Simple Fry Bake Recipe with Yeast

In the Caribbean, fry bake or fried bake is a deep fried dough that puffs up when frying, making it perfect for sandwiches, especially for breakfast or at the beach. The dough is often circular but can be cut into triangles as well. Buljol, fried shark, fried kingfish, shrimp and lots of veggies and sauces are great fillings for the bake.

In this recipe, I use 2 raising agents to achieve that puffiness – yeast and baking powder. These make the fry bakes lighter and fluffier but, if you prefer, you can use one instead of both.

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Ingredients for fry bake

Dry ingredients: all purpose flour, baking powder, salt, yeast and sugar. Both the baking powder and yeast act as rising agents and cause the bake to puff up nicely when frying.

Other ingredients: butter, warm water and oil. The butter adds wonderful softness to the bake.

How to make fry bake

Knead the dough

Step 1: Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

Step 2: Crumble butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles a coarse mixture. You can use a food processor for this but it is not necessary since you don’t need to keep the dough at a cold temperature.

Step 3: Make a well in the center and add the warm water. It should be warm to activate the yeast.

Step 4: Knead as you would for roti – pressing and squeezing – without folding the dough over onto itself as you would for bread. You should end up with a soft, smooth dough.

Divide the dough

Step 5: Divide the dough into 2-inch dough balls.

Leave to rest

Step 6: Cover and allow to rest for at least 30 minutes. This should give the yeast some time to activate so small air pockets can form when frying.

Roll out and fry

Step 7: Place a large pot on medium heat. Add at least 2 inches of oil for deep frying. Allow to heat up for about five to ten minutes. Check to see if the oil is ready with a bamboo skewer (bubbles should form when you place it in the hot oil).

Step 8: Lightly flour your working surface. Roll out each dough ball into a four-inch or five-inch round bake. Dust off excess flour from the bake. You don’t want flour in the hot oil, it’ll burn.

Step 9: Gently add the bake to the hot oil. It should puff up within seconds. Both the yeast and the baking powder are responsible for this action.

Step 10: Flip the bake over once it has fully puffed up and allow the other side to brown.

Step 11: Remove from the oil once the bakes have a golden color on both sides.

Step 12: Place the finished fried bake in an airtight container. Cover completely to trap the heat and steam. This will soften the bake. This same tip works for making soft roti too. Serve hot with any filling of your choice like saltfish buljol, fried shark, fried kingfish, pineapple chow, chadon beni sauce, garlic sauce, tamarind sauce, and more.

Trinidad fry bake recipe