Enriched true-sourdough trial #2: 'Kue putu' babka (coconut 3 ways, kaya glaze, homemade dessicated coconut)

Took me 4 attempts to get this done! The first one was disaster (underbaked, too many components, cloying sweet, and too rich), the second one I scraped the levain away (I went overboard with extremely low hydration and extremely high osmotic pressure starter, became too proteolytic and had so little leavening power), the third one was portioning issue, and here is the fourth one!

So this bake is a celebration of Indo-Malay-Singaporean trinity: pandan, coconut, and palm sugar. Practically all Indonesian tea cakes and sweets those have no Dutch influence always revolve around these three. They come in different shapes, different sizes, different colors, different cooking methods, different vesels, but always about these three.

These ones are basically coconut babka buns, I braided them, rolled them, and proved them in 8 cm round pans. I took inspiration from Indonesian tea cake, kue putu. Kue putu is pandan, coconut, and palm sugar flavored steamed cake. Usually it started out as crumbly rice flour based dough, tightly packed in tiny bamboo cylinders along with slices of palm sugar, then steamed on specific steamer, which usually is metal barrel, with tiny holes poked on top of the barrel. Filled bamboo cylinders are put on top of the holes. The steam that comes out of the holes creates distinctively high-pitched, flute-like sound. You'll know kue putu cart is around the neighborhood if you hear the sound.

Illustration, kue putu

Ilustration, kue putu steamer

The original idea was to make coconut dough; filled with homemade dessicated coconut along with palm sugar, cinnamon, star anises, and cloves; crusted with macaroon crust at the bottom using leftover dessicated coconut and tapioca; encrusted with candied bamboo shoot slices around it; glazed with homemade coconut jam; and topped with piped kaya cream.

First failed batch

I asked AI assistant what makes a babka dough, she said 35% total fat and 20% sugar minimum will do. It was too rich and cloying sweet, maybe because of mature coconut flesh is already quite fatty, and sweet potatoes are sweet on their own. I had to tone down to 20% total fat and 10% sugar to make them palatable. 

The dough is 75% hydration dough, 20% PFF. I used powdered coconut milk and extra virgin coconut oil for extra coconutty flavor. I used sweet potato puree to combat dough being too extensible which always happen whenever I make enriched sourdough. I had to reduce other sources of water (eggs and pandan water-sediment) to make room for liquid fat and to make the dough braid-able.
 

The filling is dessicated coconut made with freshly and finely shredded mature coconut, palm sugar, molasses, whole cassia sticks, star anise pods, and cloves. Cooked stovetop to infuse flavor, then oven-dried until crispy. I intended to put 40% of it in the buns (baker's percentage), but did my math wrong. So I ended up with 20% instead.
 

I scraped the idea of using homemade coconut jam glaze. I don't know whether it's my pectin, but the jam was slimy and opaque, for the lack of better term, reminded me of male bodily fluid (lol). So I switched to kaya thick syrup glaze, made out of coconut milk and palm sugar, infused with fresh pandan leaves. It's based on kaya spread; an Indo-Malay-Singaporean spread made of coconut milk, palm sugar, eggs, and whole pandan leaves cooked on bain marie, meant to be slathered on toasts. It has lot less significance in Indonesia compared to Malaysia and Singapore, nevertheless it always has presence in local groceries' jams and spreads aisles.

Illustration, kaya spread

I originally used a splash of rum because in my experience, rum works really well with coconut. I had second thought, and decided to make it all about the trinity instead.
 

Oh, Cariah Marey settled on new ratio. I stop using skim milk powder and opted for pure lactose instead. She is currently 4:2:1:1 fine-bran:water:lactose:butter.
 

I put the dough formula down here for 2 days, otherwise it's deleted.

Verdict

The buns have unmistakeable coconut flavor. It tastes so new yet so familiar. Thanks to the oil and the potato puree, it's tender in texture. But I have to say, my favorite part is the kaya glaze! Taste like butterscotch sauce! I can imagine the syrup being drizzled on grilled bananas.
 

Next, I will make posts about major overhaul on my roti gambang, interesting take on cinnamon rolls involving fermentation that is not bread related at all, and updates on my two starters involving 2 varieties of sugar those are not sucrose or table sugar :)

Jay