Purple Sweet Potato Bread & a" POPing" fun gathering

First, apologies for the long silence. Have been busy dealing with urgent matters and now that it's been resolved, I managed to have a breather or two. But again, I wonder if anyone missed me at all since now there are so many wonderful blogs out there. :P Nevertheless, I felt bad not putting up a post for the past 2 weeks and got worried that this tardiness might end up being a habit. ;P Anyway, I do hope my faithful readers will understand and still come by to support me when they can. :)

Today's recipe is Purple Sweet Potato Bread using the 17hr pre fermented dough technique. At first I thought the pumpkin version was my favorite, but now I can't decide which one is it after I baked this purple sweet potato version....it's equally good!

This loaf you are looking at is actually the 3rd time I've baked this recipe. Yes...its really worth repeating it so many times. :)

Here is the recipe that you all are waiting for:

Ingredients for Purple Sweet Potato Bread using 17hr pre fermented dough: (makes two 9X5X5)

Pre-ferment Dough:

377g bread flour

216ml water

11g fresh yeast (I used 8g active dry yeast)

5g salt

11g skim milk powder

Dissolve the yeast in water. Add bread flour, sea salt, skim milk powder and knead until soft. Cover the dough in cling wrap or a big zip log bag. Refrigerate to let it prove for 17 hours.

Note: The dough will expand in the fridge. So whatever container you put the dough in, do give some allowance for growth.

Main Dough:

162g bread flour

16g skim milk powder

5g sea salt

65g caster sugar

135ml water

5g fresh yeast (I used 4 g active dry yeast)

43g unsalted butter

269g mashed purple sweet potato

Method:

• Knead all ingredients of the main dough together, except the butter. Add pre-ferment dough piece by piece. Knead after each addition until soft and smooth. Add butter. Knead until stretchable and pass the window panel consistency.

• Put the dough into a big bowl. Cover with cling wrap and let it prove for 30minutes till double.
• Divide the dough into 6 equal portions. Flatten each portion with your hands to drive the air out. Roll it into square shape, cover and let rest for 20 minutes before shaping.
• Flatten the dough to drive the air out. Roll each out into a rectangular sheet with a rolling pin. Fold about 2cm from both sides towards the center and roll it out again. Roll the dough up like swiss roll (the width should be the same as the tin) and out them into the mould. Repeat for the rest of the dough portions. Cover with cling wrap.
• Let it prove for about 45 minutes or until the dough has risen to 80 to 90% of the depth of the loaf tin. You can either cover the lid or bake it open top. If open top, brush with egg wash. Bake in 175C for 30 to 35minutes.

As always, this technique yields the softest and very bouncy "Q-Q" bread texture. The bread stayed soft even on the 3rd day. :) My kids love this bread a lot and I think the pretty color also plays a big part in that, lol! They would simply ask for a spread of butter and chomp it right down. :)

I guess by looking at the texture itself you can see the softness. So once again I recommend you try this out, you'll fall in love with it, I guarantee! :D

Even made some buns with seaweed and luncheon meat...for my kiddos breakfast. :)

Before I end this post, I like to say thanks to a group of wonderful bloggers that I had the honor to meet up over the last weekend. In no particular order, they are Grace, Jane, Jo, Edith, Eelin, Doris, ZhouYuan, Esther, Cathy and Jess. I was really glad to be part of this fun gathering which I felt at ease talking and exchanging baking fun with them. I do hope there will be more coming and soon. :) And special thanks to Eelin whom initiated the event and also Jo for graciously offered her lovely home to the gathering.Kindly visit these fellow bloggers on details of this event. :)

Thanks for coming by again. Hopefully will post up something yummy again soon. Have a great day all!