Taro Loaf

What can I say, when I meant "tonight" what I really meant was "in two days". In my defense my two children were crazy sick. Anyway, cutting to the chase. A friend of mine, Raelyn, made this AMAZING BREAD for an activity I attended and she graciously gave me that recipe. It was pretty rad, I must say. Our kids downed a loaf while it was still warm. I added a little more sugar than her recipe called for as well as some of the secret ingredients; taro and Okinawan sweet potato. So here's to some purple sweet bread my friends.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 TBSP yeast 

2 C water

2/3 C sugar 

(I mentioned it was sweet right?) 

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/4 C oil 

(using olive oil helps the dough stick together better during the baking process)

2 Okinawan sweet potatoes

2 small taro root

6-6 1/2  C flour 

You'll want to peel and then steam the potato and taro. Cutting them up nice and small will help them steam quicker. You could also boil it if you like. 

After they're moist then place them in a blender (or food processor), adding a little water, then blend. 

It should look like this. The more purple you want the bread, the more Okinawan sweet potato; also known as purple yam. This you should be able to find at your local Asian Market on the mainland. Here in the metro Phoenix area you can find them at LeeLee or MeKong. I made about 1 1/2 - 2 cups worth of paste. It shouldn't be liquid. Notice its consistency. 

Using the 2 C water, add half of the sugar and your yeast and let it rise for 5-15 minutes. 

Once it's risen, dump it into a larger mixing bowl and add in the remaining ingredients; leaving out the flour. Be sure to incorporate the taro/potato mixture before the flour. I mixed this batch by hand because my mixer broke. Nice. 

Mix in the flour one cup at a time. You'll want the dough to be a little sticky. After kneading it for about 10 minutes, place it in a greased bowl, cover it in a damp towel, and let it rise for an hour or into doubled in size. 

Once doubled, punch the dough down and separate into two parts. Using your hands, press one of the parts down into the counter. Using your fingers try your best to spread it into a rectangle about the length of your bread pan.  

Roll the dough like a hand towel. Punch the edges to seal the roll. Place in a greased bread pan. Cover and let rise for another 30-50 minutes. 

Set oven to 350° and bake for 25 minutes. 

As soon as you pull it out of the oven brush the top with a little olive oil (or butter if you're part of Butter Gang).