As they say in Ghana, "Little by little, the chicken drinks water." The tea bread recipe is getting better and better. I've added some gluten flour, trimmed down the amount of yeast, and substituted ground mace for the nutmeg. I'm also using my electric bread maker to mix the dough (otherwise, just knead it).
Into the bread maker (or bowl), add (liquids first):
about 1 (8 oz.) cup warm water, and
2 oz margarine
Next, 1 lb. 1 oz. bread flour (I used Pillsbury this time), and
4 teaspoons gluten,
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground mace
3/4 teaspoon dry powdered yeast
I set the timer on the "dough" setting, and wait for it to finish, then remove the dough, and put it in a greased bowl to sit for about 8 hours, then punch it down, shape it into a loaf or loaves with slightly tapered edges (I no longer use the bread pans), place it (them) on a lightly greased/oiled cookie sheet and let the dough rest for about half an hour (I always let my dough rise lightly covered with a dishtowel and rest in a slightly warmed oven with a bowl of water. Bake in a preheated oven at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes.
The picture above is actually from one of my earlier efforts and not the best illustration, but the better loaf got eaten before I could photograph it.
I"ve had another request for a sugar bread recipe (see the picture from the blog posting for March 5 to see various ways of shaping the bread besides in a bread pan). I don't believe in hoarding recipes, so even though I've not tested or developed this yet, here are my rough notes from my trip to Ghana (I'll probably halve this recipe as I work on it):
Sugar Bread, loaves and Rosca (working draft)
2 eggs
about 1/4 c full-cream powdered milk, or a single-serving sized packed (like Nido)
2 c sugar
7 c presifted flour (~2 1/2 lb)
2 t salt
4 heaping t ground nutmeg
3 level t yeast
12 oz margarine
1. Break 2 eggs into a large mixing bowl.
2. In a measuring cup add a single-serving-sized packet of full-cream powdered milk (a little less than 1/4 c) with enough water to make 1 c. Add the milk to the eggs along with 2 t salt and mix until foamy.
3. Add 2 c sugar and mix again.
4. In another bowl, measure out the flour and add 4 heaping teaspoons of ground nutmeg and 3 level t yeast. Stir together.
5. Mix together the dry and wet ingredients (she added the flour to the other bowl gradually (?), using her hand to knead it as she added it.
6. Work in 12 oz of margarine to the dough. Push in the middle and turn and turn.
7. Dust a clean work surface with flour and continue kneading the dough until it is smooth, satiny, and elastic.
8. Leave the dough to sit for about 30 minutes (but this was a warm, humid environment—in the U.S. you might need to put it in a slightly warm oven with a bowl of hot water in the oven). Punch it down (Q: and knead again?? I think we formed the loaves, etc. at this point.
9. Here we stopped to make “Rosca” (?) (Rose string?): She took a portion of the dough, divided it into 3 equal pieces, and rolled each piece out to about 17”, then pinched the 3 strands together at one end and braided them, (some of them she left in a long braid, others she shaped into a small ring), and also made a couple of different sized “mother and baby” rosca. To do that, first took a small ball of dough (size??) and rolled it into a cylinder (length? about 4 or 5 inches?) and how wide? (about an inch?). At one end, she pinched the dough on each side to form the neck, then made small slits at a 45ยบ angle about halfway (or a little less?) down from the neck on each side to pull away from the rest of the dough to make the arms, then a slit up the other end of the dough (not the end with the head) to make the legs (they formed the legs by gently spreading the dough out a little where the cut was made. )
After shaping the dough, put it in greased/oiled pans and leave to rise until (??)
This dough can be formed into various shapes, including baking in a greased loaf pan, making into round loaves, or the braids (hers was about 17” long), etc.
Our yeast was bad, so we still need to check the rising and baking time (and temperature).
If any of you Ghana sugar bread fans try this recipe, please e-mail me to know of your results.
13 comments:
"Little by little the chicken drinks water" My father says that quote all the time, it was a pelasure just seeing it in print...continue to enjoy the culture!=)
I have a bread machine recipe for ghanain sugar bread that has worked great! My daughter went to ghana with me and practically lived on the stuff(she's vegetarian).She says it's the real deal so here it is.
In the bottom of the machine put the:
-1 cup of water
-a teaspoon of lemon or lime juice
-2Tablespoon of vegetable oil\Canola
- 3/4 cup of sugar
-1 1/4 teaspoons salt
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons of Powdered milk.
3/4 teaspoon of nutmeg.
Put 3 cups of flour on top of that then activate your yeast in warm water with sugar(two teaspoons full of yeast) Pour that on top when it is frothing. Switch on the machine to the ordinary bread setting and wait 3:40 mins or so for your Ghanain Bread!
My father is a chief in the Brong Ahafo region.
Willis Taylor: Abbotsford BC Canada
Thank you for the recipe. I'll try it very soon and let you know how it turns out.
Willis:
Okay, yesterday I tried your recipe. My first question was if you used nonfat powdered milk (all I can find locally), or the whole milk powdered milk people prefer in Ghana. Secondly, were those 2 level or rounded teaspoons of yeast? Finally, how much water and sugar to soften the yeast? I used about 2 Tablespoons of warm water and a teaspoon of sugar, but it was a bit messy. Oh, and what kind of flour did you use? Bleached or unbleached? Brand name? I'm afraid my bread was undercooked (my breadmaker only wanted to cook it for about 2+ hours so I had to finish it in the oven, which made it hard, plus it was too heavy and doughy, which is why I wondered if I had enough yeast.) I'm not sure I needed to soften the yeast separately. I'll keep playing with this, though. Thanks for the recipe.
Hello Fran,
Thank you very much for the sugar bread recipe. I tried it with a few minor changes.
1. I halved the recipe, so I used 4 cups of flour instead.
2. I mixed everything by hand as I didn't have a bread maker.
Ingredients: 4 cups of flour, 1tsp salt, 2tsp nutmeg, 1 packet yeast (2 and 1/4 tsp), 6oz margarine,1 egg, 1 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of non-fat powdered milk to make 1 cup of milk.
I followed your instructions exactly as you had written them down. The first rising of the dough took a long time, so I finally turned on the oven for a minute (to 250F), turned it off, and placed the covered bowl with the dough in there. It took at least 4 hours to rise to double its volume.
I then punched the dough down, kneaded it a bit, then divided it into two halves. After shaping each half into a roughly cylindrical shape (no Rosca for me), I placed them into greased loaf pans, and then put them on top of the stove to rise. After they had each crested the rim of the pan by about 1 inch, I put them in the oven at 350F for 35mins. It came out pretty well. It tasted like sugar bread, but the texture was a bit more like bread from the US. I think it's because I used all-purpose flour instead of bread flour. Maybe I will try that next time. Also, I found out that there's this yeast called "Saf-Instant Gold" which works well on sweet breads, so I might try that next time to shorten the rising time.
Have you tried the bread again since you got here?
Thanks for the ghanaian sugerbread recipe, it turned out well.
Your ingredients list for sugar bread is missing the powdered milk and sugar
Thank you. I've updated the list.
@ Wildchild:
I'm going to try out your recipe tonight. Please let me know how much warm water and how much sugar to use with the yeast.
Thank you.
Hmmmm. If you're using my original sugar bread recipe, you add the liquid and dry ingredients together, and that means about 3/4 cup of warm water plus a package of dry milk powder (enough to make 1 standard U.S. cup,unless you're using metric measurements). For the full recipe, it's about 2 cups of sugar. Hope this helps. Let me know how it turns out.
I tried the tea bread this morning with nutmeg but will use mace next time.It did not taste like the tea bread I know but thanks for the basic recipe I will keep playing around with it and keep you updated
Post a Comment