This is the first Bread Basic Course that I’m taking at the Baking School. Going back to school is fun, and I enjoyed it. This bread was created with a Sakura theme. It uses white bean paste flavoured with cherry liqueur and is shaped in a twist, showing the fillings on the outer later. The bread’s texture is soft and fluffy due to the skimmed milk powder, egg and butter. It was then kneaded until the windowpane stage to give a nice, soft and shiny dough.

Rum & Raisin Loaf
Coco Milo Loaf

Kids love the Coco Milo bread and say the texture is like cotton candy. I am using a milk bread recipe (like the famous Japanese/Hokkaido milk bread). I use imported Hokkaido milk for the bread. Instead of using sugar, I used honey and small quantity about 10gm per loaf.

Love the patterns on the coco milk bread . Every piece with different patterns. 

Ingredients (Yield 1 loaf):
260gm bread flour
50gm all-purpose flour
93gm natural yeast (sourdough starter)
150gm cold milk / cold mineral water
3gm salt
20gm unsalted butter (preferred butter Lurpak, Elle & Vire or President )
10gm brown sugar / 10gm honey

Instructions:

Place all ingredients in a mixing bowl, except butter. Using a wooden spoon to combine and form a dough.

Transfer dough onto a lightly floured countertop and knead until come together and smooth.

Add in butter and continue to knead until dough reach windowpane. This step is very important.

Lightly grease your mixing bowl and put your dough in. Cover with kitchen towel or cling wrap and let it rest for 60 minutes or almost double in size.

Be careful not to over proof at this stage. I only leave it on the counter for an hour at room temperature 28 degree Celsius. Its ok if dough doesn’t rise double in size after one hour.  

Gently knock back dough, transfer dough onto a lightly floured countertop.

For Coco Milo Loaf ~ Divide dough into 2 portions
One dough mix with cocoa powder 1 tbsp & 2 tbsp milo (you can use 3tbsp cocoa powder).
Cover with a damp cloth and let it rest for 15 minutes.

Roll both doughs into a thin sheet according to the length of your bread pan.

Put the cocoa dough sheet on top the of white dough.

Roll up the dough like a cinnamon roll and seal the seam tightly.

Put the dough into 6-8 pieces (like the cinnamon rolls).

Transfer the cut dough one by one and arrange left right, left right in the bread pan.

For Rum and Raisin Loaf ~

3 tbsp Raisins; 2 tbsp Rum

Place raisins in a container, add rum and toss to coat the raisins. Cover and soak

minimum for 6 hours or preferably overnight.

Gently knock back dough, transfer dough onto a lightly floured countertop. Mix the soaked raisins into the dough and carefully knead the dough. Divide into 3 equal pieces. Gently shape each dough into a ball.

Cover the dough and let it rest for 20 minutes. Flatten and shape each dough piece into a rectangular loaf shape. Place loaves into a bread pan.

Cover with kitchen towel. I am using 450gm loaf pan, size 196mm x 106mm x 110mm.

Place loaf pan in a warm place and let it rise till 1 inch above the pan rim. It takes approximately 3 to 4 hours at room temperature 28–30 degree celcius.

Alternatively, you can put your loaf pan in a box with cover and store in the fridge, let it proof overnight, 8-10 hours. Next day, remove from the fridge and let it continue to proof at room temperature until it rise 1 inch above the pan rim.

Preheat oven to 180 degree celcius for 30 minutes before baking.

Brush some milk on top of the dough, and place loaf pan in a preheated oven. Bake for

30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Remove pan from oven and turn out onto a wire

rack to cool.