Bread. The most basic of all food items, the foundation stone of every meal, and the core of all diets. And while the base is common amongst all bread, the same cannot be said about the final product. Different regions and cultures have different methods to prepare their loaves of bread.
Indian bread, in particular, carries a long history with them. But today, we’ll talk about one of their West Indian counterparts. Today’s recipe is the very hygienic and delicious Creole bread from St. Lucia, the island nation that is so beautiful, it is called the Helen of Troy among islands.
Prep Time: 220 minutes
Yields: 12 slices
INGREDIENTS
- Warm Water: ½ cup
- Instant yeast: 2 teaspoons
- Sugar: 2 tablespoons
- White Flour: 5 -8 cups
- Coconut milk (low-fat): 1 ½ cups
- Salt: 1 teaspoon
DIRECTIONS
Mix the warm water, yeast, 2 teaspoons of sugar, and 2 TABLESPOONS of flour in a small bowl and set aside for 10 minutes. (Unusual to put the flour into proofing.).
Warm milk, oil, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and salt in the microwave for about 20 seconds-stir together and set aside. Don’t let the mixture boil, you just want to heat it a bit.
Sift 5 cups of flour into a large bowl.
Once the milk mixture has cooled enough that you can comfortably stick a finger in it, mix it into the yeast.
Add all wet ingredients to the flour.
Mix with a wooden spoon until a dough forms. If sticky, add flour until you have a dough that you can knead.
Dust your counter with flour and knead the dough until smooth, about 5-8 minutes. If the dough becomes sticky as you knead just sprinkle with flour as required. You may have to add up to a cup of flour at this stage depending on the humidity of your kitchen.
Put in a greased bowl, cover with a damp cloth and let rise until double in size.
Punch down and knead for two or three minutes.
Make it into two large or six small round balls.
Place on a greased pan-let rise again, bake at 400 F/205 C for 30-35 minutes until the tops brown and the bottom of a loaf, when tapped, sounds hollow.
