Achievement unlocked -- Sourdough Hongkong-style charsiu (and other fillings) bao

Classic charsiu bao

As a maker/baker, i will readily admit that frozen bao and dimsum are staples of our family's Asian market grocery cart for easily-prepared, fuss-free eating for all four in our household. 

Recently though, I decided to deep-dive into making our own freezer stash of Hongkong-style steamed bao -- slightly sweet dough, that signature popped-open top, a size that went easily into heavy snack/small meal. I knew the regular yeasted doughs would produce a good siopao with a smooth surface, but i fixated on that flower-like peekaboo, a cushiony, not-too-bready texture, and of course a well-flavored filling of charsiu pork. Using my sourdough starter, of course.

peekaboo filling is peeking a little too much!

The rabbit hole of what makes the ideal bao bun led me to Souped-up Recipe's Mandy Fu. Some of the ingredients she calls for are specialized, and definitely lean toward the alkaline -- lye water and ammonium carbonate, as well as baking powder. Why? Because the acidity of the fermented starter combines with these to produce a light, cottony texture that has no rise time and should be shaped and steamed immediately. I did this, hunting down baker's ammonia, and the yellow-labelled lye water that weren't available at my regular Asian market -- when I asked the owners, they said nobody used it anymore except big bakeries. 

If bao are the only thing you ever make with a pre-ferment, by all means use Ms. Fu's yeast-based 3-day starter -- it is a build that gives you the exact amount you need for a batch. On the other hand, if you have a starter that is alive and well, a few feeds will get it to the point where it is perfect for this use. 

Most steamed bao doughs use cake flour -- it gives a biscuity, less chewy quality to the end result, and is responsible for the steaming opening up the top because the dough is shaped but not too glutenous.  I wanted something that had some chew, as well as enough structure to hold in the saucy filling. 

It's still a work in progress, but this is by far the closest I have gotten to my own personal charsiu bao goal. It makes 24, because this is to stock the freezer!

Chicken meatball bao

Sourdough build: 

200 g mature sourdough starter

60 g all-purpose flour (bleached ok)

40 g fine rice flour

60 g water

Repeat the same 60% feed every 8-12 hours twice more without discarding any, so that you have approximately 680 g. pre-ferment. This will feel in between a stiff starter and a liquid one, because of the extra starch and 60% hydration. Let rise after the last feed until it doubles, about 6 hours to up to overnight.

Have 24 3x3 paper squares or standard cupcake liners ready, and water for steamer baskets heating.

640 g starter

266 g sugar

40 g shortening or lard

16 drops lye water

Mix until smooth, either with the dough hook or by hand.

1 tsp baker's ammonia

300 g all-purpose flour

60 g fine rice flour (360 g cake flour if you prefer, see above)

2 tbsp baking powder

Knead smooth, then divide into 50 g pieces. Keep covered. Dust the surface with rice flour and roll a piece into a circle. Thin out the edges with a rolling pin, so that the circle is about 4 1/2" wide (12 cm).  

Center 30 g filling* and pinch the top closed into quarters. Try to keep the filling centered and the top not too thick. Place on the prepared paper. 

Repeat to fill a steamer (but don't crowd them -- leave room for the buns to fluff), then place above the rolling-boil water.  If your steamer is bamboo, enough water vapor will escape that your buns will have the needed moisture; but if your steamer cover is metal or glass, secure a kitchen towel around it to absorb extra water so it doesn't drip back down onto the buns and cause spots or sogginess. Steam for 16-18 minutes, tightly covered. 

Remove from the water, but allow to cool for 10 minutes before uncovering so the buns don't collapse. Do the same for all the pieces, setting them onto a rack to cool out of the baskets.

Once the buns are all cooked and cooled, place them in a single layer in a gallon freezer bag and freeze flat. When they are frozen solid, you can stack the bao to conserve space and minimize air in the bag. 

*filling possibilities: charsiu pork or chicken in a gingery, oyster/hoisin cornstarch-thickened sauce (pork/chicken asado); ground turkey or chicken or shrimp meatball with Chinese chives, lap cheong or yun chang sausage and hard-boiled eggs, either quartered or quail ("bola bola"); cornstarch-thickened custard.

pretty-colored potato rolls -- again.

We're almost at summer! So summer-colored bread buns. Also, potato hotdog buns (which, to be fair, are also great made into lobster rolls -- just split through the top rather than the side)... Partly inspired by the purple burger buns at Hapa, and my previous colored potato braid. Potato rolls are a classic for sandwiches because potato has a sort of timed-release moisture action in the baked bun, keeping it moist and soft but sturdy enough to stand up to loading with filling. These are not quite as smooth as Martin's, but they are tasty and a bit more complex in flavor because of the sourdough.  

The potatoes -- purple and Yukon gold, microwaved (most microwaves have a potato setting! If yours doesn't, one large or two smaller potatoes will take about 3 1/2 to 4 minutes on high), cooled, peeled and mashed. These are purple regular potatoes, not Okinawan sweet potatoes or Filipino ube. They're really deep purple!

Sourdough Potato Hotdog Buns (two-color version) makes 16 hotdog buns or 10 120 g burger buns
sponge: 
100 g. bread flour
90 g. water
20 g honey
8 g active dry or instant yeast
Beat together in the mixer bowl and let rise 1-4 hours, until puffed and bubbly. (if you're using instant yeast, you may want to add half now and the other half with the starter.)

Add and mix in with the hook:
320 g starter, fed 6-10 hours before
180 g bread flour
8 g salt 
20 g dry milk powder (optional)
(let rest 15-20 minutes to autolyse, if you wish. It's not essential, but it makes a smoother, more consistent dough.) Mix the dough again and divide it in half. 

175 g each mashed purple and Yukon gold potatoes (or 350 g of one kind)
30 g butter (or margarine, or coconut oil)

(Of course if you just want one color you'll skip the dividing and just mix the potatoes in with the whole batch.)

Add the potato to each half and mix it in with the butter (15 g or 1 tbsp for each part.) It might take a bit of kneading on the counter to get a uniform color, (I'm kind of disappointed the yellow is not that vibrant), round, then place in lightly buttered bowls and let rise until doubled, about 40 minutes to an hour.

Smileyfaces in the risen dough!

 Fold the edges in to de-gas, then turn each out.

Divide each into pieces about 38 g each, and fold to pre-shape. (The two in the middle will be single-color, so they're 75 g each.)

Roll into 6-inch ropes and twist. 

Lay them on a nonstick mat or parchment,

cover with a lid or plastic, and let rise... they may touch, but that's okay.
 

Bake at 350 about 20 minutes, until browned and sound hollow when tapped (the crust will be firm, but it softens as it cools). Pull them off the sheet and allow to cool on a rack so the bottoms don't get soggy.

The interior crumb.

Enjoy! 

Presenting Chocolate Croissant (and Pains au Chocolat) ! (part 2)

Welcome back! For the second half of the tutorial, it's rolling out, cutting, shaping into the actual croissant and filled-rectangle shapes, baking and finishing. You'll need a ruler or tape measure to get the best-looking shapes, and a sharp knife with a blade at least 8 inches long.

The batch size we made before yields 24 full-sized pastries -- croissants approximately 6 inches wide, or pains about 5 inches long. Croissants are shaped from a triangle, rolled up from the wide end to the tip, then curved to form the familiar shape -- 4 inches at the base and 8 inches high.


Or you can make them half-size, about 4 inches wide, from a triangle 3 inches by 6 inches. This means 48 pastries, 24 from each half of the dough.

 The finished dough softens relatively fast when it's rolled thin, and sticking happens. I find it easiest to work with half of the batch at a time because of this, plus it is easier to maneuver a shorter length when rolling. For this reason, the measurements here are for half the batch.

To start, flour the counter well and take the finished and rested dough and roll from the open ends (crosswise to the last folds) to make the square into a rectangle about 18 inches long by 9 inches tall -- it will be about 1/2 inch thick. With a sharp knife, cut the dough in half to make 2 9 inch squares. Wrap and refrigerate one half, or put it in a gallon-size freezer bag and freeze it for another time. 

Your 9 inch square needs to be rolled out to about 3-4 mm thick -- a rectangle approximately 16 inches by 12 inches for full-sized croissants. Don't worry if it is a little too long or wide, but make sure that the 16-inch side is a folded edge (as versus an open end). It will be much easier to get the dough to a 16 inch length than a 12 inch width, but just keep at it, maintaining the even thickness by rolling from the center out. Try not to roll over the edges too much or they'll get too thin. Lift the dough from the counter often to make sure it's not sticking. As it gets thinner, it will start to become elastic and pull back. If it seems too soft, slide the whole thing onto a cutting board or pan and refrigerate the dough about 10-15 minutes. It might shrink -- wait to measure until it's cool.

Once you have the right sized rectangle, fold the 16-inch length in half so you have a double thickness rectangle 8 inches tall and 12 inches wide.

Now mark 4 inch segments across the bottom edge. Across the top, mark 2 inches, then 4 inches and another 4 inches -- the last bit will be 2 inches. Mark a diagonal line connecting the bottom right corner with the 2 inch mark at the top. From this mark, make another line to the first 4 inch mark at the bottom for your first triangle. Then go up to the second top point, down to the second bottom point, then up again twice more. You should have 3 triangles pointing up and two whole triangles pointing down, with a half-triangle on each side. 

Cut with a sharp knife along the marks, then unfold and cut the two middle triangles apart crosswise, as well as the four half-triangles.   Press the long (straight) sides of the two half-triangles together for the first croissant, stretching it out long for the maximum layers. Brush off the excess flour -- too much flour on the outside makes for crunchy (not crispy-tender) flakes.

Make two 1/2 inch cuts in the 4-inch base and spread it apart a bit. 

Now roll from the 4-inch base, stretching, to the tip. (Make sure the tip stays on the bottom... if it isn't weighted down, it will flip up and might burn, or your croissant might unroll.) Curve the ends into the familiar moon shape.

Repeat for the rest of the triangles, then the other half of the dough. As you shape them, put the croissants on a parchment- or nonstick mat-lined pan, spaced well apart. You can fit 6- 8 full-sized croissants on a 12x18 (half-sheet) pan -- don't crowd them or they will stick together once they rise and bake.

For half-sized croissants, the rectangle should be 12x18 inches, then folded so it is 6 inches tall. 

You can fit 12- 15 of this size on a pan.

Once all the croissants are formed, cover them with plastic wrap or another sheet pan and let them rise at room temperature until they double in size and feel very wobbly and light when you touch them -- it will take awhile, about two hours, but let the yeast do its thing.

Alternatively, freeze the shaped but not risen croissants until they are firm, then put them in a freezer bag to rise and bake as you please.

For pains au chocolat, roll the half-batch to a rectangle 12 x18 inches, and cut into 12 rectangles. Brush off the excess flour.

Put a few pieces of chocolate (we like milk chocolate) down the middle and roll up in thirds the long way, placing the end in the bottom center -- if the opening is on the side, it will tip over. Still delicious, but not as even-looking.

For half-sized pains au chocolat, start with the rectangle the same size, 12x18, and cut it into 2 x 4.5 inch rectangles.

As with the croissant, set the formed pains au chocolat on a lined pan, and cover to rise. (Or freeze, as above.)
 They will tend not to take as long as the croissant, so check them in 1 hr 20 minutes. (I didn't slash mine, but you definitely can, to get those beautiful markings you see on Instagram that show off the layers. Next time, I'll do some with slashes and update this post.)

When the shaped croissant and pains are almost fully risen, put a metal pan (like a pie or cake pan) on the floor of the oven (you will use this to create steam later, which will help the pastries rise), set the racks evenly spaced and preheat the oven to 370 degrees. 

When they are fully risen -- wobbly and light when nudged with a fingertip -- quickly toss about a cup of hot water in the pan on the bottom of the oven and place the pans with the croissants or pains on the racks. Close the door quickly to trap the steam, and bake about 12-15 minutes without peeking. Smells amazing!

At the 12-minute point, they should have risen nicely and started to brown -- it's harder to tell with the chocolate dough, but they should feel set and just firm. Rotate the pans top and bottom and front to back, and bake another 5-8 minutes. 

For half-sized pastries, check and rotate after 8-10 minutes -- they will go quickly!

I don't like to egg-wash the chocolate dough because it doesn't really make a nice color. Instead, after baking I brush them with a syrup that makes them shiny as the water evaporates. 

100 g sugar

50 g hot water

30 g corn syrup or honey (to prevent crystallization)

When they are fully baked, let the croissant and pains cool a bit before brushing the syrup on, gently so the delicate flakes don't come off. Let them cool completely on a rack so condensation doesn't make the bottoms soggy.

And there you have it! Beautiful, delectable and oh-so-satisfyingly handmade croissants et pains au chocolat, chocolate through and through. 

Thank you for sticking it out through this tutorial!! I'm really proud of these, and hope you will be too when you make your own. Let me know what you think!!!

Presenting the Chocolate Croissant!! (part 1)

Yes, these are chocolate croissants. Not just pains au chocolat, but croissants, shaped like crescents, made out of yeasted and laminated chocolate dough. As far as Google can find, this is the first English* tutorial on how to make them to ever exist on the interwebs. Like, ever. I'm not sure why.

*EDIT as of 3/8: Pinterest has informed me that tutorials for similar chocolate croissants exist in Chinese and Italian -- I don't know how close they are to these (I can't read either language well enough) but it doesn't look like they are the same from the pictures... just putting out this disclaimer. Shoutout to the international lamination nation. :D

First off, I am indebted to my cousin Angela's Instagram post about chocolate croissants in a random HK mall stall, pleading for anyone to make them in the Philippines, or for a class on croissants. I have taught many a croissant class at ICE and Monroe College (hi, students!!), but she's not in the same city.

Plus, chocolate ones! Here I have to point you to the stunning pix on Francois Brunet's Instagram -- he has the most riveting chocolate pains au chocolat photos (as well as myriad other absolutely stunning bread and pastry work. Seriously it's awe-inspiring.)

But no recipes, let alone tutorials. Sure, there are many that are filled with chocolate, some that have a layer of chocolate dough so they are striped, or even leopard patterned. But none like these.

So on to the figuring! 

My formula is based on one in Advanced Bread and Pastry: A Professional Approach by Michel Suas, but adjusted to yield a quantity manageable at home having a stand mixer and a rolling pin but no sheeter, but the dough is easily mixed by hand as well. I use bread flour because of the added cocoa.

I jump at any chance to use my sourdough starter, so it features here too. It tastes wonderful -- the cocoa's bitterness is tempered by the almost leafy tang, and a bit of salt and malt or sugar bump up the lush flavor of both the chocolate and the yeasted dough. 

It's a two-part process but can easily by divided into more 30-minute sets -- no need to block off your whole weekend to make croissants! This part is making the dough and putting in the layers, and the second part will be shaping and finishing.

If you don't have an active sourdough or levain (but really if you like to make bread you should!), or if this is the only yeasted recipe you will ever make (no judgement!) you can make an overnight poolish. 

220 g. all-purpose flour 

220 g room temp water

2.2 g (1/2 tsp) active dry yeast or instant yeast

Whisk together, cover, let rise 10-16 hours.

Chocolate Croissant and Pains au Chocolat 

yields 24 full-sized croissant or 12 each croissant and pains au chocolat, or 48 half-size croissant

Detrempe (dough part):

500 g. bread flour

60 g. unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Valrhona)

130 g. water 

140 g. milk 

7.5 g. (1 1/2 tsp) active dry or instant yeast 

440 g. sourdough starter, or the poolish from above 

93 g. sugar

15 g. (1 tbsp) salt

2 g. (1/2 tsp) powdered malt, 5 g.malt syrup, or 7 g. more sugar

29 g. butter, softened

With a mixer: Combine flour and cocoa in a mixer bowl. Dissolve the yeast in the water, then add that and the milk and starter or poolish to the cocoa and flour. Mix with the dough hook until no dry bits remain, then 1 minute on low speed. Add the sugar, salt, malt and butter, and mix on medium until the dough comes together and cleans off the bowl. 

to mix by hand: Dissolve the yeast in the water. Mix together flour, cocoa, salt, sugar, and malt in a large bowl. Rub in the butter with your fingers until it disappears. Make a well and add the yeast/water, milk, and starter or poolish. Mix with a wooden spoon, then your hands, until the dough comes together and no dry bits remain. Turn the dough out onto the counter and knead a few strokes until it is smooth and uniform.

Cover the dough in the bowl and let it rise at room temperature for 1 hour.

❧❧

Lightly butter or oil a large piece of plastic wrap. Press the dough (it will be a bit puffy but might not have doubled) into a rectangle about 1/2 inch thick on the wrap, fold it over to enclose, and let it rest in the fridge for at least an hour, or up to 6 hours.

❧❧ 

Buerrage (roll-in butter part):

340 g. unsalted butter, cold

20 g. unsweetened cocoa powder

The goal is to get the butter to the same malleable texture as the detrempe but still very cold -- softened manually, not by temperature. Place the butter (in two or three pieces) on a large piece of plastic wrap, or a nonstick mat. (A piece of heavy vinyl, like from a shower curtain or book cover, works well too.) Scatter the cocoa powder on. Roll the butter so it is coated all over, then fold the plastic on top and start to work the butter and cocoa together by hitting it with a rolling pin.

Use the plastic or mat to fold and shape the butter as you strike. So whack and fold until the cocoa is incorporated, trying to keep the butter pressed together and even. It is a messy process, but pretty satisfying and therapeutic! When all the cocoa is worked in, shape the buerrage into a 10 inch square on the mat, about 1/4 inch thick.

Enclosing (forming the Paton)

Clear off the counter and dust with flour. Unwrap the cold dough and flip it onto the floured surface, trying not to have it fold over on itself. Press the dough out with your hands into a rectangle, 12 inches by 18 inches. (my dough scraper is 6 inches wide - super handy!)

 Center the roll-in butter square at the bottom 2/3 of the rectangle, with 1 inch on 3 sides and the rest of the dough at the top.

fold the empty 1/3 of dough onto the buerrage and dust off the excess flour. 

Now fold the bottom 1/3 over the middle, making a 3-fold, like a letter to fit an envelope.  Press the edges together to seal in the buerrage. You now have 2 layers of butter roll-in between 3 layers of dough. 

Press in short up-down strokes with the pin to get the rectangle even and align the layers, then keep pressing until the folded dough is about 1/2 inch thick. I like to do so on the diagonals, so the corners stay true. 

When it is thin enough so your knuckles hit the counter, start to roll to a rectangle to make your first laminating fold. My counter doesn't allow me to get around its side, so I turn the dough parallel to the edge so i can leverage to roll the length. 

Don't be afraid to flour the surface well -- you don't want the dough to stick and rip to make the butter leak out. Use your scraper to make sure the dough is loose from the counter, moving it around to maintain the even thickness. Aim for a rectangle 3 times as long as it is wide -- in this case, about 9 inches by 27 inches.

Now fold one side over the middle, aligning the edges. 

Brush off the excess flour and fold the other side over, making 3 layers. 

That was your first fold! You will end up with a 9 inch square. Wrap the croissant dough in plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for at least 45 minutes.  This gives the butter roll-in a chance to chill and firm up, and the gluten developed to relax -- both make it easier for you to do the 2nd and 3rd folds. (Yeah, you can rest and chill too.)

❦❦

Flour the counter again and place the rested, cold dough square so the folded edges are parallel to the edge of the counter. You want to roll so the open edges become the short sides of the rectangle and the folds become the long edges, so press across with the rolling pin to 1/2 inch thickness, as before. 

Roll the dough back out to a 9x27 inch rectangle, then make the 2nd fold just like the first, brushing off any excess flour and aligning the edges. You'll notice that it gets more cohesive and manageable as the butter layers get thinner, but pay attention so you don't have sticking, and it stays an even thickness -- the tendency is for the edges to get thin and the middle to be thicker, so to prevent that, make sure to roll from the middle out, with consistent pressure.

Wrap and rest as before, then repeat one more time, for a total of 3 sets of folds. Yay, the lamination is complete! Wrap the finished dough and let it rest in the fridge at least 2 hours, or up to three days. 

This got long enough, so rolling, shaping, baking and finishing will be the next post! Thanks for your patience, see you back here soon for that.

A Banananana loaf/muffin to make basically anytime.

I hoard bananas in my freezer. Gone now are the days when I needed them as an egg substitute, but I still feel wasteful if they get to that perfect mottled ripeness and don't get eaten, so in the freezer they go. While in the summer they make a great smoothie, in the winter you need something less chilly. Before I know it I have a stash enough to make several loaves of banana bread, which is delicious and always consumed quickly. Yes, I always end up making more than one loaf because I feel wasteful (again) of the oven space. Or less often I make muffins. Either form is quick and very easily adapted-- add nuts, chocolate, coconut, even sub gluten-free flour. Everything else is probably already in your pantry -- which is part of why this recipe comes together so easily; there are no eggs or dairy to worry about picking up from the store.

Easiest Banana Loaves or Muffins
Makes 2 8 1/2 x 4 loaves or about 20 regular-sized muffins -- coat pans lightly with cooking spray or line with paper.

Dry ingredients: Whisk until combined:
I usually do 1 1/2 cups (180 g) whole wheat flour and 2 cups (240 g) regular all-purpose flour because I like the taste, and the fiber/nutrition boost. 
1 1/3 cups (235 g) sugar -- again, you can do part brown sugar or all muscovado or coconut sugar.
2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt

Wet ingredients: 2/3 cup (160 ml) oil -- coconut, corn, etc.

2 1/2 cups bananas (if previously frozen, they pretty much peel themselves thawed)

 Vanilla extract, lemon/lime/orange zest or extract, nuts, chips, etc. can go in too.

If you use a mixer, put the wet ingredients in first and mix on low until the bananas are smooth. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined. If the bananas were very ripe, you should have a batter that holds a trail when a spatula is run through:

If it is too stiff, adjust the thickness with coconut or regular milk, or water.

 Divide evenly between the pans. It will come about halfway up or a little more.

Bake loaves at 350 about 40 minutes, turning halfway through time. They are done when a skewer or toothpick comes out clean from the middle, or with a few moist crumbs. Muffins will take about 12-15 minutes, depending on size.

Store covered at room temperature -- the loaves go quickly if you leave a table knife handy. Muffins freeze well in a zip-close bag, to be thawed individually for a portable breakfast. (spread with Nutella, they are gone even faster. But not at our [still nut-allergic] house.)

sourdough potato bread color experiments...

Fun with spuds! This idea had been playing around in my head for awhile, and when there were some beautiful purple fingerlings in a mixed bag I knew it was a sign that this 3-color potato bread needed making, in time to tweak a bit before Easter.
I started with the same potato/sweet potato bread used to make the hotdog buns -- by now a mere cousin of RLB's Bread Bible and blog version. I doubled the potato and used high-gluten flour in the main dough to compensate, and added some liquid starter for flavor and ease of shaping. (I don't use the milk powder or butter for allergy reasons.)

This makes one showy loaf  about 14 inches long but relatively flat, as braids go. (If you want a deeper/taller slice, you could rise and bake this in a pan, or make the ropes shorter and fatter.)
First the potatoes: boiled a regular (white) potato and the purple Vilotte (i think, they weren't labelled) fingerlings until tender, then drained and mashed. The sweet potato i cooked like i normally do: in the microwave, then mashed. I ended up with about 70-80 g of each.

Cooked and mashed potato varieties. They are in matchy bowls because i can. :D

 The sponge is mixed as normal and risen, using the potato cooking water. I then completed the dough as one, then divided it in three parts to knead in the colors of potatoes, but you might find it easier to divide the sponge into three bowls and add the other ingredients to form separate colored doughs.

The completed doughs -- kneading in the potato and oil or vegan butter. It's unintentionally a big smiley.

Shape each into a ball  then let rise covered until doubled. I put them right on a nonstick mat.

Before the first rise, and after the second.

Punch down and envelope fold, then rise another time; it should take about 45 minutes each time.

To shape, press one round into an oval, then roll up and pinch the seam so you have a tube with pointed ends, like a football... press out any big gas bubbles as you roll. Elongate the rope slightly, but keep the middle a bit thicker and the ends pointed. Do the same with the other two colors, lay them side by side, and start braiding from the middle.

Press the ends together and tuck them in. Flip the pan and braid the other end the opposite way, keeping the tension even... this keeps the shape consistent.

Cover (I use another pan to make sure there won't be sticking) and let the braid rise until it about doubles, about another 40 minutes. It should feel puffy, almost wobbly, when pressed with a fingertip.

Bake at 375 about 30 minutes. (I don't like eggwashing savory breads that don't have egg in them, especially ones that color well on their own, but you do you!)  It's done if you hear a hollow sound when tapping lightly underneath. 

Nicely colored! As you can see the white and purple strands broke a little as they rose and oven-sprang... 

The braid will have a crunchy crust when it comes out, but that will soften as it cools and the moisture distributes evenly.
My braid looked fine when it went into the oven, but as it rose and baked, the regular and purple ropes kind of fell out compared to the orange. It might be because of extra moisture from boiling, so next time I'll cook all the potato types by the same method and give up having cooking liquid in favor of ropes that keep their shape. (Of course, there will be an update when I accomplish that!)

Let the braid cool to the touch before you slice... even with the potato, it's a delicate crumb that will crush and gum up if it's too hot. But look how pretty!