Bread is one of the most in-demand foods in the country right now.
Due to the civil unrest and the ransacking of stores, including supermarkets, there is no easily available bread in many communities.
While there are local bakeries that are doing their best to serve their immediate communities, they are also slowly running out of ingredients, which means we will soon not have available bread in stores.
So the next best thing is to make your own bread. But with flour, yeast and other bread ingredients being sold out at many stores, it’s becoming difficult to make ordinary bread.
Hence we have sourced the best bread substitutes that you can use for sandwiches and more.
Cloud Bread (Serves 1)
Cloud bread is made with egg whites and cream cheese, and after you bake it, it puffs up into what looks like…well, bread!
Ingredients
3 large egg whites
2.5 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch (like Maizena)
Food colouring (optional)
Method
Heat the oven to 150°C. In the bowl of a stand mixer, use the whip attachment to whip the egg whites on medium high until frothy.
Add the sugar slowly, 1 tablespoon at at time and whip on high until small bubbles start to form.
Sift in the cornstarch and continue to whip on high until the whites are whipped up into a glossy thick meringue that holds a peak, about 5-6 minutes.
Scoop out the meringue on to a baking sheet and shape into a fluffy cloud or mound.
Bake for 20-25 minutes. The outside will be a light golden brown. Let cool and enjoy the fluff!
Recipe by Stephanie Le.
Sweet Potato Toast (Serves 2)
Did you know you can also use sweet potato as a bread substitute? This creative idea is called sweet potato toast and works best with an open faced sandwich.
Ingredients
2 large, round sweet potatoes
For the topping:
1 ripe avocado, diced
100g cherry tomatoes, diced
4 rashers of streaky bacon, grilled and chopped
1 bunch of fresh coriander
Drizzle of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Method
Peel the sweet potato and cut off the ends to create more of a rectangle ‘toast’ shape. You want the middle part of the potato, sliced into 0.5cm thick, even slices.
Put into the toaster.
Add all of the ingredients into a bowl and mix well
Spoon the topping on to the sweet potato and serve.
Cornbread
Another bread substitute? Cornbread! While it doesn’t work for a sandwich, it’s another great side dish idea that’s an alternative to bread.
Ingredients
1 cup butter, melted
1 cup white sugar
4 eggs
1 can cream-style corn
½ cup grated strong cheddar cheese
½ cup grated cheddar cheese
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow course mealie meal
4 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
Method
Preheat oven to 150°C, lightly grease a 22 X 33cm baking dish.
In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugar.
Beat in eggs one at a time.
Blend in cream, corn and all cheese.
In a separate bowl, stir together flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt. Add flour mixture to corn mixture, stir until smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake in the oven for 1 hour, until a toothpick can be inserted into the centre of the pan and comes out clean.
Recipe by Lisa Stanley.
Roti
Roti is a type of round flatbread served with Indian, Thai, Caribbean, and Malaysian food. It can be served as a side with a curry or as a main, like a tortilla wrap, rolled with a filling, or stuffed with potatoes or lentils. This versatile bread is made without yeast and is just a simple mixture of flour, salt, vegetable oil, or ghee and water.
While there may be several recipes online for roti, finding one with just a few ingredients and that is easy to make can be difficult. And yet we have managed to get one: a three-minute recipe on how to make roti at home from chef Yasin Ikram.
To make Ikram's recipe, you start by adding boiling water in flour and stirring the mixture together. You then add a pinch of salt and knead the dough. Ikram suggests that if the dough is dry you can add some more water, and finally add some oil. Thereafter, the dough will be full and elastic, which means it is ready to be rolled out.
“Take a bit of dough and make small balls, squeeze it using your hands and roll it out, but just make sure you roll it out evenly on both sides to form a nice circle. You will begin to see brown specks appearing on the other side of the roti. If you push the sides you will see the roti rising and that means it is almost cooked,” he says.