Caribbean butter bread recipe

Looking for a simple bread recipe to create a solid sandwich loaf? Then this is the bread you need. A Caribbean butter bread loaf that is smooth and sturdy. Perfect for eating alone or creating the perfect sandwich.

  


I always have a resolution that I am going to eat less flour. And I usually always fail.

But it's hard when I want to share with you guys my food. I could NOT share this homemade bread recipe with you guys. So here's to breaking resolutions.

Baking bread is an integral part of the community in the Caribbean. We bake and we share. It's never one or two loaves.

White bread is usually my go-to bread, and this butter bread is one of those on the top of my list.

  

What is butter bread?

This Caribbean butter bread is a type of bread that is smooth and doused in butter during the folding process. It's a nice buttery, soft inside, firm outside loaf.

This bread is sandwich bread, like the hard dough bread.

Caribbean people especially bought a lot of this butter bread loaf and hops bread from the bakery. People especially loved it with butter or some cheese or even guava jelly on it.

What makes butter bread different from other bread recipes is that we don't make these in loaf pans.

Ingredients for butter bread, Caribbean style

This bread recipe, like most basic bread, uses simple ingredients. There isn't anything extravagant needed from your pantry.

• All-purpose flour
• Salt
• Butter
• Granulated sugar
• Instant yeast
• Vegetable shortening
• Whole milk,
• Warm water

Equipment for making butter bread

• Mixer with the dough hook attachment (optional)
• Baking sheet
• Parchment paper
• Rolling pin
• Plastic wrap

How to make butter bread

I always make my bread in my Kitchen-Aid mixer. For me, it beats the hassle.

I throw all my ingredients into the bowl, put on my dough hook, and let the motor do the mixing.

I don't have the mixer on too high of a speed when using the hook. I do make sure it runs long enough to activate the gluten in the flour. A moderate speed (Speed 2) is good.

KitchenAid says that kneading for 2 minutes in your mixer is equivalent to kneading for 10-12 minutes by hand.

It's sometimes a good idea to lightly oil the dough hook prior to using it. This helps the dough to not "climb" when the mixture starts to come together.

Also, note that if the dough is continuously "climbing" it has been mixed enough.

The first thing is to make sure you have your baking sheet ready before getting your dough ready to roll.

In your mixer bowl, or in a large mixing bowl, combine your dry ingredients of flour, yeast, salt, and sugar.

Then add your wet ingredients of shortening, milk, and warm water to the flour mixture until a smooth, soft dough ball is formed.

Once completed, leave the mixture in the bowl, and cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel. This we will leave for about an hour so that it yields.

  

When your hour is up, and your dough has at least doubled, punch the mixture down.

Then go ahead and divide it into two parts.

Now would be a good to time get your oven on and preheated. (see tip below)

Now we want to roll each dough out on an oiled surface or you can also use a silicone pad. You can also try a lightly floured surface, but be careful not to add too much extra flour.

Try to get it into as much of a circle as you can.

Take some of your melted butter now, and brush that all over the rolled-out smooth dough.

  

Now we need to roll the dough in as tightly as possible slowly. Don't worry about butter being pushed out. But do roll slowly.

Place the rolled bread dough on the baking sheet with parchment paper. This bread is a bit soft and long so you need to be careful when moving to the sheet. Having your sheet ready and close by is important.

Also, be mindful of where the end seam is on the roll and where you want to place it on the baking sheet. I prefer to put the end of the roll at the bottom so that when it's baking, there's less likely a chance of it opening up.

  

Leave the loaves to yield again for another 20 minutes.

Just before you are going to place the sheet in the preheated oven, brush the loaves of bread with whatever melted butter you have leftover.

Bake for 20 - 25 minutes, until golden brown. Cooking time can vary based on your oven. But you basically want it to be a nice golden brown.

How can I tell my bread is done?

Sometimes gauging that your bread is baked and ready to come out can sometimes be a little tricky. After numerous failures, here are three things that help me verify.

1. The color of the bread is a nice golden brown. If I see pale spots here and there I usually give it a little more time to finish up.

2. Take the internal temperature of the bread. I use my instant-read thermometer to verify that the internal temperature is about 190 degrees. (sometimes to 200)

3. The bread has a hollow sound. When I tap on the bottom of the loaf, there is a hollow sound.

  

Best way to store homemade bread

After all that work, we would want to make sure we get to keep this bread as fresh as possible for as long as we can.

Using a bread box is always a great option. Some of them keep the temperature perfect for the bread to avoid fast molding. If you don't have a bread box, a good airtight container will be a great substitute.

You can also wrap the bread in plastic wrap. It retains the moisture of the loaf but it does let bread that is crispy on the outside lose its hard crust.

Freezing bread in slices has been the best thing I've been doing. I would wait until the bread is cool, slice it up into individual slices, then freeze the loaf.

Can I make this in a bread machine?

This bread can also be made in a bread machine if you have one. Just follow their process directions as this may vary depending on the machine.

Tips for baking bread

Here are a few things that helped me along my bread baking journey.

Pick the best yeast: There are two types: Dry active and Instant/Rapid Rise. Dry active yeast must be activated in warm water before use (see tip below for temperature of water). Instant yeast can just be added as-is.

Be careful of the water temperature. Be careful of how hot you make the water that you are going to use. Slightly warm water works best. You can do a heat test by putting two fingers all the way into the water. If while you are pulling it out slowly it's too hot, then the water is too hot for the yeast.

Store your yeast well. Store dry yeast in the freezer once it has been opened. Unopened yeast should be stored in a cool dry place.  It keeps the best there.

Preheat your oven. Try to make sure that it's heated for at least 20 minutes before you put your bread in there.

Let the bread cool. Well, I fail at this all the time. Hot bread and cheese are a must when the bread is baking. But it is definitely better to cut cooled bread. There are no cracking or indentations made. If you look at my main pic you might see a crack in the bread. Yup, I sliced this as soon as it came out to take pics. I also find it better to slice the bread up side down. (bottom of loaf facing up) It gives a cleaner cut.

  

Good items to have to bake bread:

A baking stone: Something I need to invest in for myself. Not just for bread but also for pizza. A baking stone helps to create a crust that doesn't crack and allows the bread to bake all the way through and not over brown

Oven thermometer: this little gadget will let you know for sure what the temperature of your bread/meat is and not just based on your oven's digital reading

Scale: This makes the measuring of dry ingredients (especially flour) much easier. An off measure of flour can easily mess your bread up.

Baking Sheet: Perfect for baking things that do not fit into the traditional loaf pans.

  

If you were able to make this recipe, please let me know and give me a rating on the recipe card.

 

Here are some dessert bread recipes

• Coconut sweet bread
• Orange currant bread
• Bread pudding

Here are some great meats to eat with that bread:

• Stew oxtail
• Stew chicken
• Guinness lamb stew
• Steamed conch