Avocado Bread Loaf

Since I am again hooked on bread baking, I guess my readers out there will be seeing a lot more bread post now (hope that's not a bad thing!). I am always looking for new and interesting bread recipes to try out....incorporating new ingredients into the dough. So as the title tells it all, I had made Avocado Bread Loaf this time! Sounds weird I know, who would ever thought of putting avocado into breads?! Well, I guess I am the first maybe, but it ain't all bad I assure you. In fact, it's not bad at all! To think that this creamy fruit provides nearly 20 essential nutrients, including fiber, potassium, Vitamin E, B-vitamins and folic acid. They also act as a "nutrient booster" by enabling the body to absorb more fat-soluble nutrients, such as alpha and beta-carotene and lutein, in foods that are eaten with the fruit. Interested to know more about this wonderful green superfood? Head over to here to read more about it. ;) As for my bread...ta-da!

In case you are wondering what are those lumps on top of the loaf...they are just crispy sweet crumbs I added as toppings. :) And yes, I came up with this avocado bread recipe myself, so please bare in mind that this is purely an experiment (successful one though, yah!) I carried out for my own interest. And since I have only made this once only, I do hope that people that are willing to try this one out will let me know how it work out for them. :) Good luck!!

Starter Dough, Tang Zhong"湯種":
25g bread flour + 125g water, slow cook at low fire till it yields a creamy mayo like consistency

Ingredients for Avocado Bread Loaf:
1 ripe avocado's fresh, about 125g
330 bread flour
125g cake flour
70g honey
100g tang zhong (from above)
1 tsp instant active yeast
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
80ml fresh milk
30g butter, room temperature

Method:

• In a small pot, cook the starter dough ingredients with low fire till the mixture comes together. Remove from fire and set aside to cool completely before use.
  
• Mix all ingredients in main dough except for butter together in a large mixing bowl to form a soft dough. Place on work area to knead or mixer to do the kneading. Knead the dough till it is not sticky, about 20 minutes.
• Add the unsalted butter in and continue to knead till the dough is shiny and elastic. To test if the dough is ready, pull a small piece off and stretching it with your fingers. If dough is very elastic and pulls to almost see through without breaking, then it's done.
• Place dough in a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap and allow to proof for at least 90 minutes to 2hrs.
• Divide the dough into 4 equal portions, roll round, cover and let rest before shaping.
• Roll a portion of the dough into a flat oval shape using a rolling pin. Then roll it up at one end like a swiss roll. Place it in a greased bread tin (10cmX10cmX25cm). Repeat with the rest of the bread portions.
• After shaping, cover the dough and continue proofing for another hour. Preheat oven to 180°C.
• Bake in the oven (covered) for 42 to 45mins till done. Let loaf cool in tin for 5 minutes before unmoulding. Then remove from tin and let cool on rack completely before slicing.

Despite the "risks" I was taking, I was still hopeful that the bread will turn out well. And lucky me it did. (good thing I didn't waste the ingredients!) The dough wasn't too hard to handle and it proofed well. I was kind of bad with the shaping and thus the funny looking shape of the loaf top. :P

The loaf turned out soft and yes, believe me, delicious. ;) As for any evident taste of the green fruit...no. In fact, come to think of it, avocado has no distinct taste, it's pretty bland in taste. So it naturally does not contribute any flavoring to the loaf itself. However the loaf did has this slight tint of light green color from the avocado which I think is so nice!

Need I say more? I wished I had made more though...perhaps next time. ;) The taste is just like any other white bread, but knowing that it contains a lot more nutrition than those off the shelf white loaf, it just makes me smile in every bite I take. ;D

Love the softness of this loaf...a fun & successful experiment done well. I guess you guys just have to try it for yourself to know what I mean. ;) Okay...it's already pretty late in the night now and I do need to get some Zzzzs.....well at least I know I will have a yummy bread for breakfast tomorrow! Okay, take care all and have a wonderful nice long weekend! ;)

Tri-layer Steamed Tapioca Kueh (Bingka Ubi)

I can't believe that it is already the beginning of August. It almost seems like just awhile back we just had Chinese New year! Okay, maybe not that recent....but time is really going fast...scary fast sometimes. :P Nevertheless, I do feel that my time slots are all fully utilized everyday. Waking up at 6.15 am every morning, then starts off whether to prepare meals, chauffeuring the kids, cleaning the house or simply baking something nice in the kitchen, it just goes on non-stop until night time where I get to spend quiet, quality time with my family. :) Busy SAHM? You bet. Just like any of you out there I believe, I enjoy being able to spend more time home with the kids and not forgetting to bake/blog. It might sound a little "sad" but sometimes trying out a new and interesting recipe can be the highlight of my day, lol! Talking about new recipe, this recipe I am blogging today is not all that new, but perhaps the look is . :) It's Steamed Tapioca Kueh, but in 3 different flavors, Pandan, original & Gula Melaka. :)

Have been trying out a few kueh recipes lately and I am loving everyone of it! And since I love Tapioca Kueh (Bingka Ubi), it's no surprise that I will find ways to tweak the recipe here and there to remake it again. :) Come to think of it, my previous 2 posts are both baked versions, not quite the same as this one. This tri-layer idea was actually from a post which I saw ages ago. But sadly she didn't share the recipe...so I had to come up with it myself. :P

The green pandan layer is actually using not those bottled essence but the traditional method of blending the pinescrew leaves and extracting the decanted pandan essence. See here on how I did it previously. :) And since I made quite a lot for a dinner party, you can always reduce the recipe to your suiting. Bare in mind the ingredients needed are real simple but it's the dividing, mixing and steaming each layer one after another that's the tricky part. Here is the recipe on how I made this tri-layer Bingka Ubi:

Ingredients :
960g peeled, grated tapioca (320g for each layer)
300ml coconut milk (100ml for each layer)
12 tsp tapioca flour (to be divided to 3 tsp for each layer)
3 eggs, one for each layer, lightly beaten 3 tbsp thick pandan juice
130g caster sugar (divide equally to two 65g for pandan and middle layer)
65ml gula melaka for bottom layer

Method:

• To make the bottom Gula Melaka layer first, weigh out 320g of grated tapioca and set aside. Prepare a steamer with boiling water and grease a 9 inch round pan and lined with parchment paper.
  
• In a sauce pot, heat the chopped up gula melaka at medium low fire together with the 100g of coconut milk till almost bubbling. Remove from fire and mix in the about 2 tbsp of the mixture to the beaten egg. Then add the egg mixture into the coconut milk mixture.
  
• Mix in the flour and whisk till no lumps. Then lastly add in the grated tapioca and mix well. Pour the mixture into the prepared cake pan and steam it for at least 20 minutes at high fire.
• While steaming the gula melaka layer, prepare the original layer. Repeat the same as before except replacing the gula melaka with caster sugar.
• Pour the original flavor over the steamed gula melaka layer and continue to steam for another 20 minutes.
• Lastly prepare the top last layer: Repeat the same as the last original flavor but remember to add the thick pandan juice when mixing it all in.
• Pour the pandan layer over the original layer and continue to steam again for another 20 minutes till done.
• Remove from steamer and let cool completely before slicing into it. Remember a clean knife yields a cleaner cut.
  

When I served it to my guest that evening, they thought I have added glutinous rice into it! Strange how the texture turned out almost the same. ;) But I love the chewiness and flavorful layers it yielded...yummy! And the 3 layers have nice distinct colors. ;)

Overall a very satisfactory desert, happy happy! If you want to make this, just remember you can adjust the sweetness to your liking. Since I always play precaution, I made mine less sweet and so if you want it sweeter, simply sprinkle some confectioner's sugar over it. Else if I made it too sweet, I can't get the sugar out anymore!
Anyway, hope you guys will like this and perhaps give it a try. It's quite simple, just the grating of the tapioca can be quite tedious. :P But it's really nice to have some homemade kueh and a cup of your favorite tea....and you are all set for a nice break!

Time is catching up on me again, so signing off now. Have a great week ahead all!