January 12, 2008

Hokkaido Floss Loaf


I made this again! Yes yes...the famous Hokkaido Milky Loaf. I had some leftover whipping cream which I had to use up in case before it turns sourish...it's such a pain whenever I had to buy large quantities of ingredients for certain bakes, requiring only a little of it and letting the rest gone to a waste after it turns bad. So, here I am, trying to perfect my skills with this great recipe again.

Please don't be deceived by the picture. The loaf looks really ugly on the surface, but the interior texture is the real substance. It was really superb! This was the most successful bread, in terms of texture - soft and really fluffy and delicious I had churned out so far. I'm so happy! I couldn't found the size of pullman loaf tin I wanted and had to make do with my regular loaf pan. The dough rose so high this time and even higher when it was baking, thus resulting in this irregularly risen loaf. The loaf rose very high up to the brim of the oven and almost touched the heating element. Luckily I had placed it at the lower third shelf. As usual, the top was a little burnt and I had to use an aluminium foil to cover it.


This time round, I was a little helpless with the sticky dough so I decided to use my handheld mixer with the dough hook to help me mix the dough together before kneading. I had not used the handheld mixer in bread making before as I thought it was not powerful enough. However after hooking for a while, the dough began to pull away from the sides of the bowl and the dough became smooth and more elastic. I took the dough out and kneaded for about 10 minutes. It had not passed the stretch test yet. I decided to hook it for a while more, about 10 minutes and I was happy that it became more stretchy! I kneaded for about another 5 minutes or so and tested it. It pulled away quite a distance without tearing! This is the best I had achieved so far! I had, in one of my chinese bread-making cookbook which says that when a kneaded bread dough is pulled apart until it tears, the tear should be able to form a nice rounded hole (instead of a an irregular hole), this would show that the stretch test is done.

I then carried on with the proofing, rounding and resting, and final proofing of the dough. (Please refer to my previous post for the recipe. It's entirely the same but I had it halved this time). I also added pork floss before rolling it into swiss roll style. I think I would roll the dough to make it thinner next time, so that I can achieve more swirls when the bread is sliced. I had forgotten to take close-up pictures of the fluffy texture but it was definitely softer than the previous attempt. :)

When I removed it from the pan, it was so soft that I feared having the bread being squeezed. I finally achieved to that extent! Yay! Hehe...

Able to savour my own freshly baked soft bread; and seeing others enjoying it makes me a happy girl...Hehe..My handheld mixer is not that 'useless' in bread making afterall. I'll probably incorporate it into my mixing and kneading next time. At least, it do saves me some time I guess...:)


12 comments:

Happy Homebaker said...

Aimei, your loaf looks really super soft! Whenever I have whipping cream, I will think of making this bread ;) May I ask which brand of cream did you use? I usually get the 1 ltr pack from Phoon Huat (Red Man), but it's very stressful to try to use it up asap ;) I am thinking of getting those that comes in smaller packs (200ml), have you tried any of those?

sweet-tooth said...

Your bread looks real good!
Perhaps i should use my handheld mixer when i bake bread too!
*grins
then i'll probably be able to pass the window pane test :D
hopefully!
lol

Aimei said...

Hi Happy Homebaker,

Thanks! Usually I only bought the redman brand for frosting cream cake. For others such as making ganache or mousse when I needed lesser quantities, I bought either "emborg" which comes in 200 ml pack available in most super markets or "president" which is available in 250ml pack if I remember correctly. I've used both and they are fine but not so suitbale for frosting as they are not that stable and stiff.

Thanks Sweet-tooth! Yeah maybe you can try that. :) It does save some hand power especially I think I'm not that 'powerful' LOL. Only difficult thing is cos' it's not s stand-mixer, we need to use one hand to hold the mixer, the other hand to hold the bowl, it can be little hard, unless you have another pair of hands to hold the bowl for you, which I don't btw...but somehow I wished there was...haha! Do note that I think we still need to finish it off with some manual kneading. :) Good luck! I'm sure you can ;)

Mandy said...

you make me feel like making myself a fresh loaf of bread!

Small Small Baker said...

Your bread looks very delicious!
Hm, maybe I can also try to use my stand mixer too. Better chances of getting a softer bread. Thanks for the great tip! :)

Dawnut's Factory said...

everytime i come to your blog i will start salivating.... if only i have more time and a better oven!! oh and more space to do wat i want in the kitchen.... i guess i will stick to cupcakes for now to perfect my skills... heheeh

Aimei said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Aimei said...

Hi Mandy,

Glad I'm injecting some inspirations to baking your own loaf. :) It's really satisfying ;)

Hi Smallsmallbaker, Yeah you can give it a try and see if it works! :)

Hey gal, saw you baking lots of nice stuff as well, especially those x'mas bakes! Good that you are perfecting your skills in cupcake :) Probbaly next time you have created a niche in cupcake baking, unlike me who likes to try everything! hehe....

MH said...

Hi, Aimei!
This bread is really soft! May I know the whipping cream you're using: dairy/non-diary? I have one pack (non-diary one) sitting in my fridge for quite sometimes. Initially, bought it to have a try on frosting a cake..... but alas, my sponge cake was deflated :(

Aimei said...

Hi Myhomekitchen!

I used the diary whipping cream. I'm not sure whether non-diary cream works as well or not but I believe you can give it a try, especially if you need to clear your whipping cream as well. :)

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Aimei, thanks for answering my queries...I will get emborg next time :)

Aimei said...

You're welcome Happy Homebaker. :)