A sign of every great chef, so says all chefs, is when food goes beyond the taste buds and evokes more than the singular sense of taste. When food arouses all your senses having you feeling some type of way, or a memory of your youth, a taste of home, or the joy of family dinners at your mom and dad's house with everyone gathered around the big table overflowing with the food everyone has spent all day preparing together, THAT is the sign of greatness that chefs are talking about.
Now I am no chef, not by a very very long shot, but having left home more than a decade and a half ago, I know something about missing the food I grew up eating and a thing or two about how a taste of home transports me right back to my blissful and carefree childhood. One such food that epitomizes the perfect Sunday afternoon, and symbolizes the ending of the weekend of family chores and church while kick starting the new week ahead, is the hot and fresh papa falaoa (loaf of bread), plain or slathered with a pat of rich Anchor butter or the famous Samoan paka siamu (butter/jam), a slice or three eaten by itself or as an accompaniment to a freshly brewed cup of tea, koko Samoa (Samoan cocoa), or koko alaisa (cocoa rice).
The event of buying the bread is just as fun and memorable as eating the bread itself. Every family would either all go together to the bakery or send out designated family members to make the purchase. There is almost always a long line that extends out the door and around the building because 1. all of Samoa is at the bakery at the same time every Sunday, and 2. the bakery ran out of bread because of #1, so everyone is waiting for the next batch to be ready. All of this happens only after the long afternoon nap that immediately (and not a minute after) and mandatorily follows the huge toana'i or Sunday brunch. I clearly remember one such family trip to the bakery that made for a Sunday I (or my brother) will never forget.
I was about 4 or 5 years old. My entire family including my parents, siblings, all of my cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents on my dad's side drove out to Nofo's bakery in Nu'uuli on a warm Sunday afternoon to make our usual purchase of hot bread. We took multiple cars to transport everyone, with the kids split up between the cars dependent on which cousins or siblings were getting along at the time.
Unfortunately for me, I got stuck in the car with one of my older brothers that just so happened to be the one I constantly butted heads with. Arriving at Nofo's, all 16 of us went inside, which was completely unnecessary for the buying of the bread itself, but happened naturally anyway. How many Samoans does it take to buy bread? In our case 16. I mean come on now, its way more fun running around inside the bakery chasing your cousins, driving the adults nuts than sitting in a hot car.
Well after what you can imagine to be a very chaotic bakery visit, everyone returns to their cars. I get into the car with my parents and some cousins and a couple of my siblings, minus my brother, which to me was just awesome. And of course I had to immediately tell my mom that he's probably in my uncle's car before she decides to wait for him and he ends up sitting right next to me. Yeah I pretty much jumped at my chance and seized the opportunity. And it didn't help my brother either that headcounts are not the norm because no one can lose a kid in Samoa, even if they tried, really hard.
So assuming all kids are on board in one of the 4 cars, we all drive back home for our afternoon bread and tea time. By the time we get home, it takes a good while before anyone realizes that my brother is missing. He was about 6 or 7 at the time. And as young as that may seem, my brother was the most rambunctious, energetic, and crazy of all of us, so I don't think most of us were worried. Ok everyone except Mom. She figured out that we probably left my brother back at the bakery. She made a mad dash back to Nofo's and there she found my brother, fine and dandy and right as rain, waiting inside with one of the bakery workers. I guess they (the bakery) figured that someone will eventually come back for him.
As exciting as it was for my brother to experience being left behind, and the split 2 seconds of my exhilaration that my arch nemesis was gone, it was a Sunday none of us would ever forget. And one day, I will get a shirt made that will say in the front, "Will trade brother for bread". And on the back it will say, "Oh wait, I already did" heehee.
Ok now let's talk bread :-). This past weekend I whipped up a double batch of my dough and made a loaf of bread for my in-laws. That's this beautiful loaf you see below here. The brown golden crust was made by pouring melted butter all over the proofed bread (2nd rise). Now if only I could go out to a local bakery here in Hawai'i and buy me a loaf of bread that is reminiscent of the papa falaoa of Samoa, but unfortunately, the bread here (or anywhere else) is just not the same.
Our bread back home is dense, doughy, with a great chew, but also fluffy and crusty at the same time. I've tried every bread at almost every bakery here on island and none has come close, until now. So as with all of my Samoan foods that I couldn't get without flying home to eat it or having Mom and Dad send it or bring it up with them, I had to try to create my own perfect Sunday afternoon experience. And with the help of a great coworker (Mahalo Brian!) and his awesome dough recipe, I can transport myself right back to that happy moment where we left my brother at the bakery, oh I mean buy and eat hot bread, any day of the week right in my kitchen.
Now I am no chef, not by a very very long shot, but having left home more than a decade and a half ago, I know something about missing the food I grew up eating and a thing or two about how a taste of home transports me right back to my blissful and carefree childhood. One such food that epitomizes the perfect Sunday afternoon, and symbolizes the ending of the weekend of family chores and church while kick starting the new week ahead, is the hot and fresh papa falaoa (loaf of bread), plain or slathered with a pat of rich Anchor butter or the famous Samoan paka siamu (butter/jam), a slice or three eaten by itself or as an accompaniment to a freshly brewed cup of tea, koko Samoa (Samoan cocoa), or koko alaisa (cocoa rice).
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| Free form bread right out of my oven. Slathered with butter of course :-) |
I was about 4 or 5 years old. My entire family including my parents, siblings, all of my cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents on my dad's side drove out to Nofo's bakery in Nu'uuli on a warm Sunday afternoon to make our usual purchase of hot bread. We took multiple cars to transport everyone, with the kids split up between the cars dependent on which cousins or siblings were getting along at the time.
Unfortunately for me, I got stuck in the car with one of my older brothers that just so happened to be the one I constantly butted heads with. Arriving at Nofo's, all 16 of us went inside, which was completely unnecessary for the buying of the bread itself, but happened naturally anyway. How many Samoans does it take to buy bread? In our case 16. I mean come on now, its way more fun running around inside the bakery chasing your cousins, driving the adults nuts than sitting in a hot car.
Well after what you can imagine to be a very chaotic bakery visit, everyone returns to their cars. I get into the car with my parents and some cousins and a couple of my siblings, minus my brother, which to me was just awesome. And of course I had to immediately tell my mom that he's probably in my uncle's car before she decides to wait for him and he ends up sitting right next to me. Yeah I pretty much jumped at my chance and seized the opportunity. And it didn't help my brother either that headcounts are not the norm because no one can lose a kid in Samoa, even if they tried, really hard.
So assuming all kids are on board in one of the 4 cars, we all drive back home for our afternoon bread and tea time. By the time we get home, it takes a good while before anyone realizes that my brother is missing. He was about 6 or 7 at the time. And as young as that may seem, my brother was the most rambunctious, energetic, and crazy of all of us, so I don't think most of us were worried. Ok everyone except Mom. She figured out that we probably left my brother back at the bakery. She made a mad dash back to Nofo's and there she found my brother, fine and dandy and right as rain, waiting inside with one of the bakery workers. I guess they (the bakery) figured that someone will eventually come back for him.
As exciting as it was for my brother to experience being left behind, and the split 2 seconds of my exhilaration that my arch nemesis was gone, it was a Sunday none of us would ever forget. And one day, I will get a shirt made that will say in the front, "Will trade brother for bread". And on the back it will say, "Oh wait, I already did" heehee.
Ok now let's talk bread :-). This past weekend I whipped up a double batch of my dough and made a loaf of bread for my in-laws. That's this beautiful loaf you see below here. The brown golden crust was made by pouring melted butter all over the proofed bread (2nd rise). Now if only I could go out to a local bakery here in Hawai'i and buy me a loaf of bread that is reminiscent of the papa falaoa of Samoa, but unfortunately, the bread here (or anywhere else) is just not the same.
Our bread back home is dense, doughy, with a great chew, but also fluffy and crusty at the same time. I've tried every bread at almost every bakery here on island and none has come close, until now. So as with all of my Samoan foods that I couldn't get without flying home to eat it or having Mom and Dad send it or bring it up with them, I had to try to create my own perfect Sunday afternoon experience. And with the help of a great coworker (Mahalo Brian!) and his awesome dough recipe, I can transport myself right back to that happy moment where we left my brother at the bakery, oh I mean buy and eat hot bread, any day of the week right in my kitchen.
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Dough ready for the oven. Dough was proofed first for about an hour, shaped and placed in a Loaf Pan
and then allowed to proof again for half an hour before making some nice slits on top. Poured melted over over the top and brushed it all over. |
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| After about 20 minutes in a 400 degrees F oven (or until golden brown), bread is ready. |
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| I was in the mood for sweet bread so this is a sweeter version where I added about 1/4 cup more sugar to the recipe. |
Ingredients:
- 2 cups really warm water (use a thermometer to make absolutely sure that the temperature is between 110-120F. Any hotter or colder than that and the yeast will not be activated. And no yeast means no rise ultimately meaning no bread. TRUST this step!)
- 1/2 cup sugar (add more for a sweeter dough for cinnamon rolls, dinner rolls, or pagipopo, Samoan sweet coconut buns!)
- 1 package active dry yeast or 2 1/4 teaspoons
- 1 package active dry yeast or 2 1/4 teaspoons
- 2 teaspoons salt (I use only Kosher salt because the table salt we all had on our tables growing up in Samoa...you know the one with the kid that's chasing the little chicken or bird with his hand looking like he has some sort of funnel cup on it? Remember that salt? Ok that salt has iodine added to it. And even if you don't know what it tastes like, who wants iodine in anything we eat?)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil (I love olive oil but you can use any oil you have on hand or even butter. And who doesn't have a block of delicious Anchor butter in the refrigerator right now?)
- about 3-4 cups flour (this measure is not exact and will not always be the same amount you use every time. So don't worry if you use more or less than this amount. You will understand why when you read further in the directions)
Directions:
1. Make sure the temperature of your water is perfect. This is really really important. You don't want to kill the yeast. Yeast is crucial for bread to rise. Without it, you will get a rock or papa (which is not a bad option but we're making bread, so I digress). Add the sugar to the water and stir or whisk to dissolve the sugar. TIP: I start off with really hot tap water making it easier for the sugar to dissolve. By the time the sugar dissolves the temperature of the water would have dropped to the perfect 110 F.
2. Once the temperature of the water is perfect (keep checking with the Thermometer
), add the yeast. DO NOT stir. Cover the bowl with a dishcloth and let it sit for 10 minutes. This is called proofing the yeast. This is the deciding moment of bread making. After 10 minutes, there should be a layer of foam on top of the water that was created by the yeast. If there is no foam, your water was too hot and you killed the yeast. Do not proceed. Dump the contents and start again. Unless you want papa. But again I digress.
), add the yeast. DO NOT stir. Cover the bowl with a dishcloth and let it sit for 10 minutes. This is called proofing the yeast. This is the deciding moment of bread making. After 10 minutes, there should be a layer of foam on top of the water that was created by the yeast. If there is no foam, your water was too hot and you killed the yeast. Do not proceed. Dump the contents and start again. Unless you want papa. But again I digress.
3. Assuming the yeast foamed up, start adding the flour in 1/2 cup increments, whisking each increment until there are no lumps of flour. After about the 3rd increment, add the oil and salt. Continue adding flour and continue whisking the flour into the water mixture until well dissolved.
4. Switch over to a wooden spoon because at this point, the dough should be forming/formed and the whisk is not doing any good anymore. Once the dough looks and feels dry, stop adding flour at this point. Dump the dough onto a floured surface and start gathering it into a ball.
5. Now we knead the dough. Fold the dough over on itself, incorporating all the little bits and pieces of stray wet dough into the bigger ball of dough, and knead/push the dough down with the heels of your hands away from you. Add flour if the dough still feels wet and sticks to your hands. Keep folding and kneading the dough for about 10 minutes, and add flour as needed. You cannot add TOO MUCH flour because the dough will reach a point where it can't absorb any more. So don't be afraid to add flour. You will know to stop kneading when the dough feels dry and no longer sticks.
6. Form the dough into a ball by folding it onto itself and tucking the folds under. Pour about a tablespoon of oil into the same bowl that you used, and place the dough into the oil. Move the dough around a little to cover that side of the dough with oil. Then turn the dough over and let the other side get some oil.
7. Cover the bowl/dough with a dishcloth. Place in a warm area in your kitchen that won't get disturbed and let it sit for about an hour or until you see that the dough has doubled in size.
8. After the 1 hour of rising, punch the dough down with your fist until it deflates. Dump the dough back onto your floured surface and divide the dough in half (or in 4s if you want smaller loaves of bread).
9. Free form the dough and place directly onto a greased (I use a nonstick spray) Cookie Sheet Pan
or baking pan. Or place the dough into a greased loaf pan. Cover the dough again and let it rise for another 30 minutes or until doubled in size. You can brush or pour melted butter or an egg wash over the tops of the bread or leave it bare. Melted butter will create a softer crust while an egg wash will create a crustier crust.
or baking pan. Or place the dough into a greased loaf pan. Cover the dough again and let it rise for another 30 minutes or until doubled in size. You can brush or pour melted butter or an egg wash over the tops of the bread or leave it bare. Melted butter will create a softer crust while an egg wash will create a crustier crust.
10. Make sure your oven has pre-heated to 400 degrees F. Place the dough into the oven and let it bake for about 20 minutes. Check before the 20 minutes is up to see if its ready because baking times will vary. You will know the bread is ready if it is a deep golden brown color. Warning: Your house will smell wonderful, just like the bakeries in Samoa!
Let the bread rest for about 10 minutes before cutting into it. And use a serrated knife or else you will end up with squished slices, which won't be bad at all, just not as pretty. Don't forget your butter and hot tea or cocoa! And if at first you don't succeed, try again. My first loaf I ever attempted turned out pretty great because I found that this recipe is completely fool proof as long as you TRUST it. Good luck! FYI: this is the same dough I use for everything from dinner rolls, to cinnamon rolls, cream cheese bread, pizza dough and my all time favorite...pagipopo!
Today I am about 2 years into the art of Samoan bread making. And my loaves, like the perfect Sundays of my childhood in Samoa, are nothing short of amazing!
From my home to yours, happy eating and bread on!!!
Thank you Nofo's bakery, Aveina's Bakery, Pritchards Bakery, and now KS Bakery for continuing the tradition of breadmaking in Samoa. My bread will never be as good as theirs, but it is a pretty dang good substitution!
Thank you Nofo's bakery, Aveina's Bakery, Pritchards Bakery, and now KS Bakery for continuing the tradition of breadmaking in Samoa. My bread will never be as good as theirs, but it is a pretty dang good substitution!
Every breadmaker needs these! Be sure to get yours now! Stand Mixer is optional and it was something I didn't buy until years later, mostly because of money but also because I did not do a lot of baking that would require such a piece of equipment. But now that I own one (my wonderful husband surprised me with one at Christmas, boy oh boy is it the eye candy centerpiece of my kitchen!
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