I stumbled upon this blog for searching for pandan (screwpine) bread recipe since I had some pandan juice extract in the fridge. I was reserving it for another pandan chiffon but then again, I felt like punching some bread dough that night, after days of stress at work!

I usually buy the pandan leaves from the wet market, and a big bunch only costs about THB10. It’s very cheap! I’ll wash and cut off the end and tip of the screwpine leaves before using them.

Prepare the leaves and a blender or a food processor

Cut the leaves into smaller pieces. Add about 50 – 80ml of water, depending on the amount of leaves being blended at a time.

Blend the leaves

Strain and refrigerate the pandanus juice or use it immediately

I prefer to refrigerate the juices for 2 – 3 days before using it. By then, there will be a thicker layer of green extract left at the bottom of the juice, and it’s great for pandan chiffon.

Here’s the recipe for custard pandan buns:

Overnight dough:
150g bread flour
150ml pandan juice
8g instant yeast

Mix the three ingredients well and leave it in room temperature for an hour. Then, seal and refrigerate the mixture for at least 16 hours.

Here’s how the overnight dough looks like.

On the next night, I proceeded the preparing the bread.

Ingredients:
350g bread flour
100g castor sugar
5g salt
2 tsp of instant yeasts
1 egg
75ml pandan juice
The whole portion of overnight dough
75g unsalted butter

Method:

I added all the wet ingredients (including overnight dough) in the bread maker, and followed by dry ingredients. Set the bread maker to knead the dough until well mixed. Then add in butter and knead until a smooth dough is formed. Let then dough proof for about 40 minutes (first proofing)

After the first proofing, bring out the dough and place it on a baking map. Deflate the dough and cut it into equal 9 portions for the buns and a bigger portion for a loaf (it’s optional).

Shape the dough into balls and place them in a baking pan. Let the dough proof for another 40 minutes until they have doubled in size.

Mean while, split the leftover dough into 2 portion and shape them as balls. Let them proof for 15 minutes before shaping them into loaves and let them proof for another 40 minutes.

While waiting for the dough to complete the proofing process, I prepared pandan custard.

Ingredients:
1 egg
20g castor sugar
130ml milk
15ml pandan juice
10g cake flour
5g unsalted butter

Whisk egg and sugar until well mixed.

Add cake flour into milk and mix well.

Mix milk and pandan juice into egg mixtures until well incorporated.

Cook the mixture in low heat and keep stirring until it thickens. Let the mixture cool down and keep it refrigerated until used.

When the dough is well proof, spread some egg  wash on the buns.

Fill the custard into piping bag and pipe it between the buns and form a cross on each of them.

Bake the buns at 180C for 20 minutes. For the loaf, cover the tin and bake it at 180C for 30 minutes.

The buns were yummylicious and I couldn’t helped myself for not having some as supper.

By the next morning, we only had these buns left.

From the loaf, you can see how fluffy soft the bread is.

I guess I will bake more with overnight dough, as well as tangzhong method.