December 7th, 2009 | 
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I heard something disturbing this morning. One of my girls told me that she was Googling recipes for Panipopo and came throughout a great deal of that called for store-bought, ready-made dough.. which you would then carry on to roll into dough balls…
NO! It’s not THAT difficult to make real Panipopo dough from scratch – the store-bought stuff is too generic and… just not right! So don’t be lazy. I’ll walk you through it… By the way,THANK YOU so much Auntie for entrusting me with your top mystery recipe, but… um… you might want to close your eyes now…because I’m sorry.. but if I don’t share, I’m scared a whole generation of persons will think it’s okay to make Panipopos with store-bought dough balls… *sigh*… Right. Let’s commence from the beginning. For those less fortunate out there who don’t know, panipopos are a Samoan dish normally eaten as a dessert or with a hot beverage, preferably Koko Samoa. Its name says it all: Pani = bun (not ‘bread’) Popo = Coconut, specifically mature coconuts that are ready to be ‘milked’ lol… Eh, you recognise what I mean. So, coconut buns. Hot, steamy buns baked in a pool of sticky, sweet coconut cream sauce that you may use for further bun dipping… mmmm…. I’ve come throughout a few variations of the recipe. Some of them will call for eggs and milk, which results in a more ‘bread’ like consistency… I’m not a fan of that one because the bread then have a tendancy to soak up too much of the coconut cream sauce and get too mushy. But hey, if you like mushy, go for gold… …and go to Google, cause this version (my Auntie’s recipe) develops a more, “springy” type of bun that’s still moist and spongy… and is way better. Because I said so. Okay, you’ll need these ingredients: The Bun Standard Flour The Sauce Coconut milk or cream (pe’epe’e) The Cook Confidence Don’t panic that I haven’t put any measurements up there. This recipe is flexible. Just remunerate attention. Four cups of flour (and I’m talking when it comes to coffee mugs, not the measurement cups) will fill with regards to two-and-a-half to three 15-1/2″ x 10-1/2 apas (pans). With around 24 buns a pan, that’s like 60 buns all up, more than sufficient for ‘cup teas’ at home. The rest of the measurements will follow the number of cups of flour you use. If you use 4 cups flour, you’ll need 4 spoons of sugar and 4 spoons of yeast. If you want to feed the neighbours too and go for 8 cups of flour, then use 8 spoons of sugar and 8 spoons of yeast. You with me so far? Cool. Here’s how we do it. Watch: The Flour Mixture First, dump our flour (let’s say it is 4 coffee mugs full) into a bowl. Toss in a ‘pinch’ of salt – half a teaspoon is good if the word ‘pinch’ makes you nervous. See that block of butter there? It’s been sitting at room temperature for a while, so it must be ‘softened’ now. Since my hands are always clean, I’m gonna break off numerous of that butter (maybe get started with regarding 50 grams which is like a quarter cup, but YOU Google the conversion)… and I’m just gonna rub that butter into the flour.
MILI Mili mili mili mili mili mili mili… ma koe MILI Mili mili mili mili mili…. What I want is a consistency that’s crumbly but kinda ‘silky’ at the same time, so I might need to work more butter into the flour, but make sure it doesn’t get too greasy. When the mixture is just right, I make a well in the middle of the bowl and chuck in my 4 heaping spoons of sugar… don’t get too fussy when it comes to the spoon measurement here. With practice, you’ll figure out how sweet you like your buns to be, and the sugar is more for yeast development anyway. The Yeast Okay, now it’s time to grab another (smaller) bowl for the yeast. Apparently, yeast works better in either a metal or glass / ceramic bowl, so try to keep out of the way of plastic. Plastic is never good. Anyway, since we employed four cups of flour, we’re going to put 4 heaping teaspoons of active arid yeast into the second bowl. Get the tap to run REALLY warm, but not too hot, and pour perchance 2 cups of that warm water over the yeast. Use your hands or a spoon to break up the yeast and stir till it is totally dissolved – add more warm water if necessary to do that. This yeast water (which must be milky grey in color and smell like yummy bread now) goes into the flour mixture, in the well you made with the sugar. Mix-Up Mix-Up Grab that long wooden spoon your mum reserves for special hidings and ‘fold’ together all the ingredients now, scraping the flour from the sides of the bowl into the middle, then up and over again till everything is combined nicely. Keep that tap running, cause you’ll need to mix in more warm water in order to get the perfective consistency… When it’s ready, your mixture will look like a really thick, sticky pancake batter. It must be reasonably solid, but if you shake the bowl a little, the batter ought to ‘jiggle’… Okay, now cover that bowl with a damp dish towel and put it in a warm, dark place to rise for an hour. The Dough When you come back to it, the dough must be double it is size with lots of little holes in it. Your whole house ought to be smelling like home baking by now. It’s time to knead the dough, which means you just dump a lot of fresh flour on a counter-top (I like to disseminate it out like a thick white blanket) and turn the holy, sticky dough out onto it. Then, working from the edges of the flour ‘blanket’, I fold the new flour into the sticky stuff and flatten and squeeze and knead until you may form the dough into a smooth, round shape that’s got a little bit of flour dust on the outside. IMPORTANT NOTICE: Do NOT knead the dough for too long. You need to stop working it while it’s still comparatively soft when we squeeze it. We want buns, not bagels… or teething rings… Okay, cover the dough and let rise again for another half hour. The Buns When you come back, preheat the oven to with regards to 200 degrees (on a NZ oven ), THEN… …cut the dough into chunks (about half a fist size), roll into thick ‘strings’, and tie each into a knot. This shape helps the coconut cream sauce to flavour more elements of the bun, but if you have disturb with it, you may also just roll a boring dough ball. Up to you. [If you find that the dough is still beauteous sticky when you come back to it, go in front and knead it again with a little more flour... just till it's arid sufficient to work with, but still soft and spongy.] Fill each pan with the buns, leaving sufficient space among them to grant for more dough rising and to let coconut cream sauce in. After you’ve done all the buns, let them sit for a bit cause we need to do the coconut cream sauce. The Coconut Cream Sauce Fresh is always best, right… So if you’ve got a coconut tree somewhere, get an individual to climb it. If not, then the best coconut cream you may buy is in a carton, made by these guys ==> KARA Otherwise, you’re going to have to settle for canned coconut cream. Ala’s make a pretty okay canned pe’epe’e. Okay, pour two cans or a 200ml carton of pe’epe’e into a container, work half a cup of flour and water into a runny paste and dump that in there as well, then top up with more water until we have sufficient sauce for all the pans. We must be competent to fill the pans so that the coconut cream sauce covers at least half the height of the buns. [EDIT: While the buns are cooking, check to make sure the sauce doesn't reduce too much. You may have to add more sauce so that there's a great deal for dipping, but add it early sufficient so that it has a chance to come to the boil before the buns are ready. Let's just say raw coconut milk, if you drink sufficient of it, may make a outstanding laxative.] But before we begin pouring though, we need to sweeten the coconut cream sauce. You do this according to your own tastes, but remember… for a lot of reason the cooking routine gets rid of numerous of the sweetness, so just make sure you add sufficient sugar into the sauce so that it’s couple notches SWEETER than you think it must be. Bake in the Oven RIGHT! So the oven is hot now, the buns have risen just a little bit more in their pans, and you’ve got a container (jug? pitcher? big bowl?) full of sweetened, thickened coconut cream sauce. The only thing left to do is pour the sauce into the pans, chuck them in the oven, wait possibly 20 – 30 minutes for the sauce to come to a boil and the tops of the buns to become a golden brown, and take the pan out and mmmm…… But wait, there’s a LITTLE bit more… While the buns are cooling, you might want to brush sugar water over the tops to prevent them from getting dry.. but I think covering the apa with tin foil (only after they’re out of the oven) or a damp cloth will do the same thing. Eating Panipopo Congratulations!! We’ve just made AUTHENTIC Samoan Panipopo. You may burn your mouth on them now, I know you want to… but I like panipopos best after they’ve been sitting… marinating… for perchance an hour after they came out of the oven. Serve them in a shoal bowl, spooning more sauce over them for extra dipping, and with a hot cuppa something nice to drink on the side. They’re likewise GREAT the next day, even if you have to heat them up (for less than a minute) in the microwave. Ia. Ua uma upu.
Most helpful customer reviews 21 of 22 people found the following review helpful. 20 of 21 people found the following review helpful. 15 of 15 people found the following review helpful. I just bought the 1 1/2 & 2 1/2 oval baking dishes. I also have the au gratins, and the round souffle French White dishes, which I have had about 6 years. Being curious about the comments about the coarse and gritty ridge piece under the bottom of the oval dishes, I took a peek and saw that it’s just an unglazed piece of ceramic that is probably there for heat diffusion or to prevent the bottom of the dish from getting scratched up, maybe both. The unglazed piece is not gritty and certainly not rough enough to scratch up countertops and tables. Mine aren’t anyway. Having said all of that, I really like my Corningware pieces, and I think they perform very well for their intended purpose as bakeware. My older pieces are still like new, free from chips or rough edges. I always spray mine with a little cooking spray before using them so even baked on cheese is easy to remove. I bought the plastic and glass lids, which have to be purchased separately, unless buying a set, so I could have the glass one for baking use, and the plastic one when storing the food in the fridge. If interested in ceramic bakeware that can be used in the oven as well as under the broiler then this is not the cookware to purchase. The Emile Henry and Le Crueset lines would be better suited to meet those needs. For those looking for bakeware that can be taken from the oven to the table at an affordable price, then I recommend the Corningware line which includes a variety of pieces, sets, and colors to choose from. |
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