Rich and creamy kaya jam and butter are sandwiched in between pillowy soft and fluffy steamed bread is a great twist to the traditional Kopitiam-style kaya toast. The steamed bread recipe is eggless.
Cut the pandan leaves into little pieces and then blend with 180 ml of milk. Squeeze out the juice and measure to get 180 ml. You can top it up with more milk while making the dough later. I added pandan essence too for a more vibrant and stronger flavor. It's optional
Make sure your steamer can fit in the loaf pan:
We need to wrap the lid of the steamer with a cloth. So we want to make sure there is enough room for the steamed bread to rise up during steaming and not touching the cloth causing it to deflate/flatten or "ruin" the surface of the bread. Refer to the photo above
Prepare the loaf pan:
I use 8 x 5 loaf pan. Spray with a cooking spray or brush with cooking oil and then line with parchment paper on the bottom and the sides
Activate the yeast:
Mix the yeast with warm milk and 1 tsp of sugar. Let it stands for 10 minutes. The mixture will be foamy and bubbly. If it doesn't, the yeast is no longer good and do not proceed with the recipe until you get a new yeast
Prepare the dough:
Whisk both flours, sugar, and salt in a mixing bowl. Pour in the yeast mixture and oil. Use a dough attachment and knead the dough over low speed (speed 2 on Kitchen Aid). Gradually add the milk until the dough comes together. Continue to knead for 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth and stretchy. The dough should not tear easily when you pull on them. It is important to knead it to this stage
Cover and rest the dough for 15 minutes. This is not to proof the dough yet. We just want to relax the gluten so we can roll it out easily
Roll and shape:
Put the dough on a working surface. You can lightly sprinkle your work surface with a bit of flour. Roll the dough out to be about the same length as the loaf pan (refer to the photo above). Then roll it up like a Swiss roll and put it inside the prepared loaf pan. Cover with a damp cloth or cling wrap
Proof the dough:
Place the dough at a warm place. I use my oven breadproof function for this. It takes about 1 hour or longer (depending on the temperature where you are) for the dough to double in size
Steaming:
Place the pan inside the steamer. The water in the steamer is still cold at this point. Cover with a lid (that has been wrapped with a cloth to prevent condensation drips on the surface of the bread). Turn on the stove to medium heat (not high heat). Start counting the steaming time when the water has come to a gentle boil. Steam for 40 minutes over this steady medium heat
After 40 minutes, turn off the heat but DO NOT open the lid yet. Wait for 5 minutes and then gently uncover the lid. Remove the bread from the steamer and lift the parchment paper up to remove bread from the pan. Let the bread cools down on a cooling rack so the bottom won't be wet and soggy
To make kaya butter steamed bread:
Cut the bread into thick slices and cut each slice into 2 or 4 smaller pieces (just a suggestion if you want to look more like Ya Kun kaya steamed bread. You can cut it however you want it). You can warm up the bread slices in a microwave or a steamer so they can slowly "melt" the cold butter later
Spread with some kaya jam and put a slice of cold butter on top of one slice of bread and then cover with another slice of bread. Serve with kopitiam-style half-boiled eggs and some coffee or tea. Life is perfect like that ;)