Just Lauren

The original recipe is by Freya, a contestant on The Great British Bake Off. This recipe makes two loaves, so if you only want one, halve it. I like to make one loaf a regular loaf and one a cinnamon sugar loaf. You do need a food scale for this and remember that bread takes a long time.

 Ingredients

• For the tangzhong:
  • 40g white bread flour
  • 200ml water
• For the dough:
  • 580g white bread flour
  • 2 tbsp dry coconut milk powder
  • 10g fast-action dried yeast
  • 60g caster sugar
  • 12g salt
  • 260ml soy milk, at room temperature, plus extra for brushing
  • 50g vegan butter, melted
  • Optional: maple syrup
  • Optional cinnamon sugar mix:
    • 1 ½ TB sugar
    • ½ TB cinnamon

Directions

1. For the tangzhong, whisk the flour and water together in a saucepan set over a medium heat until the mixture has thickened to a curd-like consistency (about 10 minutes in high elevation). Remove from the heat and leave to cool. If you’re in low elevation, consider lowering the temperature.
2. Make the dough. Pour the flour, coconut milk powder, yeast, sugar, and salt into a bowl and whisk together. Add the soy milk, vegan butter and tangzhong, and stir with a spoon to combine.
3. Pour dough onto a surface (no flour necessary) and knead for 10 minutes, until you have a smooth and elastic dough.
4. Shape into a ball and place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover and leave it to rise for about 1 hour, until doubled in size. Note: You can warm the oven to 70-80 degrees and put the bowl in there. Lightly mist the cloth over the bowl to keep the dough moist. Put a wooden spoon in the oven to keep the door slightly ajar and put a glass of water in the oven for moisture.
5. Once risen, turn the dough onto a work surface and divide it up into 8 equal pieces (use your scale for this). Shape each piece into a ball, letting the dough sit under a slightly moist towel for a couple of minutes.
6. Form each ball into a rectangle, then fold in thirds and roll out. After rolling it out, roll it back together into a log shape and place in a lightly greased bread pan. Note: you can put parchment paper in the pan for easier lifting and checking. If you are going to make a cinnamon sugar loaf, sprinkle and press the cinnamon sugar mixture on the dough when you fold it into thirds AND when you roll it into a log.
7. Let the dough sit in a warm area for another 45 minutes. For the last 15 minutes, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (make sure the dough is not in the oven!).
8. Baste the dough with some soy milk. Note: for a slightly sweeter taste, add a splash of maple syrup to your soy milk and baste with that.
9. Bake the dough for 30 minutes, the bread is ready when it’s reached an internal temperature of 190 degrees.
10. When the bread is done, take it out of the oven and let it sit on the counter to cool a bit. After about 10-15 minutes, turn the bread out on a cooling rack and let it finish cooling there before serving.

Makes: 2 loaves.

Leftovers: Delicious! Eat within a week of making it or plan on freezing it.