January 20, 2011 - 8:00am
Chilean pan amasado?
Hello-
Just returned from Chile where I was served "pan amasado" as part of a traditional breakfast. It's a white, flattish kneaded bread (I think the name means, simply, "kneaded bread") with a dense crumb, served warm. It's really quite nice and I was wondering if anyone here as any experience making it. I searched the net for recipes and they generally include a bit of lard or shortening and ask for a lot of kneading.
Thanks
don
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It's essentially a flat bread but it isn't rolled to a thin sheet so if often forms into something closer to a flattened dinner roll when it finishes, which I suspect is because flat breads generally rely on vegetable oils rather than solid shortening/lard. I'd use shortening instead of lard. Without the shortening the texture suffers terribly. With the lard the blood vessels suffer terribly.
Some recipes call for melted shortening but I'd prefer to cut the shortening into the flour and let the heat of the kneading process distritute it throughout the mix. I think it makes for a lighter bread.
Lard has been demonized in America for several generations. When I mention lard in baking classes people recoil in horror. Many people are reluctant, at best, to eat baked goods made with lard. They are surprised at how good pie crusts and pastries made with lard are.
There are a number of people who are coming to the conclusion that lard is healthier than hydrogenated liquid oils, or shortening. It is rich in mono-saturated fats, it has no trans-fats, and it does more for developing good dough structure than shortening. A few friends have gotten far enough into lard that they render their own and they rave about what it does for their foods. Many people don't like the pre-packaged lard, but I've found it's not bad at all. Probably not as wonderful as the stuff you render yourself.
Also, if you look at Emily Buehler's book, "Bread Science" she devotes a fair amount of space to the action of fats on breads. Solid fats do more to develop crumb structure than liquid ones. If you melt a solid fat (butter, shortening or lard), it behaves as a liquid fat. So, blending in the solid fat du8ring dough development is probably your best approach for many breads.
-Mike
Thanks- I was thinking the same thing about the shortening. I'm going to give it a try on the weekend- I'll post the recipe if it turns out well.
My family is from Mexico, so I generally know a bit about Latin cuisine. I've never heard of this bread before. But, it literally means "homemade bread" in Spanish.
I looked it up on the internet. It seems to be a varient of a white roll, so you can pretty much treat it like a roll. Although, I would never recomend using lard or melting your shortening. It's best to use it like Flournwater said.
Thanks, Diverpro for the clarification re: the name.
It does look like a roll, but has a very dense crumb.
I'll have to go buy some shortening- I don't think I've done that in about eight years :)
You don't have shortening?!? lol That is almost unhuman! :o)
I don't eat lard or have any in my home. Lard, masa (flour), and beans are pretty much the trinity of Mexican cooking, so I'm almost an outcast! You can go to any Mexican ethnic store and they will only carry lard in GIGANTIC tubs!
Get a big tub of shortening. It pretty much lasts forever! Plus, they now have butter flavored shortening. Shortening is easier to use in baking, so I've been testing out the butter flavor shortening and I've had good results.