Sweet Potato Cinnamon Swirl Milk Bread

This loaf was a gift to Alfanso (Alan) and his wife.  We got together for a lovely evening at their place here in Fort Lauderdale last night so I wanted to bring them something different so I came up with the idea to use mashed cooked sweet potato with some cinnamon as a filling for a milk bread.  The baked loaf had some structural issues that made me concerned that it was either overproofed, underbaked (due to the added moisture of the sweet potato) or just too tall to handle its height.

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100 g mashed sweet potato

15 g brown sugar

10 g butter

Cook on medium low heat in a pan until it slightly dries.

For 1 loaf in a 9x4x4” pullman pan

Egg/milk wash: 1 yolk and 1 tbsp milk, beaten

Cook Tangzhong mixing flour and milk constantly until it becomes a thick roux.  Let cool before adding to final dough.  Or add to cold milk and egg to cool it down.

Blend room temperature butter and flour together and set aside to incorporate after the dough is well developed.

Whisk together dry ingredients flour salt and yeast. 

To mix by hand, add the salt and yeast to the wet ingredients (milk, tangzhong and egg) to dissolve.  Next add the flour and mix with a silicone spatula until no dry flour remains.  Rest 10 mins.  Next perform French folds until the dough is well developed.  Smear the blended butter/flour onto the dough and then fold to incorporate and then perform further French folds until well developed.  Form into a tight ball and place in a bowl covered with plastic or a damp cloth and place in a warm place until doubled (about 1hr 30 mins).   Place in fridge for 1 hour to firm up the dough to make shaping easier or cold retard until next day.

Butter a large baking pan.  Punch the dough down and then divide into 2 equal portions.  Form each into tight boules.  Stretch and then roll each piece of dough into a large rectangle, approximately equal sizes.  Spread the prepared sweet potato evenly over one of of the rectangles of dough leaving about 1cm at the edge of dough without mashed potato.  Place the other rectangle of dough onto the other sandwiching the sweet potato between them.  Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out a bit more aiming for more than 12” in length and just under 9” in width.  

Using a ruler and pizza cutter, cut the dough into evenly wide strips about 1.5-2 cm wide along the length of the dough but leaving about 2-4 cm of dough uncut at the end furthest away from you.  When all the strips are cut, twist the strips in alternating directions, clockwise and then counter clockwise.  Once all the strips are twisted, roll the whole thing into a log starting furthest away from you getting a nice tight roll at the start.  Transfer the dough into your prepared pullman pan with the seam side down.

Place in the buttered baking pan seem side down.  Cover them and allow them to fully proof about 1 hour to 1 hour and 20-30 mins, it should pass the poke test.

After about 30 mins of proofing time, prepare your egg and milk wash and then brush the top of the loaf.

About 30 mins prior to end of final proof preheat the oven to 350°F. 

Immediately prior to baking brush the dough again with the egg and milk mixture.

Bake the bread for 50 minutes or until the internal temperature is at least 190F. Cover if your loaf gets brown early in the baking process.

Remove the bread from the pan and return to the oven baking directly on the rack if the sides of the loaf aren’t yet crisp baking for another 5 mins.  Cool on a rack, enjoy.

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The steps to shape this loaf.

After dividing and rolling the two halves of the dough into large rectangles, the sweet potato is spread on one half and then the others is placed on top, rolled out further and finally cut into 1 cm widths leaving one  end of the dough intact.

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My index of bakes