Bahamian Johnny Bread

"This recipe is a cultural staple in the Bahamas and throughout the Caribbean and is a family favorite(one which I have tweaked a bit over the years to suit various tastebuds) but its a wonderful bread/cake-like dish thats commonly served with soups and souses of all kinds (for breakfast, lunch or dinner)and can also be wonderful after dinner supper topped with jam and served with tea or cocoa. My family especially loves to eat it like a sandwich with cheese or peanut butter in the middle.Yum...the choices are endless. Hope you enjoy!!!!"
 
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photo by IslandGal photo by IslandGal
photo by IslandGal
photo by IslandGal photo by IslandGal
photo by Bernadette R. photo by Bernadette R.
photo by Theola H. photo by Theola H.
photo by Lauren K. photo by Lauren K.
Ready In:
55mins
Ingredients:
10
Serves:
12-16
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ingredients

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directions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease an 11x15 baking pan and set aside.
  • In a mixing bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder and then add the sugar and salt. With your fingers, gently knead in the stick of butter until well incorporated in the mixture. Add in the eggs, vegetable oil, milk and water and mix well with a spoon until the texture of your mixture is between that of a bread dough and the batter of a cake mix, adding more water if necessary.
  • Pour mixture into greased pan and bake for 30mins. Brush the melted butter over the top and continue to bake for another 15 mins or until golden brown and butter knife comes out clean from the middle.
  • Cut in squares and serve warm with butter or jam.

Questions & Replies

  1. Is this recipe authentic?
     
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Reviews

  1. Me and my husband made this together and it came out awesome! We had them warm with butter and they were delicious, also later on we tried it with some grape jam, it was so good! Definitely somewhere between a cake and bread, butter makes it taste more like bread, and jam more like cake. I love how you can dress this up either way you like it and its subtle enough to work both ways. The consistency reminds me of cornbread but this recipe puts corn bread to shame as it taste like a lightly sweetened cake, or lightly sweetened bread. I would recommend this recipe to anyone and plan on serving some when my parents come over this weekend for Easter. I think the servings said up to 16, i cut these into squares and packaged them and got over 20 bags! This makes a whole bunch of bread and is very delicious! Thank you for sharing your recipe!
     
  2. Best Johnny Bread I ever had.. Quick and simply. No Kneading!!!!!!!! <br/><br/>In the Bahamas its tradition to make chicken souse and Johnny bread /cake, for New Years morning... Of course I was the chef for my New Years family gathering and let me tell you this Johnny Bread was a huge HIT... Everyone loved it.... Thank you so much for sharing this awesome recipe. <br/><br/>This is now my go-to recipe... Hope you find it as helpful as i did.
     
  3. I'm a Bahamian born and raised. I tried the recipe this morning to go with my chicken souse. I was very easy to make. Though the finished product is very tasty, I can't say that it is a true representation of Bahamian Johnny Cake/bread. I was very excited when I saw the beautiful crust but once I cut into it, I realised it was closer to a less sweet yellow cake than it was to Johnny Cake which is a coarse cake. The texture is a way too soft like it was mixed with a mixing machine instead of folded. I think the recipe calls for too many spoonfuls of baking powder. Even in regular cakes, baking powder is measured one teaspoon to each cup to cup and a quarter of flour. I did think it strange when reading the ingredients but decided to follow the recipe to the T. Overall I'd give it 3 stars because it was easy to follow and make and it tastes good. Two stars were taken off because it's too soft and it's not a true representation of what it's supposed to be and it crumbles too much.
     
    • Review photo by Theola H.
  4. Ever since I went to the Bahamas in June and had my first Johnnycake I’ve been dying for another good one. I must’ve tried a billion recipes but this one has definitely taken the place for number 1. It’s almost an exact replica of the one I had in the Bahamas. But I would say to substitute the milk for evaporated milk instead. This secret ingredient really makes the difference. I hope you enjoy!
     
    • Review photo by Lauren K.
  5. I tried it! Messed up by using salted butter and the wrong size pan and it still came out amazing according to my family. It was delicious. Even my mother in law loved it??! I’m a believer! Thanks for sharing!
     
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Tweaks

  1. Use evaporated milk instead of non fat milk! Makes the difference!!
     

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

Island Gal born and bred in The Bahamas. A wife and mother of 3, who bakes and cooks for a living and for pleasure.
 
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