Lye bread is usually savoury, so this version makes an odd but workable pairing: a lean dough with a little wholemeal in it, a sweet coconut paste inside, and a strong alkaline crust outside. Freezing the shaped sticks before dipping keeps them from collapsing in the bath.
Chinese · Bread
Coconut Lye Breadsticks With a Dark, Chewy Crust
A part-wholemeal dough rolled around sweet coconut paste, frozen, dipped in a lye bath and baked hot. The bath is what gives the crust its colour and its particular snap.
- Prep180 min
- Cook16 min
- Serves12
- LevelMedium
Ingredients
| 500 g | bread flour |
| 100 g | wholemeal flour |
| 290 g | milk |
| 100 g | egg |
| 8 g | instant yeast |
| 6 g | salt |
| 50 g | butter , softened |
| 60 g | milk powder |
| 600 g | coconut filling , sweetened shredded coconut paste |
| 20 g | food-grade lye |
| 500 g | water , for the bath |
Method
- Mix the flours, milk, egg, yeast and milk powder and knead at medium speed for 4 minutes.
- Add the butter and salt and keep kneading until the dough stretches thin enough to show light through it.
- Divide into 12 pieces of about 95 g each and rest them, covered, for 15 minutes.
- Roll each piece into a rectangle, spread a layer of coconut filling over it and roll up from the long side.
- Freeze the shaped sticks for 40 minutes. They need to be firm, not frozen solid.
- Stir the lye into the water in a glass or stainless bowl. Wear gloves and do not use aluminium.
- Dip each stick for 40 seconds, lift it out and set it on a lined tray.
- Slash three shallow diagonal cuts across the top with a sharp blade, then bake at 190C for 16 minutes in a fan oven.
Notes
- Lye is caustic. Gloves and a stainless or glass bowl, and keep it away from children.
- Slash after dipping, not before, or the cuts will close up in the bath.
Ratios and technique checked against 爱美食的拉拉 on Douguo (椰蓉碱水棒). The method here is written by Stellaok and the illustration is ours; no text or photograph from the source is reproduced.