Bread Maker Fun : Pandan Loaf 自制香兰面包

I did not want to waste the leftover homemade pandan juice that I made for Pandan Chiffon Cake 香兰威风蛋糕. I was contemplating to make pandan flavour tarts, bread or kaya. However, I soon realised that I was left with only 60 gm coconut milk in my refrigerator. I knew most pandan flavour tarts and kaya recipes could not compromise for so little coconut milk. My only option was to experiment with pandan bread recipes. My family lives on bread loaves for breakfast.  Pandan Loaf 香兰面包 that's it!

I usually bake our home loaves using my bread maker. Experimenting my own concortion for bread maker recipes was not something new. I was quite confident with my Pandan Loaf 香兰面包 recipe.

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Ingredients (enough for a 750 gm bread loaf) :

• 100 ml water
• 2 tbsp coconut or peanut oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp brown sugar (You would have realised that I really cut down on salt and sugar in my recipe. Add more to your taste if you prefer.)
• 300 gm bread flour
• 60 gm fresh coconut milk
• 2 tbsp condensed milk
• 1 tbsp pandan juice (learn how to DIY Concentrated Pandan Juice here)
• 1 tsp pandan paste (available from supermarkets)
• 1/2 tsp pandan essence (optional)(I added this as I prefer more fragrance from my bread)
• 1 tsp instant yeast

(tsp = teaspoon; tbsp = tablespoon)    

Tip 1 : Store yeast in freezer for longer life and effectiveness.

Tip 2 : When adding ingredients, do not let yeast get in direct contact with salt and water. Salt is a yeast inhibitor. It would retard or stop yeast activity.


Method : 

• Heat fresh coconut milk to boiling point (or till it starts bubbling). Set aside.

• Add condensed milk, oil, pandan juice, pandan paste, pandan essence and water into coconut milk.

• Stir till mixture is well blended.

• Fold in mixture into bread pan.

• Add brown sugar and salt.

• Fold in bread flour.

• Last to add instant yeast. Do not let yeast get in direct contact with salt and water. Salt is a yeast inhibitor and would retard or stop yeast activity.

• Mount bread pan back to bread maker and close lid.

• Set breadmaker to 'Sweet Bread' baking mode. Select the right weightage (750 gm) and preferred colour tone (light, mid or dark) and press 'Start'. In this instance, it takes 3 hr 25 mins to deliver. 

• The knead blade would start working. After about 5 minutes, you should see a nicely kneaded dough. In the first few minutes, if you see the dough being too watery, add a little bread flour. If you see the dough being too dry, add a little water (tsp by tsp) slowly until satisfied. Leave the dough alone after that. Try not to flip open the lid as it would disrupt the fermentation. Leave it alone till bread is baked.

• Remove loaf from bread pan when time is due. If you prefer darker browning of the crust, send it to oven to bake a short 5 to 10 minutes at 160 degrees celsius (320 degrees fahrenheit). Let it cool down before cutting to slices. 

• Use a bread knife to cut the loaf. A normal knife could not yield nice thin slices.

• Nice and fragrant bread with almost perfect crust. The slices would go best with pandan kaya (coconut egg jam).

Unlike Pandan Chiffon Cake 香兰威风蛋糕, do not expect Pandan Loaf 香兰面包 to be melt-in-the-mouth kind of soft and fluffy. It is more crusty on the outside. As for the inside, it is still very soft, though with a little more texture. Nevertheless, it is a fantastic loaf and I could smell freshly baked aroma from afar!