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.
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.
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.
Comments
Alan was kind enough to send me a photo of the bread sliced. He hasn’t commented on the flavour, but I hope he and his wife enjoyed some for breakfast today.
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"We had the two slices in the pic I sent last night, as our midnight snack toast. Really delicious and a nice soft crumb. Although I hardly ever use IDY anymore I can certainly appreciate that certain smell/taste that it can provide. More toast this morning, as delicious, but now we are into the slices that have the pinched waistline. Not any more moist than the remainder of the slice. And too good to waste on French Toast!"
We were wondering about the construction of the bread to create that magnificent braided crown. Now we know.
I really enjoy the combination of sweet potato and cinnamon flavors.
Nice Bake
Tony
Thank you Tony, the sweet potato filling tasted good on its own, so I hope it was great swirled into the bread.
Benny
the pictures are the most artistic creation !! gorgeous documentation. If it tastes as good as it looks Alan has passed out in rapture :)
Thank you Caroline, I always have fun twisting and braiding these types of bread.
Benny
This is a really cool way to use sweet potato instead of mixing it in completely. The twists are really neat looking. I may have to try the twists next time I make cinnamon swirl bread. How is/was baking in Florida? It's a bit damp and warm here, so it's definitely a little different than cold and dry. I find I have to use less yeast unless it's winter, which is now I think.
Yes it works well to laminate the sweet potato and cinnamon this way. I have found that both sweet potato and cinnamon can slow fermentation when mixed into the dough. This avoids that effect. Baking here is much more like baking in the summer in Toronto, we have the high temperatures and high humidity. In particular the humidity makes the flour less able to take as much hydration. Combine that with using flours that I’m not used to, it can be a challenge.
Benny
That's a pretty ingenious way to swirl the filling without doing the jellyroll thing. And it looks really yummy, too! Thanks for sharing it with us. –AG
Thank you AG, I hope you give this method a try, it can create a pretty crust and crumb.
Benny
Magnificent braiding and great to hear of the visits too.
Thank you as always Jon, much appreciated. It is so fun to connect with other bakers as well.
Benny
What a fantastic creative bake. That's a great idea to combine the sweet potatoes with the cinnamon and do that twirl. It sounds like Alan and his wife really enjoyed it and I can certainly see why.
It's down in the low 20's here so I hope you are enjoying the Florida weather.
Best,
Ian
Thank you as always Ian. I do like how adding the sweet potato and cinnamon this way doesn’t adversely affect the fermentation since both can slow it down.
The weather in Florida has been great, no complaints. I’m not missing winter in Toronto yet, but we’ll be back home late next week so we will get to “enjoy” winter soon enough.
Benny
Really nice bake Benny. I like the idea of the sweet potatoes and cinnamon and the shaping method is really unique! Do you think you could have done anything different on the structural issue or just the nature of the beast when you're dealing with all those strands and trying to keep things tight and uniform? I really like the look of it.
I’m thinking that cooking the sweet potato with the cinnamon and butter for a longer period of time to cook out more of the water would help. Also extending the bake time in the pan and possibly just reducing the weight of the dough as well. Doing both would help the bread structurally and reduce the pinched waist which I hate seeing. I’ve done this type of shaping before without this happening so I know it can be done. Here is one that didn’t have that problem.
Benny
For both the filling and the shaping, as it happens. That's definitely a loaf I'd like to try.
Paul
Thanks so much Paul, I hope you do try it, the shaping is fun to do and the resulting bread is fun to look at as well.
Benny
As a holiday gift for family!
Thank you, I hope you do try this and share your results. I’d love to hear if you like it or not.
Enjoy
Benny
Because I had to focus on firmer and more easily transportable breads, but it’s on my list for as soon as I get back home to Nashville.
Enjoy your trip and Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Benny
The twist and roll thing is a great idea and you did an amazing feat of dough handling to bring it all together. I wonder if something like that would it would work for Babka? If I try this do you think 6 strands would be a problem? It's so nice that you and Alan were able to enjoy some time together and share some baked goods. Happy Holidays
Don
Thanks so much Don, you’re right, it was wonderful that we were able to get together with Alan and his wife. I hope we can host them one evening on our next visit down this winter.
This same type of shaping would certainly work for a babka. I was thinking of doing this with chocolate at some point since chocolate makes most things better.
I haven’t tried doing this with fewer strands and I can’t think of a reason why it wouldn’t work.
Happy Holidays to you and your wife.
Benny
I'm speechless. You are truly an artisan.
Doubled the recipe, mixed in a kitchen aid, did 8 strips, and baked for a little extra time to firm up the sides. Otherwise followed directions. Got a little pinching on one loaf but the other one looks pretty good. Thanks for the formula! I will have to try your sourdough/partly whole wheat version next.
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Wow, those are stunning beautiful tall loaves! Well done can’t wait to see your next loaves. I hope you enjoyed the flavour of these.
Benny