Red dragon fruit bread

Inspired by an initiative of the owner of ABC – a popular bakery brand in Saigon, when they are making the first bread by using red dragon fruit in order to support the farmers who couldn’t export their products to China during the “corona virus” as the borders are closed between Vietnam and China, I also decided to make my first bread by using the dragon fruit puree.

013 — Red dragon fruit bread baked in Dutch oven

Dragon fruit (or Pitaya) is typical tropical fruit, very popular in South of Vietnam and surely somewhere else in the world. Dragon fruit has various colors, most popular is white and just some time ago we got a red one, more expensive, slightly sweeter than the white one. The texture of dragon fruit is very similar to kiwifruit, very juicy and that could be a reason why we can use dragon fruit puree instead of regular water.

001 — Most popular dragon fruit – white inside with seeds

002 — Red dragon fruit, another color is yellow but not available in Vietnam.

Preparation for bread dough with fruit puree

Bread flour 475 gr
All purpose flour 65 gr
Dry yeast 2-3 gr
Fermented dough 120 gr
Salt 10 gr
Red dragon fruit puree 360 ml

003 — I use blender to make dragon fruit puree, I add just a little bit water

In a large bowl combine the flours, yeast, fermented dough, salt on the other side, not in contact with yeast, especially if you use the fresh yeast, as salt can kill the yeast.

004 — My French chef at LCB always prefer to make bread with fermented dough

With a plastic scraper (or big wooden spoon) gradually work the flour into the fruit puree and to lean of the bowl, then using metallic scraper cut a piece of the dough from the edge and then place it on top of the dough until all the flour has been moistened.

Right after combine all ingredients together with red dragon fruit puree . Cover with cloth and let it rest at room temperature for the first 45 minutes. It takes “three” 45 minutes, so totally 2 hours and 35 minutes to fold (or kneading by hand) and to rest. For more details on how to fold it, please refer to my previous post here.

After “three” of 45 minutes, i.e 2 hours 35 minutes, now time for shaping and final proof. Do shape dough into a good big ball, use dusting flour if needed, and let it proof for at least another one hour in Dutch oven before baking at 250º C for 35-40 minutes.

009 — Final shaping – do use dusting flour

010 — After one hour proof in Dutch oven

011 — Make a sharp cut right before the oven

012 — And here you go after almost 35 minutes in the oven at 250ºC

The red dragon fruit bread is really something new, created by the owner of popular bakery brand ABC in Saigon, who also used to work as a baker in France. This his new creation attracted a lot of interest from consumers and also from the media, but I don’t think it will last for long because the red dragon fruit is quite expensive in the market and to consume the fresh fruit – always much better!

The taste is just a bit fruity because the dragon fruit doesn’t have a strong flavor. For those who didn’t make bread before could make the puree a bit more fluid so easy to knead by hand. Enjoy baking!