ButterflapI’ve shared a few homemade bread recipes on my blog over the years like my very popular Sweet Bread Rolls and Plait Bread so it’s no surprise that I love bread – more so homemade bread and I sure do love Butterflap.  It all stems from growing up in a Guyanese household where we always had fresh baked bread available.  Sometimes my mom would bake bread but she’s was a working woman, a teacher to be exact, so she didn’t always have time to whip up a batch of bread.  Other times we would just buy from a nearby bakery and the bakeries sold the same bread you would make at home, no preservatives no funny ingredients.

Butterflap

At Christmas it’s traditional to have loaves and loaves of homemade bread because we would eat it with Pepperpot from Christmas all the way to New Year’s Day.  Fast forward to today and I still love good homemade bread.  While I don’t make it often enough, whenever I do it never lasts!  Butterflap is one of my favorites along with tennis rolls and I recently decided to make my own.  Butterflap isn’t a complicated recipe but there are a few tricks to successfully making this.

Butterflap

Butterflap is made with white bread that is folded with layers of butter in between.  When the bread bakes, the butter melts and creates the softest, most buttery bread there ever was!  I like it on its own, fresh out of the oven but a slice of aged cheddar is great tucked right in between the layers.   Did you know that Jamaica has their version of Butterflap called cocobread?  It’s a bit denser that Guyanese butterflap and it’s great with a hot beef patty!

Butterflap

I made this recipe a couple of times when testing and here’s what I found worked best:

  • Use softened butter versus melted butter between the layers. You can use more butter when it’s softened and the melted butter runs out from between the layers whereas the softened butter melts during the cooking and seeps into the dough.
  • After folding, press along the edges with your finger to form a seal. The seam will open up during the rising process but prevents the Butterflaps from opening all the way out when in the oven.
  • Brush with melted butter after it’s done baking. This adds not only a nice glossy finish but also even more buttery flavor.

SCROLL DOWN FOR BUTTERFLAP VIDEO AND RECIPE

Butterflap

Get the Recipe BUTTERFLAP

Servings: 12
5 from 2 votes

Ingredients
 

  • 1 tbsp dry active yeast
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • 1 1/3 cup warm water
  • 4 cups all purpose flour
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 4 tbsp butter, melted and cooled
  • 6-7 tbsp softened butter

Instructions
 

  • In a bowl add warm water, sugar and yeast and stir to combine. Let sit for 10 minutes until the yeast become foamy.
  • Mix flour and salt in a bowl.
  • Add flour, salt and melted butter to the yeast mix and mix to form a dough. Knead dough for about 10 minutes until smooth and no longer sticky. This can be done in a mixer using a hook attachment.
  • Form dough into a ball and place in large bowl and cover loosely with cling wrap. Place in a warm place and allow to rise until doubled in size, about 45 to 60 minutes.
  • Punch down dough and turn out onto the counter. Knead for about 30 seconds then cut into 12 equal pieces.
  • Form each dough into a ball then roll to form a circle. Spread about ½ tsp softened butter on the dough, but not on the edges. Fold in half then spread with butter, then fold in half again for form a rectangle. See above video for technique.
  • Gently press the edges together then place on an ungreased baking sheet pan.
  • Repeat and place all the butterflap on the pan about 2 inches apart.
  • Cover loosely with cling wrap in a warm place and allow to rise, about 30 minutes.
  • Remove cling wrap then place in an oven preheated to 375 degrees and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and immediately brush with melted butter.
  • Serve warm.

Video

Author: Jehan Powell