Steamed breads in a can.

Amigo Posts : 240 Join date : 2011-07-12

Bread in a can, I know it sounds bad at first glance, however we served some yesterday and it was a huge hit, as in not a scrap left.

Boston brown bread, either plain, or with raisins, nuts or dates. The first successful batch was made with raisins.

Plans for Christmas include a batch made with dates and pecans in lieu of Christmas pudding which I don't like at all, and neither do most people that I have asked.

So for those adventurous few, here's the recipe.

3.5 cups of sour milk. I used regular milk and added 1 Tblsp. of vinegar per cup to make a total of 3.5 cups.

1 tsp salt

2 tsp. baking soda

1 cup molasses

1 cup flour

1 cup corn meal

2 cups graham flour.

Add raisins, dates, nuts, or any combination of these.

Mix all dry ingredients, then add milk and molasses, and mix. This is going to look like a fairly thin cake batter, kind of foamy. Fear not, it's going to work out just fine.

Pour mixture into greased cans, such as asparagus tins, or tomato tins, about 2/3 full. Cover the tins with waxed paper, then tin foil and put an elastic band around each one. You could also tie them up with string.

In a large pot bring water to a boil, pop the tins in and cover the pot. Let it steam for as long as it takes, anywhere from one to even 2 1/2 hours. The tins should have water roughly 2/3 of the way up the sides. Be sure not to let the water get too low.

Start checking after about 50 minutes with a bamboo skewer. Once it comes out clean, you're done. Remove and replace waxed paper and foil after checking.

Let the breads cool before removing them from the tins.

Re: Steamed breads in a can. on Fri 16 Dec 2011, 21:16 by **Peter**

Canned gifts are nice too. I have one of those can openers that open the side of the can's rim and the top fits back on again - with a nice seal if it's super-glued. I have been known to package gifts in large cans that appear to never have been opened.

I suppose these breads can be sealed in the same manner if they get used soon. It might make for a nice novelty gift for the family Navidad fiesta. Pop-tab cans can be opened in this manner with their pop-tabs intact.

Nice suggestion.

Re: Steamed breads in a can. on Sun 18 Dec 2011, 07:36 by Don Cuevas

Peter, when I make Boston Brown Bread in cans, I remove the cooled bread from the can and pack them in plastic bags. That way, I have the cans to use again! Idea

Tip: to ease removing the bread from the can, perforate the bottom with a few nail holes. Line the inside bottom with a circle of greased wax paper (yes: you can get waxed paper in Mexican supermarkets, even in Pátzcuaro.)

Brown bread or Date-Nut Bread is excellent sliced and served with cream cheese.

Saludos,
Don Cuevas

Re: Steamed breads in a can. on Sun 18 Dec 2011, 14:48 by Amigo

Where can you buy graham flour, molasses and corn meal?

Re: Steamed breads in a can. on Sun 18 Dec 2011, 15:40 by **Peter**

Amigo wrote:: Where can you buy graham flour, molasses and corn meal?

I have bought corn meal at Superlake near Ajijic. I understand there is molasses or something somewhat reasonably similar to be found around Morelia, not sure what it is called though. Graham flour I don't know but my guess is all those are available at Superlake, with more and more of those type products being found in Lakeside-area supermarkets like Walmart at a better price.

At Superama in Morelia recently I found Bisquick. It was packed in the tiniest boxes I ever saw Bisquick come in, like those for a cake mix. The new Walmart by me in the south-west of Morelia has grape jelly and super-crunchy Jiff peanut butter. Times they are a-changin' here.

Re: Steamed breads in a can. on Sun 18 Dec 2011, 16:53 by Don Cuevas

Whole wheat flour is essentially the same as Graham Flour. Check at La Frontera, on Calle Abasolo, just up from Plaza Carrillo in Morelia. "Harina integral".

Re: Steamed breads in a can. on Sun 18 Dec 2011, 17:30 by raqueteer

Don Cuevas wrote:: Peter, when I make Boston Brown Bread in cans, I remove the cooled bread from the can and pack them in plastic bags. That way, I have the cans to use again!

Tip: to ease removing the bread from the can, perforate the bottom with a few nail holes. Line the inside bottom with a circle of greased wax paper (yes: you can get waxed paper in Mexican supermarkets, even in Pátzcuaro.)

Brown bread or Date-Nut Bread is excellent sliced and served with cream cheese.

Saludos,
Don Cuevas

You're right Don Cuevas, I think that whole wheat flour would be a very good substitute for graham flour, and way less expensive. The corn meal I got at Wal Mart, so you could order it in from the main warehouse. Just ask the manager.

What I did for the cans was grease them first, then let them cool for quite a while. The breads just slipped out with a bit of shaking. I then wrapped them up in waxed paper plus tin foil and put them in the freezer in plastic bags. When we wanted to serve them, we just slipped them back in their original tins with the waxed paper and tin foil again and gave them another steaming for maybe half an hour or a bit less.

Does anyone have an idea for a molasses substitute, it's really pricey here since it's imported.

A possible idea, could you boil down piloncillo?

Re: Steamed breads in a can. on Sun 18 Dec 2011, 18:26 by raqueteer

After exhaustive research it appears that one can simply dissolve piloncillo or dark brown sugar in water making a good molasses substitute.

Example: dissolve 3/4 cup dark brown sugar, or piloncillo in 1/4 cup water. Be sure to squish up the piloncillo first, or run it through a food processor.

Sooo, now not only do we have canned bread, we can now make it at considerable savings thanks to Don Cuevas.

Cheers.

Re: Steamed breads in a can. on Sun 18 Dec 2011, 21:33 by Amigo

Wow! Did you know that this year we can buy fresh cranberries in Morelia?

Re: Steamed breads in a can. on Sun 18 Dec 2011, 21:49 by **Peter**

Amigo wrote:: Wow! Did you know that this year we can buy fresh cranberries in Morelia?

Where? I haven't seen them anywhere but heard about two years ago Superama had some, for a few hours.

Many places have canned cranberry sauce now. In Mexico I have always used dried cranberries to make my sauce for holiday feasts. Canned is good for routine meals and a real time saver.

Harina integral is available at most supermarkets in Morelia. There are many work-arounds for a lot of things. The-blogger-that-shall-not-be-named suggested buying corn meal used for animal feed. It needs to be cleaned, perhaps be ground finer. and usually cooked longer than made-for-people corn meal.

Fresh cranberries, hmmm... See? Things are changing here. Another decade and it will be just like the US. Wouldn't that be lovely¿

Re: Steamed breads in a can. on Mon 19 Dec 2011, 07:48 by Don Cuevas

I have tried the ground corn for animal feed suggestion twice. The first time, it quickly became infested with weevils. Both times, I couldn't get rid of all the ground cob bits. No vale la pena.

" See? Things are changing here. Another decade and it will be just like the US. Wouldn't that be lovely¿"

I hope not. I didn't move here with that in mind.

Re: Steamed breads in a can. on Mon 19 Dec 2011, 14:46 by raqueteer

Oooop's I forgot to add the run a knife around the bread before trying to shake it out, but I'm sure all you cooks would have already figured that bit out.

Re: Steamed breads in a can. on Mon 19 Dec 2011, 18:18 by **Peter**

Cob bits?? They should be lighter than the grain so perhaps a blow dryer would work, or not. That's m6y engineering solution to the problem but I believe you're correct, no vale la pena.

I heard her (our favorite ex-Moreliana food-blogger) suggestion while back for using animal feed grain but decided to wait for a trip to Chapala. Soon I am going to take a shopping list across the way to the new Walmart and ask the manager to stock a few items for me. Tere is now starting to set up her tienda and plans to carry a few gringo items, if we can get them. I'll post as that progresses.

Raq - since you mention the knife I suppose it would also be helpful to use smooth-sided cans and not those that have the ridges. I would have thought of the knife trick but if you hadn't mentioned it the ridged can might have come as an afterthought.

Re: Steamed breads in a can. on Mon 19 Dec 2011, 21:50 by Amigo

Superama has had quite a supply of fresh cranberries for the past three weeks. They still had plenty yesterday. I learned about the availability on MoreliaConnect. Superama also had a large supply of Great Value whole cranberry sauce in cans, and Ocean Spray jellied in cans as well.

Does the harina integral have corn in its that's treated for use as tortillas which would make it different from regular corn meal?

I could be wrong (since I am not the ex-Morelia plagiarist food blogger), but corn that is grown for animal feed is a different composition from the kind used for corn meal -- and that is different again from the kind of corn used for popcorn, sweet corn and canned corn. Geeze, even real Mexicans know that!!!!

Re: Steamed breads in a can. on Mon 19 Dec 2011, 21:52 by Amigo

I have heard that some people use polenta, which is available at Trico, as corn meal. Has anyone here tried that? It seems kind of expensive.

Re: Steamed breads in a can. on Tue 20 Dec 2011, 11:34 by raqueteer

Pete, it's not necessary to use smooth sided cans. The ridges actually add a bit of interest. After the bread has cooled sufficiently, as in about room temperature it shrinks, the knife just helps loosen any bits which may have stuck. I use a lot of butter to grease the cans first. The absolute best tins are those tall ones for asparagus, but if you're not fond of asparagus, tomato tins work just fine.

Amigo, I think polenta would work really well, you might want to reduce the wet ingredients a bit, the batter should be like cake batter, or even a bit thinner. Some of these ingredients are really pricey. The molasses jar was about $10 U.S. and only enough for 2 batches. Corn meal is also pricey and that Bob's Red Mill graham flour is outta sight price wise. Having said that buying a 16 ounce tin of this stuff in the U.S. is at least 5 bucks, I got 5 for roughly $10 total using the expensive stuff, so it is worth it to make it yourself.

The minute I'm finished with the big bucks ingredients I'm moving to whole wheat flour and piloncillo, which will reduce the price in a major way.

Here's a link for polenta:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polenta

If I were going to use polenta, I'd also run that through the food processor first, so it mixed in better.

Cheers

Steamed breads in a can.

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Steamed breads in a can.