Hops Bread

Breads and Bakes
Hops Bread

adsense300x250textandimage

Hops Bread! Oh how I miss Hops Bread! My memory takes me back to eating my hot hops bread with a piece of cheese or butter. But there are so many other things that we use to enjoy our Hops Bread with. Like Black Pudding (aka Blood Pudding) for example and some Pig Foot Souse or a slice of Avacado aka Zabuca.

What is Hops Bread? Now Hops are the female flowers clusters that are primarily used as a flavoring and stability agent in beers and you maybe wondering that this is what Hops Bread is all about. But to be honest I don't really know where we Trinis got this name from. Hops Bread is simply small rolls of bread. There is a crunch - crispy on the outside of the bread and the inside is nice and oh so moist and fluffy!

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups hot water
4 tbsp shortening
8 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp salt
2 tsp brown sugar
1 pack or 1 tbsp instant yeast

Method
In a large mixing bowl, add the shortening and hot water. Stir these two ingredients together until the fat melts and the liquid is lukewarm.

In another bowl pour in six cups flour, salt, sugar and yeast in a large bowl and combine.

Gradually add the shortening and water mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well. Place on floured surface and knead for five minutes adding remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough.

Grease baking sheet with shortening. Punch down dough, separate and shape into balls. Place the small balls in greased bowl three inches apart from each other, cover and let rise until doubled (about 30-45 minutes). Bake in a pre heated oven at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.