Pandan Bread 香蘭麵包

This delicious bread is made by using the natural flavor and coloring from the pandan leaf.   Yes, that's right, an actual leaf!  The pandan leaf is so packed with flavor and color that it is used to flavor all kinds of foods from the sweet to the savory!

My little girl has always loved the floral, vanilla-y, grassy fragrance and flavor of the pandan leaf and so has long begged me to make her some homemade pandan bread.  Finally I have gotten around to it, coincidentally just in time for St. Patrick's Day.  Make yourself some lucky Pandan Bread 香蘭麵包: deliciously aromatic, soft and fluffy, and verily luckily green!

We paired the pandan flavoring with our family favorite, milk bread, that soft and fluffy bread favored by asian bakeries.  I love making milk bread.  This bread is so easy to make and the results are always fabulous.

The secret to the milk bread is the 'roux'.  Milk, water and a wee bit of flour are mixed together and then cooked.

Precooking part of the dough gelatinizes the starches in the flour.  The result is a super tender bread that keeps longer.  Here you can see that the roux has thickened and is ready to be added to the rest of the dough.

The rest of the ingredients are typical bread ingredients of regular flour, yeast and sugar.

At last, the pièce de résistance: the pandan flavor!  The pandan is extracted from the pandan leaf 香蘭葉, which is a long narrow leaf as seen in the left photo above.  I got mine fresh from the wet markets in HK, look for the shops that sell fresh Thai produce.

You can also get pandan extract at your bakery supply store.  But since I got my hands on the real thing, fresh pandan leaves, I thought to make the essence at home.  Turns out it's easy peasy to make!  Check out our easy homemade pandan extract recipe.

Put everything together now: the roux, the pandan extract and the rest of the ingredients.

Bring it all together.  Knead, knead, knead.  The magic alchemy of bread begins.  The resulting dough ball is so soft and silky!

Here I have a wee confession.  The color provided by our homemade pandan extract was more of a light yellowish green.  So I added a bit of green gel coloring to up the lucky green factor of our bread.  

The dough is covered and left to rise until doubled.  This part of making milk bread is always so pleasing cuz this bread rises so well.  See how our dough ball has more than doubled?

Beat down the risen dough, pow, pow.  Next the dough is portioned into equal portions.  Each portion is formed into a round ball by tucking the dough under until the skin is nice and taut.  All rounds are then packed into a buttered loaf tin, covered and left for the 2nd rise.  Left photo is before rise.  Right photo is after the rise.

A quick brush with milk on top before baking will give the bread a tender, golden crust.  Ah, the aromas of baking bread are amazing!  Our baked Pandan Bread is a beautiful light green in color with a soft and fluffy, easily pulled apart crumb and the distinctively yummilicious taste and aroma of fresh pandan.

Pandan Bread Recipe  香蘭麵包

(makes 1 no 9 x 5" loaf)  Prep time: 15 mins  Bake time: 35mins

Ingredients:

• 9 by 5 inch loaf pan

    Roux:

• 3 tbsp all purpose flour, 24g
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup water

    Dough:

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, 325g
• 1/4 cup sugar, 50g
• 2 tsp instant yeast
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 6 tbsp room temp milk (use 1/2 cup if using store bought pandan extract)
• 2 tbsp homemade pandan extract (or 2 tsp store bought pandan extract)
• 4 tbsp softened unsalted butter, diced, 56g
• 1/4 cup extra flour

Directions:

Make the Roux:  Add roux ingredients to a small pot.  Use whisk to combine everything first.  Heat over low heat,  whisking, for a min or so or just until the flour mixture thickens enough to cling.  Remove from heat and let cool.

Make the Dough:  Mix roux, flour, sugar, yeast, salt, egg, milk and pandan extract until a dough is formed and does not stick the sides of the bowl.  If the dough is too wet add extra flour in, one tbsp at a time, until desired consistency is achieved.

Add in butter and knead another 10 mins until the butter is completed incorporated.  It will be slippery work for a bit but the butter and flour will eventually be combined.

To test the dough for readiness pull out a corner of the dough and stretch it until light can shine through. If the dough doesn't break, your dough is ready.  This is called the window pane test.

Rise the Dough: Cover and place in a warm area and let rise for an hour or until the dough is doubled.  

Punch the dough down.  Weigh the dough out and then divide into 6 equal portions.  Roll each portion into a ball, tucking the dough under until the skin is tight.  

Butter the loaf pan and then place the dough rounds in, pressing to fit into the loaf shape.  Cover and let rise for 40 mins or so until the dough is doubled.  

Preheat oven to 350°F (176°C).

Bake the Dough: Brush milk lightly over the loaf top.  Bake for 35-40 mins or until golden brown.  Enjoy your lucky bread!

Store in an airtight box.  Keeps for up to a week.

Beautilicious Breads at The Hong Kong Cookery:

Milk Bread Tangzhong 湯種牛奶麵包

Pineapple Bun 菠蘿包

Chinese Steamed Buns Mantou 饅頭

White Bread

Homemade Bagel

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