Breads (Sourdough) - Soft Buns/Rolls
Purple Sweet Potato Soft Sourdough Buns
November 16, 2020
| Recipe by Bake with Paws
Since I still have some Purple Sweet Potato from previous bakes, I used the same recipe from my Puple Sweet Potato Soft Sourdough Bread to bake pull-apart buns. The colour is very vibrant because the sweet potatoes happened to have a deep purple colour this time.
Characteristics of this bread: The texture is especially soft and moist on the first day. It lost only a little of its softness on the 2nd day. However, I discovered that higher percentage of potatoes used produced more moist texture bread and tends to stay fresh longer.
I have another Soft Sourdough Bread that you may be interested too. Pumpkin Soft Sourodugh Bread recipe.
If you have any questions regarding this recipe or any other post, please leave me a comment in the “LEAVE A COMMENT” link and I will reply you as soon as possible.
Recipe - Purple Sweet Potato Soft Sourdough Buns
INGREDIENTS:
Sweet Stiff Starter:
60g sourdough starter (100% Hydration), use at its peak
180g bread flour (I used Japan High Gluten Flour)
75g water
30g sugar (I used organic brown sugar)
Main Dough:
140g bread flour (I used Japan High Gluten Flour)
120g mashed purple sweet potato (about 200g raw sweet potato)
120g mashed purple sweet potato (about 200g raw sweet potato)
All the sweet stiff starter
10g brown sugar
10g brown sugar
1 tsp salt
60g - 80g milk (Add 60g first and slowly add in the balance if the dough too dry. I used total 80g. The amount of liquid also depend on the hydration of mashed sweet potatoes and also the bread flour)
50g whisked egg (from 1 large egg)
35g butter
Egg Wash:
1 egg + 1 Tbsp water
METHOD:
- Mashed Purple Sweet Potato:
- Wash, peel, cut and steam the purple sweet potatoes for about 20 minutes. Mash with potato riser.
- Sweet Stiff Starter:
- In a bowl of stand mixer, dilute starter with water, stir in sugar and add in bread flour. Mix with paddle attachment until well mixed and all come together. It can be done by hand mixing too.
- Cover and let it ferment until tripled. I prepared a night before and leave it in aircond room (approximately 24 - 25C room temperature) overnight until tripled. It took about 8 - 9 hours depending on your starter. It should take around 4 - 6 hours to get triple at room temperature at 28C - 30C.
- Main Dough:
- Put all ingredients (except butter) into a bowl of stand mixer. I usually torn the stiff starter dough into pieces first.
- Slightly combine the mixture by hand with the paddle attachment before turning on the machine so that the flour will not splash out. Using the paddle attachment, mix for 2 minutes or until all incorporated. This step is critical to prevent an uneven mixed dough as the stiff starter is rather hard and a dough hook may not be able to mix it well enough.
- Change to hook attachment and knead for another 3 minutes or until the dough comes together. Add in butter and continue knead for 10 - 12 minutes or until reach window pane stage. During the whole kneading process, I stopped few times to scrape down the dough from the hook to be sure it is evenly kneaded and also to prevent the motor from overheating.
- First Proofing/Resting The Dough:
- In the same bowl, let the dough rest for 60 minutes. Keep it covered with clingfilm or use a lid. The dough did not rise a lot in 60 minutes.
- To shape:
- Transfer the dough to a clean floured surface then divide dough into 16 equal portions. About 49.40g each. Please use a kitchen scale if you want to be exact.
- Form each portion to a ball.
- Place place bun onto the baking pans. Arrange 4 buns by 4 buns.
- Final Proofing:
- Let the dough rise until double in size. This bread took me around 2.5 hours at room temperature of around 29C- 30C. The duration of proofing depends on your ambient temperature and starter.
- To Bake:
- Preheat oven at 190C (top & bottom heat) or 170C (fan-forced) for 10 - 15 minutes.
- Brush with egg wash.
- Bake in a preheated oven for 18 - 20 minutes, or until golden brown.
- Remove buns from oven and pan. Let them cool on rack.
Sweet Stiff Starter
Main Dough
GENERAL NOTES:
SOURDOUGH STARTER
Please click this link for "How To Make Sourdough Starter" and "Sourdough Maintenance"
A healthy starter is very crucial as advised by Baking with Gina. It is advisable to feed your starter regularly if you want your bread to rise nicely and to use the starter (levain) at its peak. A starter that is fed regularly will be more active in general. If the mother starter is not strong, the bread dough will not rise a lot even though the starter is used at its peak.
GLUTEN DEVELOPMENT & WINDOWPANE TEST
Gluten forms when flour comes in contact with water. Hydration of the flour causes the sticky and stretchy protein to form, giving structure to the bread. This makes your bread trap air and rise.
Gluten in dough can be developed by autolyse, resting, kneading or folding.
The windowpane test is used to determine whether the dough has been sufficiently kneaded. By gently pulling the dough (or you may pinch off some dough) and trying to stretch it into a thin membrane. If you are able to stretch the dough paper thin and translucent without tearing, then the gluten is fully developed. However, if you can stretch it without tearing but the membrane is not transparent, then the gluten is not yet fully developed.
However, from my experience not all the recipe can achieve a thin and translucent window pane stage easily. For example low hydration and low fat dough. For such recipes, a reasonable window pane is good enough and it can be left to rest. Gluten will continue to develop while resting. Exercising restraint to not over-knead the dough prevents the gluten from being overworked and broken. Some of you may have experienced the dough breaking during the second proofing. It is because the dough is over kneaded.
The total kneading time for me is usually 15 minutes at low speeds except brioche dough with high fat percentage or dough using liquid fat which usually takes a little longer (maybe 18-20 mins).
From my experience, I found that high hydration dough with high percentage of fat will be easy to stretch and achieve a paper thin windowpane stage.
MILK POWDER
Why do I use milk powder?
- Milk or milk powder will enhance the flavour of the bread and makes the bread texture softer due to the fat content of the milk.
- Milk powder is shelf stable and you can have it anytime when you want to use. Unlike liquid milk you need to finish within a certain time before it spoils.
For kneading, please regard the timing provided as an indication only. It is only meant as a guide. Timing may differ depending on the brand of flour and electric mixer used. The protein content may vary from one brand of flour to another.
FLOUR
The right flour plays a very important role in bread making. To achieve fluffy, soft and light bread, I used Japan High Gluten Flour in most of my bread baking. The protein content is around 12 - 13%.
HYDRATION
The liquid measurement given is also a guide. It is advisable to always reserve some liquid and not add it all in one go. This would give you the opportunity to adjust if necessary. If dough is too dry, add the reserve liquid one tablespoon at a time until the right consistency. This is because each flour absorbs water and hydrates differently.
PROOFING
Please note that the proofing timing may also vary depending on your climate, environment, flour and your starter.
If you are unable to judge by just looking at the dough, you can do the finger poke test:
Proofing:
- Lightly press the side of the proved dough with your finger. If it bounces back immediately without any indentation, it means the dough is under proved and needs more time before baking.
- If the indentation stays and it doesn’t bounce back, it means it has been over proved.
- If the indentation slowly bounces back and leave a small indentation, it is ready to bake.
- There will be a final burst of rising once the bread is placed to bake in the oven and it is called oven spring.
If your bread collapses or gets wrinkled on top after removing from oven, it could be because your dough over proved during the second proofing. Please proof until the tip of the dough just reaches the rim of the pan, around 80% - 90% in size.
BAKING TEMPERATURE AND TIME
Do also note that the baking temperature and timing provided are what works for my oven and should also be regarded as a guide only. Every oven behaves a little differently, so please adjust accordingly for your oven.
Labels:
Breads (Sourdough) - Soft Buns/Rolls,
Could I use yudane method in this recipe? Thank you so much.
ReplyDeleteHi, yes you can if you use low percentage. But if you use high percentage like 42.8% than yudane dough is not required. It is because Potato starch also absorbs more water than wheat starch and this makes the bread texture more moist and have better shelf live.
DeleteCheers 😊
I have the purple potato powder, how should i substitute it?
ReplyDeleteHi, I never used purple potato powder before.. I am not too sure.
DeleteHowever, You can use the same recipe and omit the mashed sweet potato and add purple sweet potato powder into the dough. I am not sure how much. You also need to adjust the hydration by increasing the milk.
Cheers :)
Great recipe! Many thanks. Instead of sweet potato, I used purple carrot. It turned out light and fluffy. And so yummy - hard to stop at 1 bun!
ReplyDeleteHi, thank you for trying and let me know the outcome. Great to hear that you like it. By the way, I have purple carrot sourdough recipe too. Both recipes are quite similar.
DeleteCheers :)
Stay safe...
Hi, do you think it will be possible to tackle this with hand kneading?
ReplyDeleteHi, thanks for reading this post.
DeleteTo be honest, I have not tried hand kneading before. However, it should work too if you know how to use hand kneading.
Cheers :)