Samoa: Pani Popo

One of the reasons I wanted to start this project is because I love to travel. With two school elementary school aged children, my yearly travels consist of trips to Disney. However, before I had children, I got to explore several different countries and I look forward to getting back out into the world once my children get older. Until then, I can explore the world through food. Samoa is a country I will never get to visit unless we win the lotto or come into a substantial amount of money. 

When I looked up recipes for Samoan bread, I found one recipe, for Pani Popo, over and over. Further research showed me that breads are not such a staple in Samoan homes. Rather, the Samoan diet focuses on local tubers and coconut, along with pork and fish. 

Pani Popo is an enriched dough cooked in a sweet coconut sauce. In Samoan, pani means bread and popo means coconut. Pani Popo is usually eaten as an after meal sweet or as a breakfast item. However, it can also be used with savory food. One such usage is the pani popo being split and stuffed with pork as a sandwich. Now, I don't eat pork, but I can imagine the mix of sweet and salty in a sandwich would be delicious.

I decided to use the King Arthur recipe for Pani Popo. I have had luck with their recipes and I am a big fan of their flours. This is a link to the recipe I used: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/pani-popo-samoan-coconut-buns-recipe.

Ingredients


Sweet Yeast Dough
3 1/2 cups (418g) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
1/4 cup (28g) Baker's Special Dry Milk
2 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast or active dry yeast
3/4 cup (170g) lukewarm water
2 large eggs
4 tablespoons (57g) butter, softened
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


Coconut Sauce
1 cup (113g) coconut milk powder
1 1/4 cups (283g) water
1/2 cup (99g) sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
pinch of salt

Instructions

1. Mix and knead the dough ingredients together by hand, mixer, or bread machine set on the dough cycle until you've made a smooth dough. If you're kneading in a stand mixer, it should take 5 to 7 minutes at second speed, and the dough should barely clean the sides of the bowl, perhaps sticking a bit at the bottom. In a bread machine (or by hand), it should form a soft, smooth ball.

2.Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl. Cover the bowl, and allow the dough to rise, at room temperature, until it's nearly doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. Rising may take longer, especially if you've kneaded by hand. Give it enough time to become quite puffy.

3. While the dough is rising, grease a 9" x 13" pan.

4.Gently deflate the dough, and transfer it to a lightly greased work surface. Divide it into 12 pieces.

5.Shape each piece into a rough ball by pulling the dough into a very small knot at the bottom, then rolling it under the palm of your hand into a smooth ball.

6.Place the rolls in the pan, spacing them evenly; they won't touch one another. Cover lightly with plastic wrap and set aside to rise, about 45 to 60 minutes. About halfway though the rise, preheat the oven to 350°F.

7.During the last 20 minutes of rising, prepare the coconut sauce. Combine all of the sauce ingredients in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until thickened slightly, about 5 to 7 minutes.

8.Pour the warm, thick sauce over the risen buns and bake in the preheated oven for 18 to 25 minutes, until the buns are golden brown on top and the internal temperature registers 190°F on an instant-read thermometer.

9.Serve the warm buns from the pan, scooping up the thick sauce with a spoon. The coconut milk will form a thin, chewy, intensely coconut skin on top of the buns. It's nearly as addicting as the crisp skin on a holiday turkey.

My notes: the dough was too sticky. I wound up adding more flour to achieve the desired consistency. I can never say this enough, get a baking scale and weigh your ingredients. I also wound up needing to cook them for a total of 27 minutes, but cooking time is all dependent on the oven. It came out as a batch bake and it was fine. Lastly, I could not find the baker's dry milk noted in the recipe, so I just used store brand non-fat milk powder.

The feedback from my tasters was 2/3 positive. My daughter loved it and wanted more of the coconut glaze. My son was not a fan. He decided he doesn't like coconut anymore, so that was a wrap for this bread. My husband enjoyed it and is looking forward to having it for breakfast tomorrow.

Next stop: Nigeria.

Algeria: M'semmen

When I decided to bake the breads of each country, I knew there would be overlaps. Some traditional breads are traditional to an entire region, not a specific country. Algeria turned out to be a country with several traditional breads that are native to North African countries, which includes Algeria.

M'semmen is the Arabic name for one of the many types of flatbreads traditional to the Maghreb region of Africa. Maghreb consists of: Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, and Mauritania. I am finding that there is rarely one recipe for a traditional bread. Rather, one bread can have many subtle variations as you move from baker to baker, town to town, and century to century. In it's basic form, m'semmen is a spiced and oiled flatbread that can be cooked on a skillet. 

A quick google search produced several different recipes,  so I went with a basic recipe that used ingredients I had on hand. The recipe below can be found here: https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/algerian-flatbread-241505

INGREDIENTS

3 cups finely ground whole-wheat flour (preferably Indian atta or King Arthur whole-wheat)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup olive oil, divided
1 1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon turmeric

PREPARATION
Make dough:
1) Stir together flour, salt, and 2 tablespoons oil in a large bowl. Slowly stir in water until a soft dough forms. If necessary, add more water 1 tablespoon at a time. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead, dusting with just enough flour to keep dough from sticking, until smooth and elastic, about 15 minutes.
2) Form dough into a ball and coat with 2 tablespoons oil in a bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let dough stand at warm room temperature 1 hour.
3) Stir together cumin, paprika, turmeric, and remaining 1/4 cup oil in a small bowl.

Form flatbreads:
4) Divide dough into 12 equal pieces and, keeping remaining pieces covered with plastic wrap, flatten 1 piece of dough into a disk. Roll out disk as thinly as possible (into a 9-inch round) on a lightly floured surface with a 6-inch wooden dowel or a rolling pin. Spread 1 teaspoon spiced oil on dough with your fingertips, then roll up tightly into a long cylinder and coil into a tight spiral. Transfer to a large sheet of parchment paper, then loosely cover with plastic wrap.
Make 11 more spirals in same manner.

Finish and cook flatbreads:
5) Tape another sheet of parchment to a work surface and on it roll out 1 spiral of dough into a round approximately 6 inches in diameter. Heat a dry large cast-iron skillet or griddle over medium heat until hot, then cook flatbread, turning once, until puffed and browned in spots, 3 to 4 minutes total. Transfer to a plate and cover with a kitchen towel. Roll out and cook 11 more flatbreads, stacking them on plate.

This was such a satisfying dough. It was soft and elastic and this was my favorite bread to knead so far. I used ceramic frying pan to cook these as I do not own a skillet. I used level 4 heat on my burner and had not problems with cooking them. I also did not let it rest for an hour. I would estimate that the dough rested 30 minutes before rolling it out.

This was another crowd pleaser. My husband ate 3 pieces with dinner and found the m'semmen useful for scooping up the chickpea curry that we had for dinner. My 6 year old son followed suit and declared that this was another thumb's up. My daughter was not quite as enthusiastic, stating that it was not her favorite bread, but I did notice she ate one and a half pieces during dinner.

Next stop: Samoa

Mexico: Concha

 I consider myself lucky. I live in an area that is ethnically diverse and a person does not have to travel very far to find almost any type of food one could desire. The town I work in has a very large Mexican and El Salvadorian population and I love browsing the cases in the local bakeries. Concha always caught my eye, as it is such a pretty and unique baked good, but it was not until a few months ago that I tried one and enjoyed eating it.

Concha, which means shell in Spanish, have been ubiquitous in Mexican bakeries for a long time. When the European settlers came in the colonial era, they brought with them enriched breads such as brioche. Mexican bakers adapted these enriched recipes and put their own spin on them, creating a sweet loaf with the hallmark shell streusel design on top.

In recent years, social media has elevated the status of concha and bakers have tried a variety of ways of making the concha unique to varying degrees of success. They are served in high end restaurants and are no longer only found in Mexican bakeries, though I imagine the concha found in those bakeries are probably tastier than the mass produced variety.

I used the recipe found here: https://www.mexicoinmykitchen.com/concha-recipe/. This is also the website that I used for the pan de muerto and there are so many other recipes to explore there.

INGREDIENTS:

RECIPE FOR 16 CONCHAS
500 grams (3-¾ cups) of All-Purpose Flour, plus extra for dusting
125 grams (½ cup + 2 Tbsp) white Sugar
7.5 grams ( 2- ½ tsp) Instant Dry Yeast
3 grams (½ tsp) Salt
100 grams ( ½ cup) Non-Salted Butter, at room temperature
100 ml Eggs* (use a measuring cup, it equals about 6-½ Tbps )
5 ml (1 tsp) Vanilla extract*
120 ml (½ cup) Milk (warm).

TOPPING:
100 grams (½ cup plus 1 tsp) Vegetable Shortening (extra to grease the dough and baking sheets)
100 grams ( ⅞ of a cup) Confectioner Sugar
120 grams (1 cup) All-Purpose Flour
5 grams ( 2-½ tsp) Cocoa powder (for half of the topping, if desired)
2.5 grams ( 1 tsp) Cinnamon (optional for the white topping)


1)Have each ingredient ready and measured (by weight) before starting, and thoroughly read the notes above. Mix the all-purpose flour, yeast, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer at medium speed, just to mix it well.


2)   Add the butter and mix well (using the stand mixer with the hook attachment), then mix in the eggs and vanilla extract and slowly pour the milk in little by little until the dough looks cohesive (you may need less or more milk, as some flours soak up more liquid than others). Keep beating the mixture for about 7 minutes at medium speed. Add a little more flour around the inside of the bowl (2-3 tablespoons), just enough for the dough to separate from the container. The dough should be soft and slightly sticky. Your dough should feel very soft and elastic.

3). Place the dough on your floured working table and knead it just enough to shape it into a ball.
Place this ball in a large greased bowl to rest. Cover it with a plastic wrap (or wax paper) and a kitchen napkin. Let the dough rest in a warm place for about 2 hours until it doubles in size. 

Making the Concha toppings

4) While the dough is rising, you can prepare the sugar topping. Soften the shortening with your spatula until it is very creamy, and then add the confectioner’s sugar. Finally, add in the flour little by little (if using, add the ground cinnamon in this step). Set this paste aside to use later. If you’re making half of the Conchas with the chocolate topping, then divide the paste in two and add the cocoa powder to one half, mixing it until it integrates very well.

5) Once the dough has risen and doubled in size, place it onto a floured surface and let it rest for about 5 minutes. Divide the dough into 16 small balls (60 grams each). To shape the balls, lightly flour your hands and place each small ball on the working surface and gently press down with your hand, rotating your hand to form the balls.

6) Place them onto greased baking sheets and continue until you’ve finished shaping all of the dough.
Using your hands, grease the top of each ball with a little shortening. Do not skip this step, as it will help the topping adhere to the dough.

7) To add the topping, flour your hands and divide the topping paste into 16 balls. Use your hands to press down on each one to form a small, flat circle (I like to use a sheet of plastic, like when making tortillas). Place this disk onto the ball of dough, and press it down very firmly.

8) Once you’ve finished placing the topping on the buns, use a concha cutter or a knife to decorate them with the traditional concha shape.

9) Allow the conchas to rise in a warm place until they are almost double in size. Depending on the temperature of your kitchen, this step could take anywhere from 1 to 2 hours. Do not leave them to rise any longer, because if you let them grow too much they will collapse inside the oven. Bake in a preheated oven at 325º degrees for 20 minutes, or until the bottom of the conchas are lightly golden. If you are placing more than one baking sheet in your oven, rotate them after 10-12 minutes. Move the sheet on the bottom rack to the top rack and vice versa to have an even baking.

My notes: the author of the recipe linked above offers some great tips. I cannot emphasize enough measuring your ingredients by weight. A baker's scale is not expensive and can make a huge difference.

They looked alright. I chose to do a cinnamon streusel and was not expecting it to be this brown. I think that I did not flatten out the ball of streusel to the right depth.

That said, this was a hit. It was sweet enough to be a dessert item, but just. This will make a wonderful breakfast. My husband already said he is taking 3 for breakfast tomorrow and my children gobbled them down. This was fun to make. The dough was soft and easy to work and the streusel design can be done easily (though, not perfectly) with a butter knife.

This was the last recipe for Mexico and my children are going to alternate picking the next country whose breads I bake. We are spinning our globe and whatever country my child's finger is on is up next. 

Our next stop...Algeria.

Mexico: Bolillo

 There is little as comforting as the smell of baking bread. The humblest of loaves can leave a home smelling warm and cozy. While breads with exotic ingredients or breads formed into detailed shapes can be exciting for the eyes and the tongue, a plain crusted loaf is a staple in almost every country for a reason.

In Mexico, the bolillo is a celebrated savory loaf. Like many traditional breads, there are many variations and many names for this loaf within Mexico. In the Yucatan, bolillo is called barras. In Sonora and Guadalajara, it is named birotes. Some recipes call for sourdough starters, some do not. I am certain that a person could spend a long time just baking the different variations of this simple loaf.

Mexico is known for its sweet breads and flat breads and corn based breads. They are revered for good reason. I live in an area with access to wonderful Mexican and Central American baked goods and have enjoyed trying them. But, I never ate a crusted loaf of traditional Mexican bread before.

I used a simple recipe, found here: https://www.mamalatinatips.com/2020/04/traditional-mexican-bolillos-easy-recipe.html

Ingredients
3 1/2 cups bread flour (approx 500 gr)
2 teaspoons salt (approx 15 gr)
2 teaspoons active yeast (approx 7 gr)
1 1/3 cups lukewarm water (approx 300 ml)
1 teaspoon sugar
Oil of your choice to grease bowl

In a medium-size bowl, mix flour and salt until combined. Make a well in the middle and add the yeast.

Pour a little bit of the water on top of the yeast and mix with a fork or with your fingers until dissolved, add the sugar and mix a little more. Add the rest of the water and using your hands, mix it in the bowl.

Pour out the dough onto a clean surface and mix with one hand (using the other hand to push the flour with the bench scraper) until all the ingredients are integrated, no more, please don’t over mix. This will take about 5 minutes.

Form a ball. This ball will look and feel very rough and lumpy. Put it inside a greased medium bowl, cover with plastic or a wet towel.

Place in a warm space away from drafts and let it rest until doubled in size. Depending on the weather and humidity, this can take 1-2 hours.

Remove the dough from the bowl and place it on a clean, lightly floured surface. Gently punch it and knead it for a few seconds, just enough to form a ball or roll.

Divide it into 8 pieces for 7-inch bolillos or into 16 pieces for mini-bolillos

Roll each piece to form balls, cover them, and let them rest for 20 minutes. This will help to relax the dough.

Flour a clean surface and start shaping the bolillos. Take one ball, turn it over and with your fingers start rolling the dough tightly.

Fold edges toward the center and keep rolling. Then, with your pinky fingers, push and roll at the same time, about half an inch from the edges, to form the rounded ends of the bolillo.

Then, with your fingertips, push the center of the dough to flatten it a little. Repeat and place them on a baking sheet (you don’t need to grease it).

Loosely cover with plastic wrap or a light kitchen towel and let them rest until double in size. Depending on the weather and humidity this can take between 1 and 1.5 hours.

Once they have doubled in size, pre-heat the oven at 450 °F (230 °C) and place the small baking sheet (or oven-proof container) with water in the lower rack of the oven.

Right before baking, sprinkle a little bit of flour on top of the bolillos, and, using a very sharp knife or razor and holding it at a 45-degree angle, make a long cut from one side to the other. 

Finally, before placing them in the oven lightly spray them with water. This is important, the water on top and the warm water in the baking sheet already in the oven will create steam which will make that beautiful crust on the bolillo.

Bake for 20-22 minutes or until golden brown top and bottom. Take them out of the oven and immediately transfer to a cooling rack.

Important note for baking: If you make mini-bolillos, start checking them after 18 minutes because they could be done sooner since they are smaller

Result:

They were not as pretty as the pictures in the original recipe. They looked a little rough and ready, but had a wonderful crispy crust and a soft interior. My taste testers (husband, 9 year old daughter, 6 year old son) gobbled it up and all enthusiastically declared that they all liked it. This was a fun dough to work and shape and I hope to make this again.

Mexico: Pan de Muerto

This is my favorite time of year. The leaves have changed, the temperature is cool and there are so many holidays to celebrate. A holiday that I do not celebrate, but that I find so beautiful is Dia de Muertos. The Day of the Dead is a holiday celebrated in Mexico and several other Latin American countries. It is a holiday that honors those loved ones that have passed on. I daresay that movies, such as 'Coco' introduced many Americans to the beautiful celebration of life, love and family that takes place between 10/31 and 11/2 every year, with 11/2 being the actual date of Dia de Muertos.

During this holiday, offerings are left at gravesites and altars for the deceased loved ones. A common offering is Pan de Muerto. It is a sweetbread that can be found in Mexican bakeries in the fall. It's shape is designed with meaning behind it, though the meaning is personal. For example, the ball in the center can be either a tear, a skull, or a heart, depending on who you ask. The basic shape is a rounded loaf, with bones crossing atop the loaf and a ball in the middle. Although, even the basic shape is not a rule, there are many varieties and some shapes are specific to different regions. There can be a variety of flavorings used as well, though orange is a common flavoring.

I used the recipe found at https://www.mexicoinmykitchen.com/pan-de-muerto-mexican-bread-of-dead/#wprm-recipe-container-3006.

Ingredients

500 grams 4 cups All Purpose flour
2 Tablespoons active-dry yeast
100 grams sugar ½ cup
1 teaspoon salt
80 grams butter at room temperature + 30 grs. to brush the bread after baking.
80 grams unsalted margarine room temperature plus more for bowl and pans.
4 large eggs room temperature
Orange zest from 2 oranges
60 ml. warm water about 110 degrees
1 teaspoon orange blossom water or orange essence
1 large egg lightly beaten to brush the bread
Sugar to decorate the bread at the end.

Instructions

1. Place the 4 eggs, margarine, salt and half of the sugar in the mixer bowl. Using the Hook attachment start working the dough for about 2 minutes. Add the All-purpose flour in small amounts alternating with the water. Add the dry active yeast and mix until well combined.

2. Continue now by adding one at a time the butter, the orange zest, the rest of the sugar and the orange blossom essence, mixing well after each addition until soft dough forms.

3. Get the dough out of the mixer bowl and place onto work surface; knead until smooth, dusting work surface lightly with flour as needed if the dough begins to stick. Knead for a couple more minutes. Coat the interior of a large bowl with margarine; transfer dough to bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let stand in a warm place until it doubles in size, about 45 minutes to 1 hour.

4. Transfer the dough from the bowl onto working surface, separate 300 grams of the dough to form the decorative bones later on. Cut the rest of the dough in 70grs. pieces or in two equal pieces if making 2 large breads. (Making sure to separate 300 grams of dough to form the decorative bones.). Prepare 2 greased baking sheets, set aside.

Shaping the Pan de Muerto bread

1. Take one portion of the dough and place in the palm of your hand, we put our fingers in and add a bit of pressure and shape each piece into a tight ball rolling the dough on the surface. This is called “bolear” in Spanish (if, at first they do not look fine to you, do not worry you will achieve this with practice) Place on prepared baking sheets 2 inches apart. Press the dough slightly.

2. Now place the remaining 300 grs of dough we reserved onto the work surface, dusting with flour if needed, and knead until the flour is integrated perfectly (this is for the bones to decorate our breads).
We take small portions of dough and roll in small logs putting a little pressure with the fingers to form the bones. Once your bones are already formed (we need 2 for each bread). Brush each roll forming a cross on top of each bun with a mix made out of the remaining beaten egg with 1 Tablespoon of water, once we marked the cross with the brush we place the bones as it shows in the above picture, cutting any extra dough.

3.And finally, with the leftover dough form small balls, varnish the center of the buns where the bones come together and put the ball there as shown in the picture. Cover baking sheets with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until buns are touching and doubled in size, 1 ½ to 2 hours.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add a pinch of salt to our mix of egg and water and brush the buns before placing in the oven. Transfer buns to oven and bake until golden brown, 15 to 17 minutes, approximately, if making the small buns. If you are making the larger version the baking time will change a little. Remember that every oven is different, (when the bottom of the bread is golden it indicates that they are ready). Transfer to a wire rack and cool to room temperature.

5. Once your Pan de Muerto bread has a completely cooled brush with the remaining butter and then dust with sugar.

Notes
Instructions are given to work the dough in the Electric Mixer but it can be done by hand.

My notes: I halved the recipe. It was an easy recipe to half. Also, this was a fun dough to work with, very soft and the orange zest and orange essence made the dough smell heavenly. The total baking time was 30 minutes.

We all loved it. It had a slight crunch around the outside and was soft and buttery inside. The orange flavor came through and the slight sweetness from the dusting of sugar was just enough. A meaningful, unique and very tasty loaf.