I tried something different with this bake. I used the water bath method to bake this bread for the first 10 minutes, but had to deconstruct the water bath structure once I realized that the bread top had risen to touch the oven’s upper heating element. That explains the odd looking plateau you see on my bread top. I continued to bake it the standard way for the remaining 20 minutes.
The additional steam inside the oven looks promising as a method to create taller loaves, although my table-top oven is too small for the set-up; rack + 10″ cake tin with hot water + trivet + Pullman tin. I won’t put this in my recipe instructions below but I will try another method to create steam inside the oven by placing my smallest ramekins filled with hot water around the corners of the oven instead. But that’s for another day.
As always, the addition of steamed taro makes my homemade bread moist and fluffy. The Milo powder idea stems from this bread recipe that uses cocoa powder. I added only 2 tablespoons of Milo powder (not the 3-in-1 type) so the loaf does not exactly whiff a strong aroma of chocolate malt, but the color reminds me of the brown traditional Hainan bread loaves : subtle.
For non-taro milo bread ideas (& for me to adapt with taro) :
– this recipe with whole wheat flour
– this bun recipe with milo custard filling
Milo Taro Pullman Loaf
280g plain flour 1 teaspoon instant dry yeast 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoon raw sugar 2 tablespoon Milo powder 100g steamed taro, cooled 1 egg 110g fresh milk 30g cold unsalted butter, cubed
In a mixer bowl, combine all the dry ingredients together ( flour, yeast, salt, sugar, milo powder) with a hand whisk. Then add mashed steamed taro, egg, and milk to knead into a ball with a dough hook. Stop the mixer and let the dough rest for 15 minutes. Start the mixer again to knead for 1 minute before adding cubed butter one by one, and knead till the dough reach window pane stage. Stop mixer and leave dough to bulk rise for 60 minutes.
After the dough has risen, punch down the dough to deflate and transfer to a clean work top. Sprinkle worktop and palms with flour if the dough is too sticky to handle.
Divide the dough into 3 equal portions. Flatten and shape each portion, rolling them up swiss roll style. Arrange them in a Pullman tin, seam side downwards. Leave this aside to proof for 60minutes, covered.
Preheat oven to 170C, and bake the bread for 30 minutes.
When done, remove bread from tin immediately and place on a rack to cool completely.
MONO and CO 