Pineapple Coconut Bread ('Ohana)

I love all of the food at 'Ohana, but one of my favourite things is the bread! When I saw this recipe I was a little cautious because I've never made bread before, but Rob encouraged me to try!

The Ingredients

Pineapple/Coconut Mixture
• 1 C. Crushed pineapple
• 1 C. Unsweetened coconut
• 1 C. Sugar
• 2 T. Cornstarch

Dough
• 1 3/4 C. Water
• 1 Egg Yolk
• 2 T. Shortening
• 4 1/2 C. High Gluten Flour (I substituted Bread Flour)
• 1/2 tsp. Salt
• 1/3 C Sugar
• 1 T. Instant Yeast

The Instructions

Pinapple/Coconut Mixture
1. Combine pineapple and coconut in bowl.
2. Combine sugar and cornstarch in separate bowl and mix well.
3. Add sugar and cornstarch mixture into pineapple and coconut mixture and mix well (with beaters?).
4. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Dough
1. Combine all ingredients in order of recipe in mixing bowl, and mix with dough hook until dough picks up on hook and the sides of the mixing bowl is clean. (Rob and I did this by hand... no bulky stand mixers for us!)
2. Let dough rise until it doubles in size.
3. Roll out dough onto a floured surface until it is 2 inches thick.
4. Next spread pineapple/coconut mixture over the top of the dough.
5. Fold dough into itself and place in a greased 9" x 13" cake pan.
6. Cut dough into pieces with a pizza cutter and spread out cut pieces evenly in cake pan.
7. Let dough rise in warm oven (110 degrees F) - about half way up the pan.
8. Bake at 325 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
9. Let bread cool, cut and serve.

The Review

The picture above looks really delicious (well, it tasted really delicious)... until you compare it to what the real 'Ohana bread looks like...

 

Photo of 'Ohana Bread from the Disney Food Blog

Where did I go wrong?  I mostly followed the instructions (I didn't follow the part with the stand mixer because I didn't have a stand mixer.  I did it the old fashioned way... by hand).

I'm going to start out blaming the flour.  I did substitute bread flour instead of high-gluten flour but from what I understand (from Google) that's not a big problem.  What likely was a problem was the age of the flour.  Let's just say I found it at my Dad's house, and I don't think he ever bakes (I know, flameful).

But even excluding the flour problem, the pineapple and coconut to bread ratio was still much higher in my bread when compared to the real stuff.  There were chunks of pineapple in my bread.  I'm starting to think that by "mix well" they meant with beaters or something that would smooth out the mixture... rather than this.

I'm also wondering if we didn't let our bread rise enough... we were kind of in a rush because we needed the oven for the pot roast.  Next time I'm going to be a little bit more careful about how I judge whether it has "doubled in size".

Despite my complaining, it really was delicious.  We were a loaf down before dinner even started, and we kept commenting that it would make great breakfast muffins.  I had some for breakfast the other day and I have to agree, it was a really good breakfast treat.

I'm going to have to try this again with better measuring tools (did I mention my Dad only had a 1/2 teaspoon, and a 2-cup and 4-cup Pyrex?), newer flour, and better mixed pineapple... I'll let you know how it turns out!  Until then, if you have any bread making tips, be sure to share them!