Took me 4 makes an attempt to get this finished! The primary one was catastrophe (underbaked, too many elements, cloying candy, and too wealthy), the second I scraped the levain away (I went overboard with extraordinarily low hydration and very excessive osmotic stress starter, turned too proteolytic and had so little leavening energy), the third one was portioning difficulty, and right here is the fourth one!

So this bake is a celebration of Indo-Malay-Singaporean trinity: pandan, coconut, and palm sugar. Virtually all Indonesian tea muffins and sweets these haven’t any Dutch affect at all times revolve round these three. They arrive in several shapes, completely different sizes, completely different colours, completely different cooking strategies, completely different vesels, however at all times about these three.

These ones are mainly coconut babka buns, I braided them, roll them, and proved them in 8 cm spherical pans. I took inspiration from Indonesian tea cake, kue putu. Kue putu is pandan, coconut, and palm sugar flavored steamed cake. Often it began out as crumbly rice flour based mostly dough, tightly packed in tiny bamboo cylinders together with slices of palm sugar, then steamed on particular steamer, which normally is metallic barrel, with tiny holes poked on high of the barrel. Crammed bamboo cylinders are placed on high of the holes. The steam that comes out of the holes creates distinctively high-pitched, flute-like sound. You will know kue putu cart is across the neighborhood if you happen to hear the sound.

Illustration, kue putu

Ilustration, kue putu steamer

The unique thought was to make coconut dough; crammed with selfmade dessicated coconut together with palm sugar, cinnamon, star anises, and cloves; crusted with macaroon crust on the backside utilizing leftover dessicated coconut and tapioca; encrusted with candied bamboo shoot slices round it; glazed with selfmade coconut jam; and topped with piped kaya cream.

First failed batch

I requested AI assistant what makes a babka dough, she stated 35% whole fats and 20% sugar minimal will do. It was too wealthy and cloying candy, possibly due to mature coconut flesh is already fairly fatty, and candy potatoes are candy on their very own. I needed to tone down to twenty% whole fats and 10% sugar to make them palatable. 

The dough is 75% hydration dough, 20% PFF. I used powdered coconut milk and additional virgin coconut oil for further coconutty taste. I used candy potato puree to fight dough being too extensible which at all times occur every time I make enriched sourdough. I needed to cut back different sources of water (eggs and pandan water-sediment) to make room for liquid fats and to make the dough braid-able.
 

The filling is dessicated coconut made with freshly and finely shredded mature coconut, palm sugar, molasses, entire cassia sticks, star anise pods, and cloves. Cooked stovetop to infuse taste, then oven-dried till crispy. I meant to place 40% of it within the buns (baker’s proportion), however did my math mistaken. So I ended up with 20% as an alternative.
 

I scraped the concept of utilizing selfmade coconut jam glaze. I do not know whether or not it is my pectin, however the jam was slimy and opaque, for the dearth of higher time period, jogged my memory of male bodily fluid (lol). So I switched to kaya thick syrup glaze, made out of coconut milk and palm sugar, infused with recent pandan leaves. It is based mostly on kaya unfold; an Indo-Malay-Singaporean unfold product of coconut milk, palm sugar, eggs, and entire pandan leaves cooked on bain marie, meant to be slathered on toasts. It has lot much less significance in Indonesia in comparison with Malaysia and Singapore, nonetheless it at all times has presence in native groceries’ jams and spreads aisles.

Illustration, kaya unfold

I initially used a splash of rum as a result of in my expertise, rum works rather well with coconut. I had second thought, and determined to make all of it concerning the trinity as an alternative.
 

Oh, Cariah Marey settled on new ratio. I cease utilizing skim milk powder and opted for pure lactose as an alternative. She is at present 4:2:1:1 fine-bran:water:lactose:butter.
 

I put the dough method down right here for two days, in any other case it is deleted.

(correction: powdered coconut milk: 12%. whole flour additionally consists of estimated dry weight of potato puree. Water: roughly 75%)

Verdict

The buns have unmistakeably coconut taste. It tastes so new but so acquainted. Because of the oil and the potato puree, it is tender in texture. However I’ve to say, my favourite half is the kaya glaze! Style like butterscotch sauce! I can think about the syrup being drizzled on grilled bananas.
 

Subsequent, I’ll make posts about main overhaul on my roti gambang, attention-grabbing tackle cinnamon rolls involving fermentation that isn’t bread associated in any respect, and updates on my two starters involving 2 sorts of sugar these usually are not sucrose or desk sugar 🙂

Jay