Fried Bread ( Locally Known As Fried Jacks)

Belize: the undiscovered jewel, home of madonna’s famous “la isla bonita”, top pick tourist destination, a beautiful place in the eyes of visitors and locals and the food : amazing! Fried Jacks or as tourists call it ‘fried bread’ are a local must-have food and being a belizean myself, we eat it for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Take my word for it: it is delicious and it is my pleasure to be able to share such delights with the world. Since this pandemic makes it difficult and complicated to come visit Belize: I offer a piece of Belize to you! Go ahead and try it yourself by following my recipe below.

For making the dough:

A medium sized bowl (7-9 inches in diameter)
Measuring cup for dry ingredients
Measuring cup for wet ingredients
Tablespoon for measuring
Teaspoon for measuring
A large plate ( for resting the dough)

Ingredients for dough:
3 c All purpose flour ( can be substituted for wheat flour)
2 tsp baking powder ( not baking soda; read label carefully)
1 tsp salt
2 tablespoon vegetable oil ( can be substituted with shortening; if you use canola, peanut, avocado, olive or any other fragrant oil it will change the flavor of the dough)
1 1/4c water

For frying dough:
Medium or large pot 1/3 full of vegetable oil
Large metal spatula
Glass plate with paper towel/napkins
A small knife for cutting dough ( the uncooked dough is soft enough that a fork can be used as well)

Measure out and place the flour, baking powder, salt and oil inside the bowl. Gradually add the water to the dough and with your hands start to combine the ingredients together to make a ball of dough.

TIP: Do not pour the water all at once or it will be a sticky mess; pour it little by little. If you did then just add a handful of flour to the mixture and that should fix it.

On a clean dry surface dusted with flour ( sprinkle a little bit) place your ball of dough and knead for 5 minutes.

How to knead: Push the dough away from you with the heel of your palms. Fold the dough over itself with your fingers and pull it back. This repeated push-pull cross knits the protein strands, developing a strong gluten net.

Take the dough in one hand and let it come out through your thumb and fingers, keep pushing the dough until you end up with a ball on top. Squeeze tightly at the end of the ball to cut it away from the dough. Do this repeatedly until there is no more dough to form into balls. Try your best to make the balls equal in size or somewhat equal in size. Place a drop of oil on the palm if one hand and place one ball on it and with both palms roll the ball until all its surface is lightly covered with oil. Place the oiled dough ball on a plate. Repeat this for all the balls; this is done so the dough balls don’t dry out while resting. Leave the dough balls to rest for 5 minutes.

Heat up your oil on high. On a clean surface place a drop of oil ( to help in stretching the dough) and place one dough ball on top. Use your hands to stretch the dough into a circle. Now, you can either cut a small hole in the middle of the circle, cut the circle into halves or into four pieces. It depends on how you want to eat it. I recommend in half, it makes a better serving size. (All this time your oil is heating up, should be ready now) Pick up your dough piece and carefully drop it in the oil. Fry it for 15 seconds on each sides (30 sec total) and take out with your spatula and place on your plate with paper towel. Stretch and fry as many dough pieces as you like and if you have left over dough balls, simply place in an air tight sealed container and place in fridge ( keeps for up to 4 days).

NOTE: Be careful not to stretch too much or your dough will become fried tortilla instead of fried jacks. Use the picture as a guide, it must be like half a centimeter thick.

TIP: Test the oil by dropping in a small piece of dough: if the dough falls and stays at the bottom and the oil barely bubbles - it is not ready. If the dough falls but in 2-3 seconds floats up and the oil bubbles up a lot - it is ready)

Congratulations! Now all you need to do is serve with your favorite foods and Bon Appetit! Buen Provecho! Enjoy your delicious Belizean Fried Jacks.

You can serve it with honey ( one of my family’s favorite way of eating it) Serve it with fried eggs, beans and sausages or my personal favorite served with cheese or in this case Cheese Whiz. You can even eat it just as is or try it with your favorite spread : guacamole, peanut butter, jam or jelly.

Comment below if you tried my recipe and share your experience with us!