April 5, 2019 - 11:32am
Jamaican Hard Dough Bread Recipe?
My wife is Jamaican. My 3 year old son has such a taste for hard dough bread. However, being an amateur bread baker I cannot conceive of relying on a relative coming to visit with a loaf under their arm.
I must bake this! The hell with Kingston Tropical!
Thus, by the merciful Gods, does anyone have a good/authentic hard dough bread recipe.
I tried one online and got a dinner roll loaf!
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I've seen so many recipes for it on line, and they're all different, and I don't know a way to find which ones are better without simply making them all, one at a time. So I know exactly what you mean - somebody who really knows bread must have successfully made this before, and I hope they see this.
This is from a Jamaican cookery website so I wonder if this is what you mean? Is Hard Dough bread a very soft,sweet bread?
HERE is the link.
I hope it helps.
Jamaicans pass around their recipes a lot.
Which is an excellent practice, except for one thing:
Those Jamaicans who are bad cooks seem to pass their recipes around just as enthusiastically as do the rest of the Jamaicans who are great cooks. ?
So it would be great to see a recipe that someone on here has already made, and had it turn out great for them.
more like a salt-rising bread. But very soft it is. My dil is a Trinidanian Indian and gave my husband a loaf of bread that look precisely like that packaged one you linked to.
hester
Now imagine I just said that to you and you are (or are not) Jamaican. Tell me what it sounded like.
I HOPE what you meant to say was that not every recipe you read on the internet is a good recipe. There is not one culture that has the market on posting "not good" recipes just by virtue of being from that culture. The internet is riddled with all kinds of information,viewpoints and recipes-good, not good, useful, useless.
If you felt the recipe link was not a good recipe why pass judgement without providing any information as to why. Too simple? Not enough info? Not in weights? Ingredients? Its based on a squishy store bread?
Bread is a cultural link but there is no universal definition of "good " bread-even on this world-wide reaching forum.. Everyone does not have to agree on the "best" bread but we can talk about it- with passion, kindness and respect. And, as my mother was want to say- think before you speak.
Live in kindness and bake with love.
Addendum: I firmly believe that because we have forums such as this one, people all over the world can learn to relate to other people that are from different cultures and the fear and prejudice diminishes. The butterfly wing effect. Seemingly innocuous encounters and memories can have big effects on the decisions people make as a result when they encounter other people.
The fact that "not every recipe you read on the internet is a good one" is exactly what I meant, yes. I see now how my post can be read in an offensive-sounding way, and I'm sorry about that.
I didn't even look at the link provided - I had looked for links earlier when this was requested before, and found many MANY links, often with recipes that didn't seem all that similar to each other. It's quite a maze, and I have no guide. Anybody can go online and see the hundreds of different links that I saw, pick one at random, paste it into the reply window, and say "Here you go" - it doesn't take any particular skill or knowledge to do so. I think the OP was looking for something you had personally made and liked - he had already gone online beforehand, found a link, made the bread, and was disappointed. You didn't say "I've made this, it was really good, maybe needs a pinch more salt" or whatever - just plopped another link out of the hundreds.
There's nothing about Jamaican people that makes them cook any better or worse than anyone else; I'd still argue that there's a particular enthusiasm among Jamaicans I've met for sharing home-cooking recipes, one that not every culture shares to the same extent.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/11474/wonder-bread-home
I have never had Hardo bread but it certainly resembles a package of commercially made Wonder bread (the brand name-just like Hardo is a brand name) here in the US. Soft, squishy, delight to some and horror to others.
There are many links available here on TFL from people that have actually made a soft,sweet white bread. I searched under "Wonder Bread" because I was here when this discussion happened. Not to be negative but a home baker cannot duplicate those commercially made breads exactly because they use additives and other techniques not available to a home cook-super fast fermentation, addition of air, dough conditioners to change the gluten qualitites. HOWEVER, a very delicious, soft and sweet loaf can be made at home. You may even like it more than the Hardo bread.
ANother link from the search for "wonder Bread"
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/20065/perfect-bread-recipe-beginning-baker
I suspect bread flour will help with the spongieness factor, as well as kneading to achieve a good windowpane. Sugar and a little oil/butter or margerine will also help achieve the taste and softness.
Have some delicious fun experimenting.
I used the quantities from the recipe above and the technique from here
https://youtu.be/VJY6YvHvpOw
and my wife gave me an “almost”. I used a overly flavored margarine ( I can’t believe it’s not butter ) so next time I may use real butter. I also cooked it for 35 minutes.
i read DavidR’s comment to my wife and she agreed.
But she also said that might be true of all cultures.
But no, in my experience, mine alone, recipes are tough to get from our Jamaicans.
Ingredients
1 lb. all-purpose flour (depending on the size bread and the amount use more flour)
4 tablespoon margarine
1 teaspoons. instant dry yeast
2 tablespoon sugar (granulated)
1 cup water
1 1/2 teaspoon salt.
This is the recipe from the Jamaican Cookery site. Is this the recipe you used? If yes, I have a few ideas for you. Some delicious experimentation!
I also watched the youtube video you used for the technique.
Ideas:
Was the bread too salty? I would thing that 3-3 1/2 c flour would call for no more than a teaspoon but salt taste is highly individual.
Was the bread sweet enough? The video recipe had a much larger amount of sugar than the Jamaican Cookery site. That, again, is a matter of how you want it to taste.
Yeast: 1 tsp will mean that it will take longer to rise. It will taste better as there will be more fermentation. Many straight-through yeast recipes use 1 packet (2 1/4 tsp) yeast per single loaf recipe (usually 3-4 c flour). Try the higher amount next time and see if you like it.
There are also different types of yeast. INSTANT DRY YEAST (IDY) does not have to be dissolved at all. Supposedly, it can even be sprinkled on top of a mixed dough and be effective (tho I have my doubts). ACTIVE DRY YEAST (ADY) benefits from being bloomed or proofed by sitting in a liquid with a small amount of sugar until foamy. It was called "proofing" to prove it was active. THen there is OSMOTOLERANT YEAST-a yeast designed for sweet doughs. I have used it and it is more effective in very sweet doughs. ADY or IDY work just fine for home bakers.
Water: It seems to me that the amount is borderline. Was your dough at all dry or particularly stiff?
Milk? The youtube video recipe used 1 c milk and 1/2 c water. I would probably try using milk next time or even milk and water for a little richer taste. If 1 c water worked-use 3/4 c milk and 1/4 c water.
Butter/margarine/fat: About ICBINB- does it say what the water percentage is? Some of the margarines are lower fat and cannot be used for baking cookies-too much water. It will also affect the bread a bit. Also, vegetable fats like shortening and animal fats can have different effects on the dough. Diddle around with what you have and see if it makes a difference. Butter will certainly add a richness that margarine won't impart.
Flour: If you have it available, try adding a little higher protein flour like a bread flour. It might inflate more.
Technique: The most important technique is to knead the bread to "windowpane". The dough cannot be too dry/stiff to do this. Put "bread windowpane" in the search box or on google images and see what I mean. This means that the gluten is well developed and the dough is supple enough to stretch a thin window between your fingers without ripping. It makes a BIG difference in how feathery the bread is after it is baked.
The pic of your loaf was pretty good for a first round!
Have some delicious fun!