Sweet Corn Loaf

Every time we go back Singapore, my girls will always ask for this Corn loaf from Gardenia. They love the sweet fragrant soft bread and eats it plain or spread with peanut butter for breakfast. :)

And since they only sell it in Singapore, it seems like a treat to them whenever we buy them a loaf. And when we come back to Malaysia, we cannot find any corn loaf on sale around here. I guess the harder to get the more they wants it...*sigh*. So I decided to take up this challenge in making them a sweet corn loaf today.

I have also been reading so much about this bread making method, call 65°C TangZhong (湯種) (This fellow blogger has a detail explanation of this method, check it out). Apparently this style of bread making yields a softer and fluffier texture and also longer lasting bread too! (wow right!) So with dual challenge, trying a new bread recipe and a new bread making method. Worried at first but the end result was as promised. :)

I have chosen to use Del Monte thick Corn Soup this time. It comes in a card box form of 350ml, not in a can. I bought it in Singapore NTUC. Feel free to substitute any brand of corn soup you like. :) I will not be including the 65°C TangZhong (湯種) recipe here, please refer to link for it. Okay for those interested in getting your hands on my corn bread recipe, here it is:

Ingredients:
350g bread flour (plus a little for kneading if too sticky)
1 tbsp of milk power
1/2 tsp salt
5g of active dry yeast
80ml of warm water
55g of caster sugar
80g of Tang Zong
150ml of Del Monte Corn Soup
30g of unsalted butter @ room temperature

Method:

• In the bowl, add warm water and yeast, stir to mix and let stand till foamy, about 5 minutes.
  
• Sift bread flour, milk powder, salt into a mixing bowl. Add sugar, Tang Zong, yeast mixture, corn soup and mix well to form a soft dough. Let rest for 10 minutes.
  
• Add butter to dough till incorporated and knead dough for another 15 minutes and let proof in oiled bowl for 90 minutes.
• After 90 minutes, punch down dough and knead dough till it's not too sticky (resist adding too much flour, else the dough will be tough) and able to roll into swiss roll style.
  
• Placed the dough into greased baking pan to proof till it fills up at least 80% of the pan. Check out my new nifty bread pan below with the lid. No more saran wrap. :) Size of pan is 12cm by 25cm.
• Preheat oven to 180°C. When oven is ready, bake bread for 30 minutes (if without lid), till the surface of bread is slight golden brown.

A close up snap shot of a slice of the corn bread. Can see the specs of sweet and still crunchy corn inside the bread. :) The bread is indeed light and fluffy, worth the extra effort put in. ;) I guess the ultimate test will be my girls tasting them tomorrow breakfast. *fingers crossed*

Even though I know in some way my loaf will not be as good as those from Gardenia, but nothing beats homemade right? Seeing the picture above, I have to say "Not too shabby!", haha!