I’m writing this as I have some very delicious Hawaiian Bread (let’s be honest it’s a knock off of King’s Hawaiian Bread) rising and waiting to be baked. Like other delicious sweet bread recipes, you’ve probably noticed some call for eggs (they’re usually the ones with a high butter and/or sugar content)-the big question is:
HOW DO YOU USE POWDERED EGGS IN YEAST DOUGH RECIPES?
First, it’s good to know the WHY there are eggs in the dough recipe. Here is the short story: sweet breads usually call for a lot of butter and/or sugar-the problem is both of those can weaken your gluten strands. Why is gluten so important? Without it, there would be nothing to hold the gas that makes bread rise. Think of gluten as the rubber of a balloon: The stronger it is, the more gas it can hold. Adding eggs to a sweet bread can help strengthen those gluten strands.
Second, if you’ve tried using powdered eggs in the traditional sense in these breads (1 T. dry egg powder + 2 T. water = 1 egg) you’ve probably noticed that the dough is definitely NOT the right consistency. It’s far too sticky which leads to putting in more flour which can ruin the flavor and consistency of the dough. After all if you think about it an extra 1/4 c. water can be A LOT of extra water when you’re talking doughs. So after A LOT of failed attempts and trying different ways of using the eggs (aren’t you glad I do this for you, so you can easily be successful the first time you try this?!) I have come up with THE SOLUTION!
THE SOLUTION:
Use the egg powder as we’ve talked before: 1 T. dry egg powder = 1 egg and LEAVE OUT the water. It’s always easy to add in a little (and I mean a little) water if your dough is truly too dry-however, I’ve never made a sweet bread recipe where I’ve had to add in water.
Now, I’m sure you want that delicious recipe for Hawaiian Bread, right?
Hawaiian Bread
7 cups all-purpose flour (you can use about 1 C. of whole wheat flour with out altering the taste)
3/4 cup instant mashed potato flakes
2/3 cup sugar
2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast (4 1/2 t. dry active yeast-if you buy in bulk)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup milk (3 T. dry non-instant milk powder + 1 c. water)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup pineapple juice (which just happens to be the pineapple juice in a tidbit can-a great way to use your leftovers!)
3 eggs (3 T. dry egg powder and NO WATER)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Directions:
- In a large mixing bowl, combine 3 cups flour, potato flakes, sugar, yeast, salt and ginger.
- In a small saucepan, heat the milk, water, butter and pineapple juice to 120 degrees F-130 degrees F. (If you’re using powdered milk and powdered eggs add the dry milk and egg powder to your dry ingredients and the 1 c. water for the milk to the wet ingredients)
- Add to dry ingredients; beat just until moistened.
- Add eggs; beat until smooth.
- Beat in vanilla.
- Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.
- Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes.
- Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top.
- Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1-1/4 hours.
- Punch dough down.
- Turn onto a lightly floured surface; divide into thirds.
- Shape each into a ball.
- Place in three greased 9-in. round baking pans. Or shape into rolls I was able to get 20 rolls (each weighed about 3 oz. if you want to get precise)
- Cover and let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes.
- Bake loaves at 375 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Or Bake rolls at 375 for 18 minutes.
- Cover loosely with foil if top browns too quickly.
- Remove from pans to wire racks to cool. and cover with plastic wrap to create just the right crust texture as the real stuff!
So now, that I’ve had a chance to eat these rolls. They are DIVINE! If only I had more stomachs to enjoy more! This WILL be your new favorite recipe, I can promise you that!
can you suggest an alternative to Potato flakes as they are not available here? And if you do, would this also be suitable as a replacement in your other bread recipes?
I’ve never heard of a grocery store not carrying potato flakes. They are
pretty run of the mill when it comes to instant mashed potatoes. Are you
sure your local grocery store doesn’t carry them?
Im in Australia and have searched for potato flakes but dont have them. But we do have packs of instant mashed potato, but its like a flour before you re-constitute it. Would this work?
It may-another trick you may want to use is saving the water you used to
cook fresh potatoes with and using that for the water in your recipe.
Basically, you just want a little more starch in the recipe to help the
gluten strands.
This is a great tip! And yes, thanks for all the experimenting.
How do you measure the powdered eggs? Should the dried eggs be fluffed up a bit in the can before dipping in a tablespoon to measure? Should the egg powder be tamped down into the measuring cup? Or does it not matter at all…
Thanks!
I just scoop and dump. It doesn’t need to be pressed down-just sort of like
flour.
I just wanted to say I love your blog. And I love hawaiian bread. You’re awesome!
Crystal,
You’ve done it again! Thanks for doing the experimenting so that I don’t have to. I use my dehydrated eggs as much as I can and I can’t wait to try this recipe.
Laura
Crystal, I have seen powdered honey in a number 10 can. I would like to suggest that you try that in your “Let Me Try That” series. My main question is, can I store powdered honey instead of regular honey? Thanks!
I will…but you may not like what I have to say about it! 😉
Hee, hee, Crystal! I’m open to your honest opinion. I’d rather know and save myself money than buy a product that does not work as I’m expecting.
Yummy! I’m excited to try this. I have dry eggs, potato flakes, vital wheat gluten, etc. on the way from Honeyville and I am so excited to get cooking. Thanks for all the inspiration.
Is egg powder the same thing as egg replacer? I bought some egg replacer from Whole Foods and then, after using it a time or two, I checked the ingredients and it doesn’t say anything about egg. Did I just buy what someone would use if they were allergic to eggs? Where can I buy what you use?
Yes-you did! You can purchase it online at http://www.honeyvillegrain.com
Egg replacer is not an egg product. You can use it to replace eggs in BAKING but not much else. It won’t make things like scrambled eggs. It also has little or no fat so that may affect the texture of baked goods containing it.
Is egg powder the same thing as egg replacer? I bought some egg replacer from Whole Foods and then, after using it a time or two, I checked the ingredients and it doesn’t say anything about egg. Did I just buy what someone would use if they were allergic to eggs? Where can I buy what you use?
Crystal, Do you think this would work in the bread machine? I mean the mixing/rising part in the machine & then shape & bake in the oven? It sounds delicious!
I made these for dinner yesterday and they turned out great! I needed about six cups of flour after following your suggestion to not add additional water to reconstitute the dehydrated eggs. Because I had church I made the dough in the morning and put in a cool place to rise slowly, then shaped the rolls after church and let them rise for about an hour and a half (the cool dough takes longer to warm up and rise). They were a big hit. Thanks!
Hi,
I am loving your blog seeing how I just realized that I really need to rotate some of the food storage I bought a few years ago. I am just wondering about TVP. I bought some thinking it would be good in my food storage but I have no idea how it tastes or really what to do with it. Can you help?
Yes,I’ll be doing some posts on it soon!
 Do they freeze well? Has anyone tried?