Ally’s Healthier Version: Japanese Sweet Potato Bread

Hey people! It’s official… And, NO, I am NOT pregnant (I get this all the time, whenever I say I have something to announce or say…). As I was saying, from now it’s just me, the Mr., and my 2 monkeys from now on. 

My helper of 2 years decided not to board the plane after her 30 days home leave. The past few month had been quite a chaotic one for me. Well, Mr. Cool as Cucumber was chilled throughout, and said that everything happens for the better. Amen! 

So far, so good. It has been 2.5 months since she left and I can, proudly, proclaim that we did quite well. Some days, I open the main door and the house would look like as though a storm went through the hall. Toys, towels, toys and stuffs all over the floor. I swear the first time that happened; I was really “annoyed”. I let it get to me… oh well, there is no looking back. I will get to the reason I said we did quite well soon.

We decided not to get another helper. Do you all know how much it costs now to hire a new helper? The Agent fees alone are about RM17,000. I-am-NOT-freaking-joking! All things aside, I am grateful that my kids are no longer babies and with some re-arranging of our schedule, I am sure we can work this out. 

It is not perfect, and I don’t (never felt it was anyway) have it all together. Some days, the kids have milk and crackers for breakfast and lunch and almost dinner and the Mr. has lunch at 5.30p.m. I have a mountain of unfolded laundry on most of the days. But, I am so blessed that my better half, is such a hands-on dad. I THANK GOD and all the fairies of the universe that Iand my kids have him in our lives. 

He:

1. washes the dishes, 

2. does the laundry which includes : pre-treating before putting them into the washing machine, hanging the clothes and keeping the clothes after drying, 

3. washes all the water bottles and fills them for the next day,

4. washes the milk bottles and makes milk,

5. makes breakfast for me every day : a protein shake and perfectly done hard boiled eggs, 

6. Babysits the lil’ miss in the morning and takes the graveyard shift when the kids suddenly decide to have crackers, again, at 1.00 a.m. 

Yeah, I am so, very thankful for his support. I am wondering what do I do then? LOL! But hey, I think we did well, huh? :D Right? Right?

While it has been exhausting, it was fulfilling. A plus point about having the whole house to yourselves is being carefree about what you wear or not. Not needing to consider another person’s mood or preferences before you do anything. I think we can definitely get used to this!

Saturday is the day that I cook lunch. I try to at least make something home-cooked for my 3 precious and myself weekly. In desperate times, we push ourselves to maximise our resources. The real reason is so that I can finish all the stuffs that I still have in the fridge. 

I had some leftover steamed sweet potatoes was from a few weeks back. Since I didn’t have any whipping cream or milk, I made do with substitutes. I have not made bread with buttermilk, and wasn’t sure if the tangy taste would affect the yeast and final taste or not.

The next morning, I woke up to a sides-shrunken bread because I fell asleep and totally forgot to set the alarm to wake up and remove the bread from the oven after it was done. People, do remove the bread from the oven and bread pan or the condensation that will take place, will create a difference in pressure where where the bread will pull in at the sides. This creates a weird shaped bread. It will not be a square. I may “sound”smart or scientific, but I am not sure how the exact machanism work, JUST never leave your bread in the oven ok??? 

But, let me share with you all that the bread tasted wonderful. It had a interesting combo of caramelised and browned crust and very soft, compacted center. It only looks squeezed, but the texture is very soft. So, my gamble paid off. “SMILING WIDELY” 

This means, this bread is a healthier (lower fat) version of the Purple sweet potato bread. Amazing!

Try it please. It’s been a long post, so here is the ingredients:

400g ~ Bread flour

70g ~ Brown sugar 

1 teaspoon ~ Salt

1.25 teaspoons ~ Yeast

2 ~ Eggs

40g ~ Water (Instead of Milk)

100g ~ Buttermilk (Instead of whipping cream)

210g ~ Steamed Japanese Sweet potato (Mashed)

60g ~ Butter

For the steps, you can refer to here or just dump everything into your breadmaker, set it to the preferred basic bread program and let it do it’s magic. 

P/s: Just in case you are wondering... There is NO Picture of the sweet potato bread. Too rushed to even take one. But try it and you'll know how it looks like. LOL!