The first time I saw the Leopard Patches/ Print Bread Loaf was on FB, the creator is a French Baker (Patricia Nascimento). I was just moved to Sydney, I didn't get to try baking one at that point of time. Then many bakers follow suit to bake this beautiful bread too.
I think I'm a bit late in baking this bread but late is better than never, right?
I modified a bit on the original recipe as I always use water roux in my bread to get the soft light bread texture, I reduced the milk to 120g. I saw some reviews on this bread talking about the plain taste of it, so I added coffee emulco in the dark bread dough (which I used bamboo powder) hoping it can bring some special taste to this bread. The 5ml of coffee emulco added seems too little, it only create a coffee fragrance while baking. However you can hardly taste its existence. I run out of cocoa powder in my kitchen, I substituted the cocoa powder with Milo powder and added a drop of chocolate brown food colouring.
Dividing the bread dough no need to be precise but make sure you divide each portion of dough into 2 big dough and 5 small dough.
The steps may look very long, but don't be intimidated by it. Hope this bread can bring some excitements to your kitchen too!
Ingredients:
water Roux:
25g bread flour
125ml water
White dough: approx 310g (2 big dough 55g each + 5 small dough 40g each)
375g bread flour
35g sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp instant dry yeast
120g-150g cold milk, gradually add
20g soft unsalted butter
Brown dough: approx 201g (2 big dough 38g each + 5 small dough 25g each)
15g Milo powder
10g fresh milk
1 drop of chocolate brown food colouring
Dark dough: approx 108g (2 big dough 19g each + 5 small dough 14g each)
6g bamboo charcoal powder
5g coffee emulco
Method:
Prepare water roux: In a small pot, add all water roux ingredients cook and stir the mixture until thicken, remove from fire and set aside for later use.
Prepare bread dough:
In the KitchenAid mixing bowl, add bread flour, instant dry yeast, salt, sugar, and water roux. Using low speed (speed 1), mix for a min, gradually add milk. Switch the speed to 2, mix the ingredients until it comes together to form a rough dough. Add the butter pieces, let the Kitchen Aid knead the dough at speed 4 until the dough form elastic window pane. (Important to get the elastic window pane)
Divide the bread dough into 310g (original dough), 201g and 108g
Place the 310g original dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover and let it proof until the dough double its size.
In a small bowl, stir the 10g fresh milk with 15g Milo powder. Make sure you get a smooth paste. Take the 201g bread dough, add in the Milo paste and knead the dough well. The dough will be sticky to hands in the beginning but after some kneading the dough should no longer sticky to hands. Add a drop of brown food colouring. Knead the dough well. Place the brown Milo dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover and let it proof until the dough double its size.
In another small bowl, stir the bamboo charcoal powder with the coffee emulco until you get a smooth paste. Take the 108g bread dough, add in the bamboo charcoal coffee paste and knead the dough well. The dough will be sticky to hands in the beginning but after some kneading, the dark bread dough will no longer sticky to hands. Place the dark dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover and let it proof until the dough double its size.
Punch down the air in the white dough and divide it into 2 big and 5 small portions accordingly. Do the same for the brown Milo dough and dark bamboo charcoal dough.
Make the Leopard bread:
Take one brown Milo dough, flatten the dough into oval shape, roll it up, seal the edge and roll the dough into the same length as the baking pan. Repeat the same for all the remaining Milo dough.
Take one dark bamboo charcoal dough, flatten the dough into oval shape, place a Milo dough in the middle and wrap up the dark bamboo charcoal dough. The dark bamboo charcoal dough should only cover partial of the the Milo dough. (as in photo) Repeat this step for all remaining dark bamboo charcoal dough.
Take one original white dough, flatten the dough into oval shape, place a Milo bamboo charcoal dough in the middle and wrap up the white dough. This time the white dough has to cover the whole Milo bamboo charcoal dough. Repeat this step for all remaining white dough.
Roll the bread dough until double the length of your baking pan. Cut the dough into half. Place and stack all the dough into baking pan, cover and let it proof until 90% the height of your baking pan.
Bake in preheat oven at 210C for 30 mins. (The time and oven temperature varies depends on your oven capacity)
Slice the bread only after the loaf is completely cool down.
Slice the bread only after the loaf is completely cool down.