Real Nice Guyanese Recipes

GUYANESE COCONUT BUNS

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add butter, and cut in using a pastry blender or a fork until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and pour in the wet ingredients. Add coconut, and mix just enough to blend. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
• Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.

CASSAVA PONE (YUCA CAKE)

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Peel and grate cassava and coconut, set aside in a large mixing bowl. Frozen grated coconut may be used. Thaw completely before adding.
• Add sugar, butter, spices and extract. Mix well.
• Pour milk and mix to combine.
• Pour mixture into a greased pan of choice. See notes for sizes
• Bake about 60 minutes to a little over an hour.

GUYANESE STYLE BAKES /FLOATS

Steps:

• Add brown sugar and warm water to a small mixing bowl and mix together until sugar crystals completely dissolve
• Then add flour, baking powder and salt to a large mixing bowl
• Mix together well then add the fat (coconut oil, butter, ghee, oil) to the dry ingredients and mix in using finger tips until a crumbly texture forms
• Then make a well in the center of your ingredients and add the sugar water solution to the center
• Next mix together the sugar water solution and the dry ingredients to form a soft dough, you may dust with a little bit of flour if the dough is too sticky
• Then turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead well into a smooth ball
• Place the dough ball into a greased bowl, cover with a kitchen towel and let the dough rest for 30 minutes
• After the dough has rested for 30 minutes, turn the dough onto a floured surface and roll (with a rolling pin) until it is about 1/8 of an inch thick
• Then using a cookie, biscuit or hand pie cutter large enough for palm size circles, cut the dough into 12 circular pieces (see video for method with zero dough wasted). For this step you can also use a round bowl or the cover/lid of a round container
• Next add 4 cups of oil to a medium sized stock pot or frying pan, on medium to high heat. Please ensure pot is large and deep enough for deep frying. Here's a linkto the pan I used in the video.
• Bring the oil up to temperature
• Then add your cut out bake dough to the oil. You may cook 1-3 bakes per time if your pot can accommodate it
• Cook bake for about 1 minute on each side or until golden brown, then flip to the other side and fry for another minute or so or until bake is golden brown
• Remove from the oil and place in a bowl lined with a few sheets of paper towel or a kitchen towel
• Continue steps 12-14 until all the bakes are cooked
• Serve warm with some salt fish!