Custard Tootifrooti Milk Bread

Don’t we all have some or the other childhood memories associated with this bread, I bet many of you have 🙂 I used to love this in my childhood days. This used to be the only way to have tootifrooti in those days. Though these days after I have started baking a lot, I always have a pack of tootifrooti in my pantry to bake Karachi biscuits or some tootifrooti cakes. Coming back to this bread, I have been wanting to bake this since long, but delayed it knowing no one at home would be ready to share it with me. But still went ahead and made one just for me and my blog readers 🙂 I have seen some recipes which uses custard powder in this bread. So I thought why not cook the custard in milk or water and then add it to the dry in like the Tangzhong method. Ideally, this would taste real yummy with 100% all purpose flour. But just to satisfy my inner conscience, I have replaced some part of all purpose flour with whole wheat flour.

Another thing I would like to stress upon is that if you are new to bread baking, please go through the bread basics and yeast facts posts. Also first try to bake a fully all purpose flour bread and then slowly replace part of apf with whole wheat flour slowly in batches. One more thing, I get lot of messages from my readers regarding the problems they face with their yeast. I would suggest them to get hold of good quality yeast like Gloripan or Angel or Prestige or Prime ( I have used these and hence can vouch for its quality ). Once the yeast is good, half the problem is solved. Also the amount of yeast to be used depends on the potency and quality of your yeast. I have observed that as my yeast grew older ( though I store it in airtight containers inside the freezer ), I needed to increase the quantity of yeast used in my breads. A small USP of my breads is that I use less quantity of yeast ( atleast that’s what my followers have been telling me 🙂 ) But you can really start with a little more quantity of yeast than what is mentioned in the recipe and slowly reduce it in your subsequent bakes. Ok.. now without further delay, let me pen down the recipe.

Ingredients:

• All purpose flour 160 gm
• Whole wheat flour 80 gm
• Salt to taste
• Sugar 2 tbsp
• Milk powder 2 tbsp
• Instant yeast 1/2 tsp
• Vanilla extract 1/2 tsp
• Custard powder 2 tbsp
• Tooti frooti 2-3 tbsp
• Milk ~ 200 ml
• Butter/olive oil 2 tbsp

Method:

• Add around 120-150 milk to the custard powder and mix well to form a lump free mixture.
• Cook this on low to medium heat while stirring constantly till it forms a gooey mass. ( Just like how we cook custard sauce ). You may choose to cook this with water too instead of milk.

• Allow this sauce to cool well. Add vanilla extract to this and mix.
• Now mix the flours, salt, sugar, instant yeast and milk powder in a big bowl.
• Add the cooled custard sauce and mix well.
• Now slowly add remaining milk little by little ( each flour absorbs liquid differently and this absorption depends on the weather conditions too ) and knead well by the stretch and fold method.
• Sprinkle oil or add butter while kneading till you get a soft, non sticky and elastic bouncy dough. Knead for around 10-12 minutes.
• Oil a big bowl and place the dough into the bowl. Cover the bowl with a moist towel or cling wrap it or use a shower cap for this and allow the dough to rise till it is double in volume.
• Meanwhile chop the tootifrooti into small pieces using a steel dough scrapper ( small pieces help in getting neater bread slices ).
• Grease a 7 by 3 inches bread tin and line with parchment paper if necessary.
• Once doubled, transfer the dough onto a clean kitchen platform and knock out the gases.
• Now knead again for a minute or two.
• Roll the dough into a rectangle and sprinkle the chopped tootifrooti pieces on the rolled dough.

• Roll it tightly into a log and place it in the prepared bread tin.

• Place the tin in a big plastic cover or place a big dome like lid on the tin and allow the bread to rise again till the dough doubles in volume again.
• Brush some oil or milk or water to prevent skin formation on top.
• When the dough is almost double, preheat the oven at 180-200 degree Celsius for atleast 10 minutes.
• Bake the bread for 30-35 minutes till the internal temperature of the bread is more than 90 degree Celsius or the bread sounds hollow when tapped.
• Incase you feel that the top is getting over browned after the first 15-20 minutes, cover the top with a sheet of parchment paper. ( Mine turned brown after 20 minutes, so please open your oven after 15-20 minutes and check the top ).
• Remove the bread from the oven and let it remain in the tin for 3-4 minutes.

• Now slowly transfer it into a wire rack and cool well.
• Brush the top of the bread with some butter and you may cover the bread with a soft moist towel while cooling, which will ensure softer crust.
• Slice the bread only after its fully cooled. Please please don’t be in a hurry and slice it before it cools fully. You need to wait for atleast 2-3 hours. Yes I know, it’s difficult especially if it’s your first bread, but believe me, the results would be worth the wait 🙂
• Relive your childhood and enjoy this yummy bread with a cup of milk or tea or coffee 🙂