Traditional Breadmaking

Somebody, capital Honduran BF Somebody, decided it would be a good idea if I came and learned the fine art of Honduran breadmaking with his Mom, sister-in-law and aunt this weekend*. I guess he figures the training process needs to start as soon as possible with this beautiful but oddly un-domesticated Canadian girl. Thirty-one-years old and still clueless about making tortillas and beans, nevermind the much needed bread that comes out for the much needed 3pm coffeebreak. I took a lot of pictures of this event, but strategically, didn't write any recipes down. If I remember correctly, ingredients included 1 part rice flour, 3 parts wheat flour, a lot of eggs, a lot of milk, a lot of sugar, and some baking soda (or powder...I get these confused in English, nevermind in Spanish). So, as you can see, what they call bread here (pan) is actually more like pound cake. As you can also see, I will be making trips to the bakery if need-be.

I've already established that if tortillas are going to continue to be a staple food at nearly every meal, capital Honduran BF Somebody best learn how to mix and pat that corn flour himself. I'll be happy to heat the frying pan for him. I'm pretty sure this battle ain't over yet.

Steps to Making Traditional Honduran Bread



1) Mix dry ingredients
2) Add wet ingredients (don't bother with that little well in the centre like they taught you in Canadian home-ec either. Just throw it all in and mix with your hands)
3) While mixing, talk in rapid, difficult to understand Spanish about women's topics that would probably be pretty interesting if one could catch this particular dialect. Give it a year.
4) Grease, and I mean grease the pans, before pouring the mixture into them.
5) Tell the men to go start the wood oven that's out back.
6) Test the temperature of the oven with corn husks. If the corn husks curl but don't burn, then the temperature is just right.
7) Throw them in the oven at exactly "husks curl but don't burn" F for 20 minutes.
8) Scramble to get all 15 of your bread pans out when they all come ready at the same time.
9) Allow to cool, make some coffee, share said bread with friends and family (3pm preferably).


*OK, I'm exaggerating the gender dynamics here a bit for entertainment value. Said capital Honduran BF Somebody has enthusiastically learned to make pizza from scratch from ME and is now regularly making this meal for his family at home. Don't even start on the "lives with his Mom" BS. It's cultural, OK?

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