Hard Dough Bread
I have 4 loaves of bread in my freezer. I tested this recipe from one of my cookbooks and the instructions weren’t clear so I had to test it a few times to get it right. The original recipe was very light which was unlike hard dough bread and more like white bread; I adjusted it and baked a second batch at 4 am. Yes 4 am – my 7 week old decided he wanted to stay up all night so why not bake? Well here’s why not. He finally fell asleep, and so did I and my bread just kept rising, and rising and rising. When I finally woke up I was greeted with a loaf that was over-proofed and therefore was lumpy, bumpy and collapsed in some areas. 
My third and final attempt was successful; I produced 2 beautiful loaves of bread that were downright tasty. My Jamaican husband gave it a stamp of approval; it is not as dense as typical hard dough bread but it looked and tasted just like Jamaican hard dough bread. We actually like that it’s not as dense as the typical hard dough bread. Let’s just say we ate way too much bread in one week. Bread freezes well so I placed 4 loaves in my freezer which we will eat within the next month. Thank you for reading my little spiel about bread now go forth and make a couple loaves.
Get the Recipe HARD DOUGH BREAD
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ tsp yeast
- 2 cups warm water
- 6 cups all purpose flour
- ¼ cup milk
- 2 tbsp sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp shortening
- Butter to brush the top
Instructions
- In a large bowl place warm water and sprinkle with yeast. Let yeast proof for 10 minutes. While the yeast proofs, place flour, sugar, salt and shortening into a bowl and rub the shortening into the mixture. Add milk and mix to combine.
- Once the yeast and water mixture begins to look somewhat foamy, add dry ingredients and knead on a floured surface to form a stiff dough. Knead dough for 7 minutes until smooth.
- Place the dough in a large clean bowl and cover with a kitchen towel and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour or until the dough has doubled.
- Punch down the dough and divided into halves. Shape into 2 loaves and place into 2 9x5 inch greased loaf pans. Cover and let rise in a warm place for about 30-45 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees while the loaves rise.
- Place bread in preheated oven and bake for 10 minutes then reduce the heat to 350 degrees and continue to bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and remove from the baking pan and place a cooling rack. Brush the top with butter.
Recipe adapted from Culinaria the Caribbean
