Taro Swirl Bread

My taro swirl bread.

Taro Toast from 99 Ranch Market.

So what do you do when you buy an obscene amount of exotic fruit and vegetables that you purchased for the sole purpose of using for an exotic food identification game? I've been slowly trying to use them up in recipes. The other night was the lotus root soup. Bitter melon may not make it to cooked form. The next item in my bag of goodies was taro. I wanted to use up the huge hunk of taro root but I didn’t want to make a coconut milk dessert. I could have easily cut it up into small cubes and boiled them with little tapioca pearls. I still have a large container of taro black rice pudding in the freezer. I cook a lot but I don’t really eat much.

I haven’t tried a new bread recipe for a while. I’ve been working on perfecting the buttermilk white bread. The last time the texture was really good. I let it almost completely rise the 2nd time before refrigerating it. It still needed to refrigerate it longer since the crust was still not blistery enough.

Taro swirl bread came to mind. I was trying to find a recipe for the taro swirl bread similar to the one from 99 Ranch that everyone loves. My aunt brought back 15 loaves when we were in California last May. I told her I wasn’t too crazy for the taro bread. I prefer the raisin or the plain. Then why am I making taro swirl bread? Remember I have a huge hunk of taro that I need to use up? It is huge. I think a large portion of it will have to be frozen for another recipe.

No luck on the recipe so I am using a recipe for Hokkaido bread to accommodate the taro paste swirl. Most Hokkaido bread recipes I found used a bread maker. I’m still not up for testing out the old bread maker.

The recipe below is the original one with weight measurements. I weighed all the ingredients on a kitchen scale. As I weighed, I recorded the volume amount that it took to get to the correct weight. Remember volume measurements are always approximate. If you measure out 1 cup of flour ten different times, you will likely get varying weight with each measure. This is because of the brand of flour used, the amount of humidity in the flour, whether or not the flour has been aerated, plus a number of other reasons.

Hokkaido Bread
Ingredients:

By weight:
540 grams bread flour
60 grams cake flour
10 grams instant yeast
30 grams milk powder
80 grams sugar
9 grams salt
1 large egg
250 grams milk
150 grams heavy cream


By volume:
3 ½ - 4 cups bread flour (this varies depending on several factors)
½ cup cake flour (this also varies)
2 teaspoons instant yeast (each packet of yeast is 2 ¼ teaspoons or 7 grams)
½ cup (depends on the powder you are using. I had a coarse powder.)
¾ cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup milk
½ cup heavy cream

I also added 12 drops blue and 8 drops red food coloring to get the purple color.

1. Heat milk and whipping cream until just under 100 degrees. Mix in egg.
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix all the dry ingredients then gradually add the wet ingredients by mixing with a flat beater at low speed or with a wooden spoon.
3. Change to a dough hook continues kneading for about 15 minutes at speed 2.

Just a slight tinge of purple. I was trying to get the color just right.

4. Shape into a boule. Cover and let rise until doubled.
5. Divide the dough into two and shape into boules. Let rest, covered about 15 minutes.
6. Shape into a rectangle about 6 x 12 inch. Spread with taro paste (recipe below). Roll the dough one section at a time and crease with each rotation. The roll will spread out as you roll and will end up about 8 to 9 inches long or a perfect fit for your loaf pan


7. Place the rolled dough in parchment lined loaf pan.

8. Let rise in a warm place until doubled.

9. Bake in a 350 degree oven for approximately 45 minutes
.
10. Take out the bread to cool down before slicing.

One of the loaves had some oozing.

Taro Paste

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups taro, cubed
1 cup water
½ cup sugar
10 drops blue food coloring
6 drops red food coloring

pinch salt
3 tablespoons corn starch
¼ cup water

Directions:
1. Steam the taro cubes until tender.

Remember raw taro is toxic. Taro contains calcium oxalate. The calcium oxalate is destroyed by cooking.

2. In a food processor or blender, blend the cooked taro and 1/2 water until it becomes a puree.

I started off with this strange contraption called a ricer. It required too much arm strength so I switched to the little blender.

Riced taro.

3. Mix the corn starch with water to make a slurry.
4. Combine slurry with taro puree, sugar, food coloring, and salt in a microwaveable bowl and microwave for about 4 minutes, stir after every minute. It will thicken more as it cools.

The color is not natural. I enhanced it with some food coloring.