Life changing /-/ Pandan Pull man bread loaf

 
 
First off I would like to thank of all your wishes in my last post. I have passed them all on to my family and they are very happy to hear them. I am over whelmed by the support I received on my last post considering I do not have the biggest fan/follower base but each on those comments comforted me in some way.

Unfortunately even with all the well wishes you have posted and tweeted, I have report some heart breaking news. I feel as if I owe it to you guys; you have become 2nd family I never knew I needed. 


 
Last Monday I updated you on my current family situation. Last 22nd I had a father, dad and male role model in my life. As of 26th of February 2014 I am without all of those things including a grip on reality and the ability to actually experience a real smile (not one of those pull a smile for the 
camera twitching smiles). 



Yes it was rapid, unexpected and shocking. I am not sure if I have to terms with what has happened. While I may have lost a father; I feel most for my mother who lost the love of her life, soul mate of 31 years. My pain cannot compare to the angst she must feel every day. While a woman’s fury may over take hell; nothing is as crushing as a widow’s grief in any alternate universe, before and after life.

 

However I guess you would think, how is going to effect this blog?
 
Well as you know I will do my best to keep on posting on here as I love to bake, improve my food photography (or photography in general) and my “journalistic” skills. However if you read the next few post and you think it has lost it “spark”, the content is subpar or there is something no quite right about it. I apologize, it may take me a few weeks to return back to my normal self. Though I have overwhelming doubt that I will be ever be the same again.



I am not sure how to finish this but here is recipe. I made bread just before this event for my dad, as this is his favourite kind of Asian comfort food. Asian style bakeries’ pull man loaf is renowned for it texture that creates via the gluten added dough, often called Tang Zhong. However I know most of you might forget to do it before hand, or are like me and sometimes do not want to dirty another pot. 



Adapted from my blueberry bread recipe, I simple left out the blueberries for a pandan paste, which is a mixture of sugar, almonds and pandan essence. Yes it is not natural but you do not get that same effect with the real leaf.

Soft and yielding, sure with your desired spread ( I used a white chocolate almond spread here); but even butter with a little bit of condense milk on it is a wonderful complement to the very home style flavours. Yes it is bread but it is just as comforting to me as a piece of chocolate; even more so that it meant so much to my dad. 




Pandan milk loaf
Adpated from Blueberry bread loaf with black sesame

400g bread flour
60g caster sugar
50g almond meal
2 tsp pandan essence
100g milk
10g milk powder
20g malted milk powder
1 egg
6g dry yeast
4g salt
50g melted butter

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Knead until it forms a rough ball in bowl.

Turn the dough ball out on to an oiled surface and knead until it develops a high amount of gluten(window pane test). I did this for about 30 minutes.

Shape dough in to a sphere.

Once kneaded to the right stage place sphere in a oiled bowl and cover with cling warp. Leave to rise for 2 hours.
During this period, grease your pull pan and lid with butter. Punch down dough and divide into 3 equal pieces. Roll each piece out to a 20 by 10 cm rectangle, with the shorter side facing you fold in the long sides to half way then roll the rectangle up like jelly roll. Place in pan and repeat with remaining two.

Place the lid on the pan and allow to rise until it almost touches the top about 80%. It can take a while, maybe 3 hours.
Bake for 30 minutes or until hollow when tapped.
One baked, remove from tin and transfer to a cooling rack.