Trinidad Hops Bread (recipe)
Oh sweet sweet blogosphere. Does my devotion have no end!? It’s the middle of the night and I have a sudden hankering for Hops! Now what is hops? I am sure for most of you you are thinking about some kind of grain and the beermaking process. No no no no no no. Hops is the most basic of breakfast breads/buns here in Trinidad. I have no idea how it got its name, maybe it has to do with the lengthy yeast development stage before flour is added? Its distinctive smell, taste and shape I think are some of the earliest memories of morning for many a Trini child. I know that there was a ‘Hops man’ who visited my Aunt’s area and I would love to be at her home when he arrived with his freshly baked batch! So now that I am up and I have gotten a few hits already looking for a Hops recipe I thought hmmm why not make some tonight. I am sure it will be a welcome morning surprise for my parents as well 
lol
Note: Even though Hops is traditionally made solely with white flour, my family always adds wholewheat to everything (health benefits people!) so my Hops Recipe reflects this. I think it gives it a lovely nuttiness while keeping the light airiness that you expect from such a roll
Hops Bread (adapted from the Naparima Girls Cookbook)
1 package dry yeast
2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp melted shortening
4 cups white flour
2 cups wholewheat flour
2 1/2 cups warm water
2 tsp salt
1. Pour warm water into a large bowl
2. Dissolve sugar in water
3. Dissolve yeast over sugar and water and allow to develop for 10 minutes
4. Stir yeast mixture with a fork and add melted shortening
5. Gradually stir in flour and salt.
6. Knead for 8 to 10 minutes adding flour if necessary to make a medium stiff dough
7. Grease bowl and top of dough, cover and allow to rest for 20-25 minutes
8. Punch down dough, form in balls, place on greased trays
9. Cover with a damp cloth and allow to rise until doubled (1 – 1.5 hours)
10. Bake in a 400F oven for 15 minutes
Makes 12-14 hops
Yay – a hops recipe! Just the thing for this weekend, as my sister has gone and posted bread and channa pics on her Flickr!
o niceness!
i saw the maleeda (sp?) on yours? i never knew that was the name ! i love that thing real bad 
i’ll link to it lolz! where is your sis flickr? 
is she in trini? 
Hooray!! I’ve been hankering for hops bread lately; the last time I had it I was twelve, and we used to drive to Butterflake Bakery (in Marabella, I think?) to get them. There’s nothing like cold butter melting inside a warm hops bread, and sometimes we’d get red pork and black pudding to eat with it. Heaven!
Next time my sister’s over, I am definitely trying this recipe; I need her here because I can’t knead bread worth a damn. *g*
LOLZ! Let me know how it turns out Maggie
I finished baking these at around 5:30 this morning (yes madness i know, but ‘when yuh ketch ah vaps!’) and that first slab of butter drenching the insides was heaven in my mouth!!! 
My sister currently only has her mobile phone for photography, but she is torturing me anyway from back home in Trinidad. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lilandra.
And oh, whenever hops was hot, we’d get a quart and a half, and all of us in the car on the way home would polish off the half, ripping out the sweet fluffy insides to savour, then demolishing the crustiness of the outsides. We finish the hops before we got home, whether we bought it in San Juan on the way to Central, or from Couva proper.
i think there is some culinary version of crack in those fluffy insides
i eat them to bursting 
When I was living in the Philippines, we ate bread for breakfast and late evening. It’s this bread called pandesal. It’s always so good to get them nice and hot from the bakery. I can just smell the aroma right now from your pictures!
How interesting Veron
I will look up this pandesal now 
Thanks for dropping by! 
Hi , i am new to ur site and it has so many interesting recipes!This bread seems similar to the no knead bread.Is it? BTW, do u have a recipe for a sweet potato pone?
Hi Shaheen, I am loving your site too!
Hops is not that similar to the no knead bread I don’t think? Well the preparation is quite different for one. But I have not made the no knead bread yet, so maybe in taste and texture they are similar, but I’m guessing not at this point 
I do have a recipe for Sweet Potato Pone 
I will email it to you, and will be posting it soon 
Thanks for visiting 
!
i just googled…pandesal is… Pan de Sal!!
*sigh*
Have you ever looked at a Filipino map? It’s so much fun looking at place names and such!
Lilandra – that’s like when one day i was lying down and it hit me that parasol was Para Sol …
lololol
i searched on flickr and it really does look like hops
Lilandra – flickr is fun
yes
i spend many hours at work searching for chocolate and cupcakes and pizza and stuff
or browsing thru camera finder cuz i don’t got a camera yet
Lilandra – when yuh gettin’ camera?
i dunno. never
Lilandra – nah, you go get it soon
i hope so
oh well
i am learning to take pix with a camera phone…a very impressive skill
how else will i take pix when i make hajj
hehehe
Lilandra – you will have new camera for hajj
This is even harder than the biscuits for me!
Marsha – we go have to make a baking lime!!!
Yeh but how you learn to bake? From watching yuh mudder?
Marsha – muahahaha my mother don’t bake… well she did years ago… but i never watched her… i dunno… it just kinda happened.. my first few attempts were doorstops…
trial and error til i found something that worked for me 
Ok I feel justified in being jealous LOL
Marsha – steupz
So occasionally I reread your posts
And I just checked out the pandesal pics on Flickr – so, is the “Pan de Sal” related to Bajan Salt Bread? Some of the pics look like salt bread and some look crustier, like hops. So very interesting. I supposed to be sleeping but now I want to search. Sleep…surf…sleep…search…sigh.
i dunno this salt bread of which you speak
It’s not salty. At all. But not sweet either. Just bread, baked up in a big sort of oval shape – supposed to be a single serving roll, but they’re more like twice that I think.
Recipe here – http://www.totallybarbados.com/barbados/About_Barbados/Local_Information/Barbados_Food/Barbados_Recipes/4119.htm
Looking all over for a picture – Cynthia had one! http://tastesofguyana.blogspot.com/2007/03/these-are-few.html
hehe yuh mashin up d threadz
lol 
i’ll bookmark that recipe to try 
!
My brain is fried from cricket in the sun yesterday – not a passing cloud in Kensington.
Hmm, how many more excuses can I come up with when I forget to “Reply to Thread”
what/where is kensington? that is b’dos or guyana? this cup still going on ? whatwhat?
ooooo!
Kensington Oval is in Little England of course, Barbados. We still only in the 2nd round of CWC.
oh … can you detect my interest level?
Oh completely – your fascination simply leaps from the page. Which is why I stand by, prepared to keep you updated and answer any niggling queries you may have. Why I can begin, right here, right now, an exposition on the current Aus v Sri match. I only await your signal
how come your name/icon doesn’t show on my bloglog reader roll
?
Hmmm…I can see it. Don’t know what’s up.
do you have it set to be invisi on my site (clicking the red square) ?
Is it working now? I don’t know anything about an invisible box/setting
no
you still hidden away 
if you hover your mouse over your icon in the reader’s roll itwill tell you to click to hide/unhide… :*(
http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/mem_hidelist.php
hovered my mouse and it asked if I wanted to be invisible, and I didn’t so didn’t click the X
and this link says “There is currently no hide list.”
Sigh.
i’ll report it as a bug
… i wanna see chennette 
Your hops look delicious, Sarina. Just to clarify, is a packet of yeast about 2+1/2tsp? And does your recipe make 9 or 18 hops?
-Elizabeth
thanks Elizabeth
Yes a packet of yeast is approx the 2.5 tsp size 
My recipe made 12-14 hops 
The hops was good but how about the receipe for currents roll
do you have the receipe for doubles? I would very much like a copy. thank you
Question?
Do you have a recipe for butter bread?
Your response would be appreciated
ty
So *this* is the recipe I’ve been looking for! Every reciped I tried tastes nothing like what mom used to make. She always made bread but I never knew it was called “hops” bread. Interesting. I shall try this recipe.
Hi everyone happy holidays to u and family I did try the baking this recipe using whole wheat flour and I make the long bread and my bf love the way it came out so now I am baking bread for him every weekend
since you don’t get trackbacks…mom made hops:
http://lilandra.com/blog/archives/2008/06/15/mom-made-hops-bread/
Lilandra – nyam!
wish i knew how to fix the trackbacks… been trying for over a year… it’s intermittent 
I gonna try this although flour and i don’t agree
oh gorm, don’t make yourself sick now
well i did try that hops bread,all i can say was WOW…….
it was so easy to make,i never thougth i chould bake bread until i’ve try makein hops,the rescipe was very easy to read and understand.
and my bread came out very nice.
cookin,cleanin,watchin etc was nothing for me to do until it came to bakein bread,i had a big problem then i try make hops one day and the first time i tryed it it came out so well i had to try it again.
now that the only bread i use home,and what makes it even better is that i made it home all by myself,NICEEEEE.
Sarina, I found your hops bread while searching for a Bajan salt bread recipe. Now I have both I’ll try them to recreate the Caribbean in cold Canada. Thanks.
Mark´s last blog ..Justice in a Framework of Injustice?
[...] burger stand.The sign reads “Bake & Shark, Burgers (Beef/Chicken), Fries, Soft Drinks, Hops & Cheese)” and at the bottom “Real Trini Style”.I love Trini-style [...]
Being in the baking business for a long time….way back when we used to make hops bread with hops as the levening agent ( hence the name "Hops Bread") this recipe is a far far cry from hops to say the least. please go do some more research, since trinidadians NEVER made Hops Bread from Wholewheat flour. 'Wholewheat Hops' was only introduced when the health craze kicked in. Thus leaving the original recipe in shambles For all those health crazed idiots out there…Hops Bread is probably the only White flour bread that can match any health bread that is on the market now, since it is only made with Flour, Salt, Yeast (or Hops..if you can get it) and Shortening.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PLease don't present yourself to be something you are not…By this recipe, you are definitely NOT a Baker
I believe I was quite clear in pointing out that white flour is the traditional method and that wholewheat is a variation that my family prefers. I'll let them know they are 'idiots'. Cheers
Yeah, so Longtime Baker, if you have nothing of merit to say, especially in a non abrasive manner, keep your comments to yourself and stop tainting the blogosphere. I think I'll have a lot of people backing me on that. You have a good day now
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