Coconut Bread

Adjust as kneaded:  This is a keeper!!!  The resulting bread is a super soft, light, slightly sweet bread similar to the ones you can find at a chinese bakery.  You should have seen my husband’s face drop after I told him I gave the rest of the bread away to my children to try.  He had just finished giving a good review and saying how much he enjoyed it before I broke the bad news that it was all gone.  I had to make another batch just for Hubby!  Who knew my husband actually enjoyed my baking.

This is one of the first real breads I ever made with yeast!  It looked simple enough where most of the time spent was waiting for the dough to rise.  I could handle braiding too!  A few adjustments were made along the way to test changes to taste and texture.  The original recipe called for bread flour.  Looking up a bread flour substitute, the substitute is 1 cup of AP + 1 tbsp of gluten flour.  The addition of gluten flour made for a more bread like taste and tougher texture than the lightly sweet soft bread that we all preferred.  I also tried increasing the AP flour to 410g and replacing milk with coconut milk.  The quantity of flour and the use of coconut milk didn't really make any significant taste or texture difference.  Obviously no wild changes for me!  Will continue to experiment and continue making adjustments as kneaded (hehehe...get it?).

Just kneaded

After 1 hour

Wow!!!  After 3 hours!

Finished shaping

Time to eat!!!

COCONUT BREAD  Make 2 loaves

INGREDIENTS:

Dough:

395g    all purpose flour

65g      sugar

3/4 tsp kosher salt

7 g       instant dry yeast

2          eggs at room temp

105g    lukewarm water

70g      whole milk at room temp

70g      melted unsalted butter

Topping:

30g     shredded coconut

30g     salted melted butter

30g     sugar

1/2 -1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp coconut oil or veg-oil for greased the bowl and kneading, shaping the dough.

2 nonstick loaves pan size 9 x 5 x 3 inches

METHOD:

Dough:

• Combine dry ingredients in a stand mixer bowl.  Make a well and add liquid ingredients.
• In stand mixer with dough hook attachment, mix at speed 1 for 2 minutes.  Increase to speed 2 for 4 minutes.  Scrape down sides and knead at speed 2 for an additional 4 minutes.
• Grease hands, work surface, bowl and any tools used.  Turn out dough on a greased work surface and manually knead for 1-2 minutes.  Place dough in a greased bowl, cover and let the dough rise on a kitchen counter for 1 hour.
• Manually knead dough a second time, for about 1-2 mins, place back in bowl and let it rise at room temperature for 3 hours.
• Divide the dough into 2 equal portions, then divide each portion into 3. Shape the dough into 16 inch logs.  Using 3 logs shape the dough into a loose braid, seal edges, and fold under ends.  Repeat with remaining loaf, place in pans, and let rise for 45-50 mins.

Topping:

• Mix all the topping ingredients and sprinkle over the top of both loaves.  Topping can be added as soon as loaves are placed in pan before the final rise.

Preheated oven to 350°F bake the bread for 28-30 minutes. Place oven rack at 3rd shelf from the bottom.

If using a convection oven then bake your bread at 340°F for

25-27 mins.

Adapted from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PokY7Uzcd-U

Baked Cassava Cake

I don't love you that much!  This recipe is one of my husband’s favorite because it brings back memories of his childhood in Malaysia and Singapore.  Anyone who loves to do everything from scratch, by grating a cassava root and squeezing out the excess liquid, is most definitely welcome to do this.  In fact 30 years ago I did manually grate cassava to make this cake.  It also explains why I made this once and never made it again.  My husband said it was because I didn't love him enough.  I told him if he were willing to grate it, I would make it.  That was the end of that discussion!

Fast forward to today...One of my favorite pastimes is to slowly walk the aisles of a grocery store.  In my opinion, this pastime is more fun than going shopping for clothes!  There are so many interesting ingredients I have never used and would love to one day.  Eureka!!!  Frozen grated cassava is now readily available in most Asian grocers.  There are so many convenient items that can be found in the different aisles these days.  Those items will be future blog posts!

Before using the frozen cassava in this recipe, you will need to first thaw and drain the frozen cassava in a strainer, placed over a bowl, for a couple of hours.  Discard any liquid but keep and use the settled starch at the bottom of the bowl.  You should also pick out any long and/or hard cassava strands to avoid having to pick them out when eating the baked cake.  Once the ingredients for the recipe have been gathered just throw everything into the same bowl with the settled starches and whisk together.  Pour into a greased pan (I prefer buttered) and bake.  If you prefer a more solid texture, the cake may need to be baked longer.

Let's go!!!

Ingredients:

1 454g pkg of frozen grated cassava.  Thawed, well drained.and picked through of any hard strands.

70g – 100g sugar

40g condensed milk

1 egg

140g coconut milk

½ tsp vanilla

1 Tbsp melted butter (optional for basting halfway through cooking)

Method:

• Mix all ingredients, except butter, in a bowl.
• Pour mixture into a greased square 7” baking pan or dish
• Bake @350F for 40 minutes.  Remove from oven and brush top of cake with melted butter.
• Bake for another 15 to 30 minutes until the edges are golden brown.