It’s always more exciting to bake Pullman loaf in a covered tin.  The bread dough is left to rise without a view during the last 15 minutes of proofing time, leaving this baker hoping hard that it will fill up to the brim without a hitch, preferably reaching all corners, producing a perfect squarish sandwich bread which sliced.

So it’s natural for my heart skipped a beat when I uncovered the lid after baking and saw this browned top crust, perfect.

I adapted a recipe from Zoe, a cheerful mom who bakes for her happy kids in Melbourne.  The latest bread recipe she lauded to be soft and chewy is one with condensed milk added.  I simply love the sight of the tight crumbs in her photos, so I halved the recipe, added mashed taro (my secret to fluffy bread) on top of condensed milk (Zoe’s magic ingredient), switched 1/3 of the flour to wholemeal, and started kneading away.

Glad to have another reliable and versatile sweet loaf recipe in my (almost) daily bread baking repertoire.

 

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Condensed Milk Taro Pullman Loaf

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adapted from here

200g plain flour
100g wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon instant dry yeast
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 heap tablespoon milk powder
100g condensed milk 
68g steamed taro, mashed 
120g water 
20g cold butter, cubed

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In a mixer bowl, place plain flour, wholemeal flour, instant yeast, sea salt, and milk powder and mix with a hand whisk to mix these dry ingredients well.

Add condensed milk, cooled mashed taro, and half of the required water, then turn on the mixer to start kneading with a hook attachment while pouring the remaining water slowly, stop the mixer when the ingredients have come into a ball.  Let this dough rest aside for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, turn on the mixer again to knead the dough for 1 minute, before adding the cubed butter one by one.  Continue to knead when all traces of butter are gone, until the dough reaches window pane stage, it will be very elastic and smooth and pull away from the side of a very clean bowl.

Stop the mixer and remove the bowl, let the dough bulk rise for 60 minutes covered with a pot lid or clean towel.

After an hour, the dough would have risen to double its volume.  Punch it down to release gas, transfer to a clean worktop.  Divide the dough into 3 equal portions (mine weighs about 212g each.)  Flatten each dough to push out gas trapped during the bulk rise stage, then roll out into a long oval strip.  Roll it up like a swiss roll from the shorter end, and placed it in a well greased Pullman loaf tin, seam side downwards.  Repeat with the other 2 portions of dough.

Cover the tin and leave it aside to proof for 60 minutes.  Bake for 30 minutes in a preheated oven at 160C.  Remove bread from tin immediately after baking and let it cool completely on a rack before slicing to serve or storing in an airtight container.

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