South African Steamed Bread - Part 2 The second recipe I choose to test is a Zulu one called ujeqe. I think the first recipe might also be the same thing since they taste almost the same. #cookingath 

South African Steamed Bread - part 2

Zulu steamed bread (ujeqe):
This is the bread in the white bowl with blue flowers. I intended to make only one third of the recipe but it didn't work out that way. Good thing I used a large container, with 850 mL capacity.

The page that features this bread also includes recipes for two other types of bread. I only tried the first one since I was looking to make bread with ingredients I normally stock.

The author mentions in comments that this is a very wet mixture, however it went beyond "wet" and became a paste instead. I'm not exaggerating -- it was the consistency of pancake batter and I only used 2/3 of the water. This can happen when using recipes developed in other parts of the world. I use American cup measures but they might use different cups and spoons, the only measurement I'm sure of is the 600 mL of water. Their flour is definitely different from what I use and attitude might also play a part. Adjustments are sometimes required.

Botching the dough was my fault for just throwing the ingredients into a bowl and hoping for the best. I've made enough bread to realise that I had too much water in relation to the amount of flour. I also know that when in doubt, you add just enough water to mix with the flour, then add a bit more water at a time until you achieve the right consistency for the dough. I think I only needed one third to one half the water as listed in the recipe (i.e. 200-300 mL of water for the full recipe, 70-100 mL for my scaled down version).

I fixed it by adding more flour until I got a very wet dough; I might have added 60% more flour. This was further complicated by the fact that I used a cake flour substitute by combining cornstarch with all-purpose flour, so I had to figure out the ratio of cornstarch to flour on the fly. Of course, I also had to add more sugar and salt, to balance the flavours. The only thing I didn't add more of was yeast but that didn't seem to hurt the dough any, since it had no problems rising.

I think this loaf was successful in the end. It was soft with a very open crumb and went well with dinner. The taste is very close to the bread I wrote up in "South African Steamed Bread - Part 1." It is the slightest bit less salty than the other one, though if I hadn't messed up the dough, the difference might be more pronounced than that.

In the comments, the author also gives some tips that he did not include with the recipe:
"The most important part is kneading and rising. Knead the bread dough well, pulling and stretching and folding it back repeatedly for a good 10 to 15 minutes before covering it with olive-oiled plastic (to stop the outside drying) and a towel on top (to keep it dark) to let it rise in a gently warm, but not hot, place for at least an hour (a couple of hours is not unusual). If it’s rising place is too hot you will kill the yeast and have flat bread. When it has doubled in size it is ready to be knocked down, re-shaped into a ball and steamed in a plastic bag in a colander over lightly boiling water in a large pot."

The recipe is here - https://kwakhehla.wordpress.com/2011/12/26/traditional-south-african-steamed-breads/

South African Steamed Bread, Part 1 can be found here - http://moby.to/pv5q25

South African Steamed Bread, Part 3 can be found here - http://moby.to/rpuej3