Steamed Bakes

UBE MILK BREAD

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inside shot of a loaf of ube milk bread

Ube milk bread. It is a beautiful purple color and super soft. 

What is ube milk bread? Well, ube is a purple yam and milk bread is a deliciously soft and fluffy bread that, as the name suggests, is made from milk. Milk bread is delicious eaten on its own or you can use it to make delicious sandwiches as well. Or even better, you can make milk bread dough and use it as a base to make buns you would find at the Chinese bakery. The simplest version would be to stick a sausage in it and then viola! you have a sausage bun just like what you would find in a Chinese bakery.  

 Milk bread is super soft and stays that way because of what is called the tangzhong, or roux, as some might call it. 

Roux is the first step in making milk bread. You first make the roux then continue on to making the bread as normal.

The roux is made by combining together a small amount of water and flour and cooking it until it thickens into paste. You then have to let this roux cool down before using it to make the bread. 

The full recipe is posted down below and there is also a video you can watch. 

If you don’t want to make a plain o’ loaf of ube bread, you can make ube cream filled buns instead. To do this, simply shape  the bread dough into little buns and then bake them. Once they have cooled, you fill them with fresh whipped cream to get a delicious cream filled bun. 

I made an ube cream bun and then decorated to look like the Pokemon Gengar. 

ube cream bun decorated to look like Gengar

Gengar’s eyes are piped on with royal icing and the ears are royal icing transfers. You make royal icing transfers by piping out royal icing onto a piece of parchment paper and then letting it dry completely. It is ready to be used once it has dried. 

You can watch me assembling the Gengar cream bun in the video below. 

Print Recipe

Ingredients
  

tangzhong/roux

  • 25 grams flour
  • 125 mL water

Bread

  • 360 grams bread flour
  • 60 grams granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp yeast
  • roux (from above)
  • 1 large egg
  • 100 mL milk
  • 1.5 tsp ube extract
  • 30 grams butter, softened

Instructions
 

  • Make the roux by adding 25 grams flour and 125mL water to a pot and cooking it until it thickens into a paste. Remove it from the heat and let cool down before using. Make sure to cover it with plastic wrap touching the roux to prevent a crust from forming.
  • In a large bowl, add in flour, sugar, salt, and yeast. Give it a little mix
  • Add in the roux, milk, egg, and ube extract. Knead until a ball forms
  • Add in the butter and knead until you have a smooth dough
  • Let rest 40 minutes or until doubled in size
  • Lightly knead the dough on a floured surface and divide the dough into 3 equal sized balls
  • Let rest 15 minutes
  • Shape each piece of dough and then place into the loaf pan
  • Let rest 45 minutes or until doubled in size
  • Bake it at 350F/177C for 30 minutes

The ube extract I used can be found here