Recipe for Fried Bakes.
Bakes are a form of fried bread. It is very popular in the Caribbean.
Ingredients
- 4 cups Plain Flour (sifted)
- 4 tsp Baking Powder (sifted)
- 1/2 Salt
- 3/4 tsp Sugar
- 1 cup Lukewarm Water
- Vegetable Oil for frying
Directions
- Mix dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt and sugar) in a large bowl.
- Mix well with a spoon.
- Make a well in center and pour in all the water.
- Here comes the fun part. Mix in the water with clean fingers until water is evenly distibuted.
- Knead dough until it comes away from the sides of the bowl. Add more flour if dough is too sticky. This should take about 3 minutes. Do not over knead.
- Cover dough with a kitchen towel and allow to rise for 30 minutes.
- Roll dough into medium sized balls with flour covered hands. This should make approximately 12-16 balls.
- Cover once more and allow to rise for another 30 minutes.
- Flatten into 1/4 inch thick disks.
- Heat oil and frying bakes on medium heat. Fry until golden brown on both sides.
- Drain on paper towels.
Served With
There are several ways to eat bake apart from the obvious which is plain. Here are some of my favorites. All you have to do is half the fried treat and add.
- With a tuna fish filling. Drain 1 can of tuna. Crush with a fork. Add Mayonnaise (or sandwich spread works, really great too), a pinch of salt and pepper. Mix.
- Cheese filling. Same as above but with grated cheddar cheese instead of tuna.
- Saltfish filling. This takes a little more work but is totally worthy it. Soak the fish in plain water for an hour, changing the water every 15 minutes. Tear fish in rough pieces. In a heavy pan, add a small amount to oil. Saute chopped onion, celery, tomato and celery with salt and pepper. Be careful with salt though. Add the fish and cook for 1 minute more. That’s it.
- If you like to keep things simple, peanutbutter and jam work great too.