Bread and more bread

I've been trying to eat my breakfast every morning. The past few weeks I've been trying different bread recipes with success and have been eating bread with peanut butter/Kaya or any flavor jam. The whole reason was when I went Asian grocery shopping a few weeks back I bought a bottle of Kaya and I wanted to eat it up before it goes bad so I've been eating it almost every morning.

Since hubs decided that he will be having sandwiches for work this week I told him that I would bake him a bread for it (he don't like to use homemade bread with his deli sandwiches because he said it falls apart). This week I decided to make a healthier loaf for him and decided upon Instant Oats load since I saw that it looks so soft and yummy.

Instant Oats Loaf recipe adapted from Honey Bee Sweet

Ingredients for Roll Oats Loaf:

Set A:

37g instant oats
75ml fresh milk

Set B:

375g bread flour
40g instant roll oats50g caster sugar
7g instant active yeast5g salt65g of whole egg
180 - 185ml fresh milk (I used 170ml)
40g unsalted butter, room temperature
 

Method:

1. In a small pot, cook the instant oats with the milk in Set A with low fire till the mixture is thick and lumpy. Remove from fire and set aside to cool. Refrigerate the mixture for an hour before use.
2. Mix all ingredients in Set B except for butter together with the mixture in Set A in a large mixing bowl to form a soft dough. Knead the dough till it is not sticky, about 15 to 20 minutes.
3. Add the unsalted butter in and continue to knead till the dough is shiny and elastic. To test if the dough is ready, pull a small piece off and stretching it with your fingers. If dough is very elastic and pulls to almost see through without breaking, then it's done.
4. Place dough in a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap and allow to proof for at least 90 minutes to 2hrs.
5. Punch out the air in the dough and divide it into 3 equal portions.
6. Roll out each portion into a long flat oval shape and roll up one end to make it into a swiss roll form.
7. Placed the dough into a greased loaf tin and repeat with the rest of the 2 portions.
8. Cover and let proof for another 2hrs or till the loaf fills 90% of the tin.
9. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Brush the top of loaf with egg wash.
10. Bake loaf in the oven for 40 to 45 minutes. If top browns too quickly, cover with aluminum foil till baking time is up.
11. When done, take out from oven and unmold immediately and let cool on rack before slice

 *** I made the oats and let it cool down. The I put everything in my breadmaker and let it do the kneading.

I do not own a pullman bread pan yet my bread rose and spill on the side of my pyrex hence you can see the "t-shirt" pattern. This bread is wonderful but for some reason the texture of the bread looks nothing like Honey Bee Sweets so I'm not sure if I did anything wrong or just because I don't have the right pan, or because I over bake it or just because I suck! :P. Hubby love eating the bread with his PB&J but he just don't care for eating it with his deli meat as I mentioned before that he says that the bread break apart.

Since I was already going to bake a loaf of bread in my oven I decided to make another loaf of bread. The first time when I saw her  pandan loaf with crumble topping I knew that I wanted to try it someday. When made some home made Kaya I thought I would try it with this bread but never did and I think the kaya went bad ^_^ ops...

Pandan Loaf with Crumble topping adapted from Honey Bee Sweet 

Ingredients for Pandan Kaya loaf: 

300g bread flour 

55g caster sugar 

7g instant active yeast 

2g salt
1-1/2 tsp milk powder 

1 eggs 

55ml coconut milk (I used heavy whipping cream) 

2tbsp pandan juice (1-2 pandan leaves blend with 2 tbsp water, sieve) (I used 1tsp of panda paste)
1/2 tsp green colour pandan extract 

90ml water (I used 70-80ml)

Filling:

3 tbsp kaya spread ( I used pandan flavored kaya)


Crumble Topping: 

25g butter, room temperature 

25g caster sugar 

40g all purpose flour

Crumble Topping Method:

1. Using mixer or just wooden spoon, mix butter and sugar together till creamy.
2. Add flour in, using finger tips, incorporate the mixture till it resembles bread crumbs.
3. Refrigerate till needed.

Pandan Kaya Loaf Method:

1. Mix all ingredients together for the Pandan loaf in a large mixing bowl. Mix well till it comes together.
2. Knead the dough till it is not sticky and elastic. Takes about 20 to 25 minutes.To test if the dough is ready, pull a small piece off and stretching it with your fingers. If dough is very elastic and pulls to almost see through without breaking, then it's done.
3. Place dough in a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap and allow to proof for at least 90 minutes till double in size.
4. Punch out the air after proofing. Divide the dough into 3 equal portions. Roll into balls and let rest for 10 minutes before shaping.
5. Grease the loaf tins. Taking one dough ball and roll flat using a rolling pin into an oval shape. Spread 1 tablespoon of kaya (optional) onto the surface.
6.   Roll it up in a swiss roll form length wise and seal the edges tight. Set aside.
7. 
   
8. Repeat with the rest of the dough balls till all is completed. At the end, you have 6 long logs. Using just 3, plait the dough logs together and gently place it into the prepared loaf tin.
9. Let proof for 45 minutes covered till it fills 90% of the tin.
10. Preheat oven to 180°C. Brush the top of buns with egg wash. Sprinkle the crumble topping over the loafs.
11. 
    
    Bake in the oven for 35 to 40 minutes. Once done, remove from oven and let cool in the tin for 10 minutes before unmoulding. Slice when it is cooled down.
    * Again I just put everything in my breadmaker to knead because I'm not confident it kneading any dough manually at this time.
     

The reason why I replaced coconut milk with heavy whipping cream was because I had some heavy whipping cream at home and I cannot believe that I did not have any coconut milk at home! I wanted to make this bread so bad that I just decided to replace it as I was too lazy to drive to get a can of coconut milk.

The bread was very yummy although the color might turn some people off. Hubs cut the bread too thin hence there was a hole in the middle! This bread is great and it was how I was hoping it to be however I did have some problem with the crumble topping. The topping goes well with the bread but mine was falling out every where. I am not sure it was because I did not glaze my bread before adding the topping (I'm sure that didn't help) and I sprinkled too much topping on my bread. It was just falling as it was rising while baking, when I took it out of the oven, tried taking it out of the pan and also when we were slicing it. I think the next time when I make this I might just skip the crumble topping all together. My bread was on the sweeter side because my store bought Kaya was super sweet. I definitely recommend this bread if you are a Kaya lover and I definitely make this again. I ate 3 slices when it was done although I just got done with my dinner! I ate it for breakfast and lunch almost everyday!