Taro Swirl Bread

Yam Paste
A:
350g Thai Yam (weight excludes skin)
150ml water

B:
80g sugar

C:
50g cake flour
40ml water

Method
1. Cut the yam into big slices. Steam over high heat until cooked (use a chopstick or a
fork to test by poking through the yam).
2. Blend the cooked yam with 150ml of water until a fine paste is achieved. (I prefer
blending as it gives a smoother consistency than mashing.)
3. Mix the cake flour with the water to a smooth paste.
4. Pour the blended yam into a pot (non-stick preferred). Add the flour mixture and mix
well.
5. Cook over medium low heat, adding sugar gradually over 3 times. Keep stirring the
mixture to prevent burnt. Reduce the heat when the mixture gets thicker for easier
control.
6. After about an hour, the mixture will be very thick. To test if your yam paste is ready,
take a big scoop of the paste with a spoon. Invert the spoon and start counting. If it
takes about 8-10 secs for the paste to start dropping, the yam paste is ready.
7. Remove from heat and leave to cool.
8. When cooled, put the yam paste into a plastic bag and roll it into a rectangular shape
of size 19cm x 17cm (you can adjust the size slightly). You should get about 1cm
thickness of yam paste.

Bread Dough

Ingredients
340g bread flour } if you do not have cake flour, you can
40g cake flour } use 380g of bread flour
10g milk powder
5g salt
25g sugar
3g dry yeast
1 medium egg (60g with shell)
25g butter
180g water (suggest to use to 170g first and slowly add in later if dough is too dry)

Method
1. Place all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix well.
2. Add in the rest of the ingredients (except butter) to form a dough.
3. Rub butter into the dough.
4. Knead the dough till smooth and elastic (I took 1 hr using hand kneading).
5. Round it up into a smooth ball and place it into a well greased bowl to proof till double
in size. Cover with a damp towel.
6. When proofing is completed, gently remove dough and roll it out into a 39cm x 35cm
rectangle. (Note: If you change the size of the yam paste rectangle above, just roll your
dough to slightly more than double the length and width of the yam paste.)
7. Place the yam paste in the center of the rectangular dough.

8. Fold all sides of the dough to cover the yam paste. Seal all edges tightly. I place the
four corners diagonally to better seal up the openings.


9. Roll out the dough to about 25cm x 35cm.
10. Make 3 folds (as shown in pictures below).


11. Repeat steps 9 & 10 one more time. Rest for 10 minutes.
12. Finally, roll the dough lengthwise (i.e. along the longer side) to slightly longer than
the length or your bread tin or loaf pan, keeping the shorter end intact. Make a cut in
the middle leaving about 3cm on top.

13. Twist and plait the dough.

14. Place the dough into your bread tin or loaf pan and let it rise in room temperature to
about double in size (mine took about an hr).


15. Bake in preheated oven at 180C for 30-35 minutes.