Antiguan butter bread

Ingredients

Dough

• 500 gstrong white flour
• 60 gcaster sugar
• 8 gfine salt
• 7 ginstant dried yeast
• 250 mlwhole milk, warmed to blood heat
• 1large egg, beaten
• 100 gbutter, softened and cut into pieces

To finish

• 1egg yolk beaten with 1 tbsp milk, for glazing
• 20 gbutter, melted, for brushing after baking

To serve

• butter, for spreading
• guava jam or cheese, for filling

Directions

1. Mix the flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a large bowl, keeping the salt and yeast apart until the flour is between them.
2. Add the warm milk and the beaten egg and bring it together into a shaggy dough, then knead 6–8 minutes until smooth.
3. Now work in the softened butter a piece at a time, kneading between each addition. The dough will fall apart and look greasy at first and come back together after about 8 minutes of work.
4. Knead a further 5 minutes until the dough is glossy, elastic and passes the windowpane test, stretching thin enough to see light through without tearing.
5. Cover and prove 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes in a warm place, until doubled; enriched doughs rise slowly because the fat weighs the gluten down.
6. Knock back gently, divide into three, roll each piece into a 30 cm rope and plait them, or roll the whole dough into a rectangle, roll it up tightly and drop it seam down into a buttered 900 g loaf tin.
7. Cover and prove a second time, 45–60 minutes, until the dough has risen just above the rim of the tin and a fingertip pressed into it springs back slowly.
8. Brush with the egg wash and bake at 180°C (350°F) for 35–40 minutes, until deep golden brown and hollow-sounding when tapped underneath, with an internal temperature of about 92°C (200°F).
9. Brush the hot crust with melted butter, which is what gives Antiguan butter bread its soft, shining top, and cool on a rack at least 30 minutes before cutting.
10. Serve sliced thick with butter, or split and filled with cheese for the classic bread-and-cheese breakfast.

Technique

• This is a soft, sweet, enriched loaf in the wider Caribbean tradition of tea breads, closer to a brioche than to a plain sandwich loaf, and it is expected to be sweet enough to eat on its own.
• Add the butter after the gluten has developed. Put in at the start it coats the flour and the dough never builds enough strength to hold the rise.
• Do not rush the second prove. An under-proved enriched loaf tears at the side in the oven and stays dense in the middle.
• Brushing melted butter over the hot crust softens it as it cools, which is the loaf’s signature and the reason for the name.

Substitutions

• No instant yeast: use 20 g of fresh yeast, crumbled into the warm milk with a pinch of the sugar and left 10 minutes to froth.
• Coconut milk can replace half the whole milk, giving a faintly sweeter crumb that keeps a day longer.

Variations

• Baked as a plait and dusted with sugar for Sunday tea.
• Coconut bread, the same dough with 100 g of grated coconut and a teaspoon of mixed spice worked through.
• Made as small round buns and split around a slab of cheddar, the Antiguan bread-and-cheese snack.

History

Baked in island bakeries and eaten with cheese or ham; a fixture of Antiguan Sunday tea.

Frequently asked questions

What is Antiguan butter bread?

Antiguan butter bread is a bread & pastry from Antigua and Barbuda: soft rich loaf enriched with butter, sliced for tea or sandwiches. Baked in island bakeries and eaten with cheese or ham; a fixture of Antiguan Sunday tea.

How long does Antiguan butter bread take to make?

Antiguan butter bread takes 30 min of preparation and 2 hr 30 min, including proving of cooking. The recipe makes 1 large loaf, 12 slices. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Antiguan butter bread?

Yes, within limits. No instant yeast: use 20 g of fresh yeast, crumbled into the warm milk with a pinch of the sugar and left 10 minutes to froth. Coconut milk can replace half the whole milk, giving a faintly sweeter crumb that keeps a day longer.

What is the most important thing to get right in Antiguan butter bread?

Knock back gently, divide into three, roll each piece into a 30 cm rope and plait them, or roll the whole dough into a rectangle, roll it up tightly and drop it seam down into a buttered 900 g loaf tin.