I applied a step from making sourdough bread to this yeasted recipe: only add salt to the dough after the autolyse stage. It didn’t seem to make any difference to my taro bread recipe, but I thought my dough reached window pane stage slightly earlier than usual. Someone else commented the same thing here so this could be making an impact on my bread just that I didn’t know. There is really no harm adding the salt later (I think) so I will be doing this for all my future bread recipes.
The flaxseeds were a last minute add-on. Got them on a 20% offer, $5.44 for a 500g pack, and they are organic. The bread rose tall enough after 50 minutes into its final proofing but I find the bread top too bare. Before sending it into the oven, I mist the loaf with water and sprinkle a tablespoon of flaxseeds on top.
Flaxseed Taro Loaf
270g plain flour 1 teaspoon instant yeast 100g steamed taro 2 tablespoons raw honey 1 large egg 70g water 1/4 teaspoon sea salt 20g cold butter, cubed 1 tablespoon flaxseeds
In a mixer bowl, place these ingredients: plain flour, instant yeast, mashed and cooled steamed taro, raw honey, beaten egg and knead with a dough hook attachment on the lowest speed (KA 1). Slowly add the water with the mixer running, you may need more or less of the water stated in the recipe. Watch the dough, when the ingredients come into a ball, stop adding and turn off the mixer. Let the dough rest for 15-30 minutes.
After resting the dough, sprinkle the sea salt on the dough. Start the mixer running on its lowest speed again to knead the dough for 1 minute, before adding cubed butter, one by one. Knead until the dough reaches window pane stage, this is when the dough becomes very smooth and elastic, and starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Remove the bowl from mixer, cover and bulk rise for 1 hour.
After an hour, the dough should rise and increase its volume, punch it down to release the gas, and transfer to a clean work top. Flatten the dough to push out gas trapped inside the dough, either by hand or a rolling pin. The dough is quite sticky, flour hands and worktop with flour to help with shaping. Shape the dough into a log and place it in a greased bread tin, seam side facing downwards. Let this sit in a draft-free place to rise for another 50-60 minutes. When the bread has risen to the rim of the baking tin, brush some water on the surface and sprinkle flaxseeds even on top.
Bake in a preheated oven at 170C for 30 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan immediately after baking, and let it cool on a rack completely before slicing or serving.
Store in an airtight container if not consumed immediately, to keep the loaf soft and the crumbs from drying out.
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