stir over low heat till it thicken into a glossy paste.

2. Cool down and collect about 25g for use later.

Cover with an inverted glass till needed.

Sweet Bread Dough

Ingredients
230g bread flour
50g Prima plain flour plus/plain flour
40g raw cane sugar
3g low-sodium fine salt

25g milk roux from above
52g sponge from above
25g beaten egg
20g condensed milk
100g fresh milk, cold
25g cold water

5~10g cold water, added depending on dough condition

30g unsalted butter, added after gluten formed


Toppings
1 tsp fresh milk
1~2g butter, softened

Directions

1. Mix all the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl of a stand mixer.

2. Add all the wet ingredients, except the 15g of water and unsalted butter, into the mixing bowl. Add the 15g of water slowly to adjust the dough moisture.

Combine condensed milk to cold milk

wet ingredients

When all the ingredients come together into a lump, cover with a lid and keep in the vegetable compartment of a fridge for 20 minutes. This allows autolysis to take place.

Keep the dough in the vegetable drawer for about 20 minutes

3. Knead the dough at low speed till it form into a smoother dough.

Add the softened butter and continue to knead till reaching window pane stage.

Add the 5g of water depending on the dough moisture.

End of kneading

4. Transfer the kneaded dough to a mixing bowl coated with a thin layer of oil. Spray some water over, cover and let the dough proof for about 1 hour, or till double in size.

End of 1-hour proofing

5. Invert the dough onto a floured worktop. Deflate and divide into two portions.

Shape the dough into two balls, cover and let them rest for 15 minutes.

6. Take a dough and roll flat to about 0.5cm thick.

Fold in the two wings overlapping each other.

Roll flat the dough into a long dough of about 0.5cm thick again. Roll up like a swissroll and seal at the end.

Lower the dough into the bread pan coated with a thin layer of butter. Spray some water, cover with a tea cloth, and let them proof for about 60 minutes, or till reaching the rim of the pan.

End of 1-hour second proofing

7. Preheat the oven to 190℃. While waiting, brush a coat of milk over the top.

Bake at lower rack of an oven preheated to190℃, lower temperature to 180℃ for 15 minutes, further lower to 170℃ for 15~20 minutes, or till the top has become golden.

7. Transfer the bread out of oven, and remove from pan immediately.

8. Brush a coat of butter over the crust.

Let the bread rest on a wire rack.

9. Cut the bread after it has completely cool down 😋