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caribbean bread recipe

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Breads & Bakes

Gratifying Hops Bread.

60 Comments on Gratifying Hops Bread.

Hops bread is one of those things every Trinbagonian can relate too with some level of passion. For me, it’s playing football (soccer) after school at Irving Park, San Fernando and heading over to the Chinese bakery next to the WASA office,  for hops bread fresh out of the oven… after our game. Digging deep into our collective pockets to secure enough coins to get a dozen of these temptingly delicious rolls. We never had enough to purchase cheese or even a drink, but we didn’t care… we choked those hops bread down like voracious pigs!

After many requests for this hops bread recipe, I decided to ‘make a mess”… that’s what happens when I start playing around with flour. Something I inherited from my dad, who is a boss cook/baker, but quite messy! You should have seen the stove top, counters and kitchen floor when I was all done baking.

You’ll Need…

2 1/2 cups hot water
2 tablespoon shortening
8 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 pack or 1 tbsp instant yeast

Stir the shortening into the hot water until it melts completely and the water becomes luke warm.

In a large bowl, place about 7 cups of the flour, salt, sugar and yeast and  give it a good mix to combine evenly. Now start adding the water a little at a time, until you have a soggy dough.

The dough will be very sticky and wet at this point. Dust a surface with flour and empty the dough onto it to knead. Knead for about 5 minutes, adding flour as necessary until you have a well formed dough ball. Soft, but firm.

It’s time to get the yeast active and allow the dough to swell. I sprayed a large bowl with cooking spray (greased) and placed the dough in it to do it’s thing. With the dough in the bowl, I covered it with plastic wrap (or use a damp towel) and set it in a warm corner of my kitchen. We’re looking for it to basically double in size. Which takes between 40 – 50 mins (depends on how active your yeast is and how warm your kitchen is).

Line you baking sheet with parchment paper or grease and dust with flour. Now remove the plastic wrap and punch the dough to release the air. Divide the dough into 12 even dough balls (about 3 inches in diameter) and set onto the parchment lined baking sheet. We’ve got to allow this to proof again and double in size. Place a damp towel/cloth on top to keep the moisture in and so the top of the individual hops bread dough balls don’t dry out. Set aside in a warm corner of your kitchen to double in size. I believe it took about 45 mins. Refer to the video below to see how I did the individual dough balls, so they were smooth and well rounded.

Preheat your oven to 400F and set on the middle rack to bake. It will take between 20-25 mins (depends on your oven) to be nice and golden. In our oven it took 25 mins to get to the desired color I wanted and as soon as they were out, I already had butter and cheese on hand to go to work. Your kitchen will have that wonderful scent of your favorite bakery and don’t be surprised if your neighbors come knocking.

Try not to be as greedy as I am and do allow the freshly baked hops bread to cool a bit before using. They’re great for sandwiches, used as dinner rolls and Caron had a couple with freshly made hamburgers she had this evening.  Speaking about after school and my love for hops bread. I absolutely hated being in a taxi after school and a passenger would ask the driver to stop for him/her to get some bread at the bakery on our way home. My belly would be in full chorus and this person would have those delicious smelling bread within reach.. that is torture!  FYI, taxis in my time down on the islands were shared. So basically 4 people from the same village or town would pay a fare to the driver for his service.

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Breads & Bakes Vegetarian

Coconut Bake A Classic Caribbean Bread.

58 Comments on Coconut Bake A Classic Caribbean Bread.

 

Yes it’s a bread, but we call it a bake. Just as the fry bake recipe I shared with you a while back, which isn’t really baked… we try our best to confuse the heck out of people with our food names. Walking into the house after school or on those days when in the rainy season it was customary to spend our evening playing football (soccer) in the muddy savanna down the road (I’m still a ball-hoe), and you would be hit with that lovely aroma of action taking place in the oven… immediate hunger would set in (even if you just raided someone’s mango tree).

If it was after football, you had to make sure and bathe before setting foot in the house and don’t ever let you mom see dry nashy skin.. so you had to grease down with baby oil or lotion… it’s amazing how fast we would go from pig to Sunday morning church clean. That fresh baked bread smell had a way of getting the best out of us. When it was coconut bake, it also meant timing it so as soon as it came out of the oven, you could have a piece with butter and/or cheese. I also recall our mom cooking a fry-dry curry shrimp to make sandwiches with the coconut bake. Good times!

Wanted to mention that though I can get dried coconut here if I look hard enough, I just didn’t feel like searching then grating etc, so I used dessicated coconut I found pre-packaged (Desiccated coconut is coconut meat which has been shredded or flaked and then dried to remove as much moisture as possible) at the grocery store. I would recommend (though I didn’t  this time) soaking it in the coconut milk to add back some life to it.

This recipe is a bit different than my mom’s or grandmother .. who BTW used a coal pot to make her’s, but you’ll find great pleasure as you rip through a steaming hot piece of this coconut bake.

You’ll Need…

4 1/2 cups all purpose flour or bread flour
1/4 cup butter or shortening (i used shortening)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon quick acting yeast
1 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup freshly grated coconut (I used dessicated coconut)

 

If you’re using freshly grated coconut , start by prepping that or as in my case I started with the dough. This would be the first time using our new food processor for making dough, but feel free to use your hands if you not as lazy as I am. In the food processor (or bowl) place the flour, yeast, sugar, salt and the butter or shortening and work till you get a sort of crumbs texture. I gave the food processor a few pulses and it was ready for the next step.

I then added the grated coconut and gave it another pulse, then I started to add the coconut milk and make the actual dough. You may notice that you’ll need some additional liquid, if that is the case add some water. You’re looking for a smooth and firm dough. Since I used the food processor (about 3-5 minutes), I then removed it onto a floured surface and worked the dough until it was firm and smooth as I wanted.

The next step is to cut it evenly into two pieces and and work it into the shape of the ‘bake’. You’ll need to have a flour dusted surface and a rolling pin ready. I believe I got mine about 1 inch thick and about 10-12 inches in diameter. I then used a fork to prick the surface a bit (always saw my mom do that), placed it onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Which I covered with plastic wrap and allowed to rest for about 2 0 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 400F, then add the bakes (remove plastic wrap) on the cookie sheet and on the middle shelf for about 25-30 minutes or until they’re golden brown. You can always stick a toothpick in the center and if it comes our dry, it means the inside is fully cooked.

I forgot to mention that you should warm the coconut milk a bit before adding to the flour to make the dough. Day two would see us have slices of this with guava jam and tea for breakfast, before heading off to school… you felt as if you could take on the world when your belly was jam-packed with this lovey coconut bake.

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