Trinidadian Coconut Bake

Author Notes

While I am comfortable trying out most recipes in the kitchen, I do have one phobia: baking bread. I have had too many bad experiences with leaden dough to venture to make my own bread. I feel like I don’t have the right hands. But it’s a skill I vow to keep working on. This recipe, for a very simple coconut milk-based bread, is a good place to start. You don’t need to have any fancy machinery or worry about the freshness of your yeast, and you’re likely to have the ingredients in your pantry. It’s also one of the food items my husband feels most nostalgic about from his childhood in Trinidad. Ahmoo, his sister’s mother-in-law and a legendary cook, would make this often, with coconut milk she had grated herself from fresh coconuts, and the results would be ethereal. The name “bake” is quite flexible—in fact, many of the versions people eat in Trinidad and the rest of the Caribbean involve fried dough, rather than baking it, which can be confusing to the unaccustomed. The result is a focaccia or ciabatta- like bread is used for sandwiches—often with buljol (saltfish) or smoked herring. You can try my recipe for buljol here: http://spiceboxtravels.com/2013/03/28/buljol-salt-fish-for-a-trini-easter/

The recipe is adapted from Trinidadian blogger Candi Cooks http://candicooks.wordpress.com/2011/04/17/bake-and-buljol/
—Beautiful, Memorable Food