Ube Ensaymada (Easy Recipe, Tips and More)

You already love cheese ensaymada, why change things and add ube? 

Well, apart from ube (or Filipino purple yam) making everything so much better (warning: biased opinion lol), this recipe is:

• Just as easy and straightforward to make. You only need to add the extra step of filling the dough with ube jam. That’s it!

• Packed with real ube halaya. This recipe doesn’t depend on ube extract for ube flavour. In fact, we don’t use it at all. We use the real deal — good old fashioned ube jam for the best, most authentic ube taste.

• Delicious. Ube cheese is one of my favourite flavour combinations and it really shines here. 

Ingredients

Most of what you’ll need are pantry staples like all-purpose flour, granulated sugar and salt. Key things to note about some of the other ingredients:

• Active dry yeast — I always use active dry yeast (vs. instant yeast) when baking bread because I’m always required to proof it. This way, I can ensure the yeast is still active before adding it to my dough.

• Milk — I use 1% or 2% skim milk.

• Oil — I always use canola oil because that’s what’s always available at home. Vegetable oil or any flavourless oil will also work.

• Ube jam — when baking with ube jam, it’s important to use one that you enjoy eating on its own. I always buy Good Shepherd ube jam if I can, but I’ve since learned how to make my own ube halaya and that’s what I use when Good Shepherd is not available.

• Cheese — I always use sharp cheddar cheese.

Baking tools

I always knead my bread dough by hand but you can always use the hook attachment of your stand mixer. Just be careful not to over mix.

Other things that make bread making so much easier for me include:

• Silicone pastry mat — for easy kneading and even easier cleanup.
• French rolling pin — I find it easier to use than a regular rolling pin.
• Bench scraper — to divide my dough.
• Kitchen scale — to ensure I have evenly sized bread.

Proof yeast 

In a measuring cup or small bowl, stir warm water, active dry yeast and sugar until dissolved. Let this mixture stand until bubbly (around 10 minutes).

Milk mixture

In a small saucepan on medium heat, warm milk until you see bubbles forming on the edges. Remove from heat and stir in sugar, salt and butter until the butter has completely dissolved.

Prepare dough

Combine yeast mixture, milk mixture, eggs and 1 ½ cups flour. Stir until combined. Proceed to add the rest of the flour ½ cup at a time combining well after each addition.

Once the dough starts pulling and sticking together in a ball and becomes harder to stir, transfer it to a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic. Having doubts? Knead some more (see tips below).

Oil a large mixing bowl with canola oil. Place your dough into the bowl and turn to ensure the whole dough is coated. Cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm dry place until it doubles in size (about 1 hour).

Fill, roll and bake

When ready, transfer to a lightly floured surface and roll out slightly. Divide into 12 pieces, flatten into a 4×6 inch rectangle and spread 2-3 tablespoons of ube jam. Be careful not to overfill and be sure to leave un-filled space around the edges.

Roll the dough tightly up and pinch the edges to seal. Roll each one unto itself (like a spiral) and place into moulds (see tips). Place moulds on a baking sheet.

Brush the tops of the ube ensaymada with melted butter, cover and allow to rise a second time (about 30 minutes).

Preheat oven to 375F and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool then remove. Brush with more butter and sprinkle with grated cheese or shredded cheese. Optional: pipe some ube jam on top (I prefer to keep it a surprise). 

Sticky dough

If your dough is sticky in the bowl as you’re stirring it, add flour a little a time until it sticks together in a ball. Not too much though, or you’ll end up with very dense bread.

If it’s sticky while you’re kneading it, avoid the temptation to add even more flour. Instead, try kneading with slightly damp hands.

Proofing yeast

Remember that yeast is a living thing and proofing is simply ensuring that your yeast is alive and active. 

In this recipe, we use active dry yeast, which needs to be proofed. Note that rapid-rise yeast, instant yeast, or bread machine yeast don’t need to be, else they will lose their fast-rising ability.

Step 1: Mix yeast and warm water. The temperature of the water is important. It should feel warm but not hot. If you measure the temperature with a thermometer, it should be about 110F. Hotter than that and you’ll end up killing the yeast.

Step 2: Add sugar and stir. The yeast loves sugar and will gobble it up. If you watch the bowl or cup, you will actually see movement and this is the point when you will start to see bubbles and foam from the carbon dioxide that is forming. 

Proofing usually takes about 10 minutes. If your mixture has no bubbles after this time, your yeast is old or stale or dead. You’ll need to start with fresh yeast. 

And unfortunately, there’s no way to revive old yeast.

Making the dough rise

A lot of recipes say to allow the dough to rise until “double in size”.

Depending on the recipe, this can range from 30 minutes to 2 hours. Just check in at the halfway mark so you can get an indication of how much longer you have to go.

For me, what’s important is finding the proper place to leave my dough. 

It’s cold here most of the year so leaving my bowl on our not-so-warm counter is not exactly ideal. 

So what I like to do is turn my oven on to its lowest setting for a few minutes, then turn it off so that it’ll be about 90F when I’m ready to put my dough in to rise.

Just remember to remove the dough from the oven when you’re ready to preheat for baking.

And do you really need a damp cloth to cover your dough while rising? I do but it’s not necessary. Sometimes I use plastic wrap. And other bakers I know use pot lids.

The key is covering the bowl with something because doing so helps the dough retain moisture and prevents it from drying out.

Kneading

The most common way of testing if your dough has been kneaded enough is doing the “windowpane test”.

All this means is you pull off a small piece of dough and stretch it thin; if the gluten is well-developed, the dough will stretch into a paper-thin film without breaking. If it quickly breaks you need to keep kneading.

Here are more ways to tell when dough is kneaded enough.

I know some bakers like to use the dough hook of their stand mixers to knead their bread dough and that’s fine. 

I prefer to knead by hand because there’s less chance of over-kneading. And there’s really something very relaxing about it! 

Other delicious Filipino bread recipes

Love baking bread as much as I do? Check these out:

• Soft Filipino Spanish Bread
• Filipino Pan de Coco
• Ube Bars