85% Hydration No-Water-Added SD Sweet Potato Milk Loaf

I've been developing this formula for weeks, and I was testing the possibility of adding more sweet potatoes into my loaves. I didn't plan to post it, but thanks to our brief discussion with Debra, I decided to post it.

Steamed sweet potatoes were used to make this loaf. They hold water really well, handling 85% hydration dough felt like handling 75% hydration regular tangzhong dough. You may say this is tangzhong on steroid.

For every 570 grams of flour (starter, dry matter of sweet potatoes, and vital wheat gluten are considered as flour) the formula fits two 12x12x12 cm pullman pans. Proof until the top of the dough 2 mm close to the pan's cover, nearly touching it. I lined the four pans (I made four, which means 1140 grams of flour were used) with parchment paper, including the covers (I rubbed the inner part of the covers with oil to make the pieces of paper stuck to the covers)

I put sugar and skimmed milk powder in the levain to increase osmotic pressure. For maximum fluffiness, a little instant yeast was used for stronger final proof (took 2 hours). Vital wheat gluten was used to make 12% wheat protein dough, assuming vital wheat gluten is 75% protein.

Vital wheat gluten, sweet potato dry matter, and starter are consider flour, percentages of the rest of ingredients are written in baker's percentage. I assumed sweet potatoes are 79% water.

I cooled the baked loaves down leaning on their side so they won't lose their height. If you feel like trying, do not use dusting flour during shaping, otherwise you'll have streaky crumb. Use water spray instead.

Summary

pureed steamed sweet potatoes (20% as dry matter), 20% prefermented flour, 10% butter, 10% brown sugar, overnight levain, fine-bran starter (bran:sugar:water 8:1:3, 0.5% baker's percentage), 3.5% vital wheat gluten, 1.5% salt, 8.8% egg, 8.8% skimmed milk powder, 1/2 tsp instant yeast /570g of flour, cold bulk, 14% protein white flour, sugared autolyse, windowpane, deck oven, spiral mixer, 250 °C upper & 180 °C lower

Taste and Verdict

The bread is nice and slightly sweet, with honey-like flavor from the potatoes. I don't know what else to say. It's just that good. Sooo fluffy, so cottony. The bread will make good grilled cheese. Since I need to keep on improving the formula, the bread is naturally part of my daily bread rotation.

Next trial, I would bump up the sweet potatoes to 29% dry matter, resulting in 116% dough hydration. I will do three stages levain next time, since I was short in time for these ones.

I have the impression that Floyd is into this kind of bread, so I dedicate this post to Floyd. Cheers!

Jay