Healthy 'Hulky' Green

This month’s bread baking day (BBD#14) is hosted by Boaz from Grain Power with coloured bread as the theme.

Coloured bread, sounds fun!! Even better that only natural colouring are allowed.

Thought I join in the fun.

My focus was something that was easily available locally. Immediately I thought of blue bread, now that would definitely different. The blue natural colouring would derive from bunga telang (aka blue pea flower). But I had trouble getting my hands on some. And so I abandoned that idea and opted for the second alternative of using screwpine leaves (aka pandan leaf or pandanus). These green leaves are easily available everywhere, even in my garden!! Like all low maintenance plants, they seem to multiply like weeds so we have cut back and only just maintain one bush.

Pandan leaves are popular in Asian dishes and bakes. Not only does it give a lovely aromatic fragrance, their intense green hue also makes them useful as a natural food colouring. Btw, for those overseas, I understand that you can also get these leaves in the frozen section of Asian Supermarkets.

Since coconut is also widely available and used in Asian cooking, I decided to add this to the bread too.

Pandan shot anyone??
Left with low fat coconut milk and right just plain milk.

So here is my contribution, an easy and everyday Pandan and Coconut Milk Bread

Ingredients (Yields 1 loaf)
250g bread flour
30g cake flour
3g salt
3g instant yeast
1 egg (52g)
48g coconut milk
132g milk (blended with 4 leaves of screwpine leaves or pandan leaves and strain the liquid)
20g butter, room temperature

Method

1. Knead all the ingredients together for 10 -15 min, except for the butter which you add after 4 minutes.
   
2. Rest the dough for 1 hour.
   
3. Remove dough and lightly knead it on a lightly floured surface if required. Divide the dough into 3 equal pieces and rest for 5 min.
   
4. Shape into long thick ropes and braid. Alternatively roll into a round or swiss roll shape.
   
   
5. Place the dough into a greased tin, cover and prove for 1 - 1.5 hours until double in size.
   
   
6. Brush the surface of the dough with some egg glace mixed with 2 tsp of water.


7. Bake in preheated oven at 170 degrees for about 30min. If top browns too quickly, don a tent to avoid burning.
   
8. Rest baked bread in tin for 5 min before removing and completely cooling it on a wire rack.

Needless to say, the bread smelled fantastic - pandan and coconut are a classic combination! Taste wise, the bread was very soft and fluffy, with only a slight hint of coconut and pandan.

So if you are looking for a great scenting bread and like green, this is a good choice!