Pandan Soft Bread

Instagram (and the internet) is an amazing place.  A place where people share their photos and recipes.

I originally saw a post by @thesingaporewomensweekly regarding a Pandan Pancake wrapped with peanuts (similar to Min Jiang Kueh but not - from what I gather, it uses a standard pancake batter that doesn't have yeast in it so it doesn't have that gluten strands look). It linked me up to Mimi Bakery House's main page, leaving me to search for this pandan pancake recipe. During my search, I found a post on Pandan Kopitiam Buns.

She said it was SOFT and FLUFFY.

I love soft, fluffy buns.

I've always had problems getting the right texture. Using a Tang Zhong recipe in the past, I managed to get soft chewy buns. But they didn't quite hold their shape very well. Perhaps I had lousy kneading skills (after all, I've never learnt to make bread from a proper teacher).

This recipe caught my eye because it DOES NOT use any milk to give the bread it's soft texture. I was drawn immediately since soft bun recipes typically use milk or milk powder to give it the soft texture, and being allergic to dairy products, any substitutes never quite gave me the right results.

The recipe, however, uses butter - I presume this is the ingredient that gives the bread it's softness. I simply replaced that with margarine, and it worked fine. :)

Although I've been cutting down on my wheat intake, this bread is SO WORTH IT.

The bread was really soft and fluffy. The pandan taste was a little mild (can't really taste it), so perhaps, I should add more pandan extract (or even slip in some pandan paste the next time).

I'm so in love.

RECIPE
~ adapted from the original source, My Little Favourite DIY.

Note: This recipe requires a 12 hour overnight rest for the sponge, so do plan in advance if you plan to make this bread.

Makes 12 buns

A. Overnight Sponge Dough

Ingredients:

• 215g Bread Flour
• 125g Cold Water 
• 2g Instant Yeast

Instructions:

1. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients. Use your hands to create a rough dough. There is no need to knead the dough until it is smooth. Just roughly combine it into a dough. 
2. Cover with cling film and immediately store in the fridge overnight (at least 12 hours).

B. Preparing the Buns (the next day)

Ingredients:

• 90g Bread Flour
• 30g egg (1/2 large egg)
• 4g instant yeast
• 3g fine sea salt
• 50g sugar 
• 1 Tablespoon concentrated pandan juice (cold)

• Overnight sponge dough prepared in part A
• 45g margarine (brought to room temperature)

Instructions:

1. Add all the ingredients EXCEPT butter into the mixing bowl of your stand mixer. 
2. Tear the overnight sponge dough into pieces and add it to the rest of the ingredients.
3. Using the dough hook, knead until the dough is smooth.
4. Add in the margarine and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. 
5. Cover dough with cling film and set aside to proof until the dough doubles in size (about 40 minutes).
6. Punch down the dough to expel air.
7. Divide the dough into 12 equal portions and shape them into balls.  
8. Place balls into a greased pan. Leave some room in between each ball. The balls will touch each other after they proof so there's no need to crowd them.   
9. Let the dough proof until doubled in size (about 30-45 minutes).
10. Preheat oven to 170C. 
11. Bake for 20 minutes on the lowest rack. 
12. Tilt the buns out of the baking pan once they are out of the oven.