Rewena bread is a traditional Maori baked bread, known as Rewena Paraoa. The Maori are indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand. Paraoa is the Maori word for bread. The word rewena comes from the root word ‘rewa’, which is a potato. Rewena bread is made with fermented potato instead of yeast, which gives the bread a firmer texture. Rewena is usually eaten hot with butter, jams or golden syrup.

The rewena needs to be made around 2 days in advance. I diligently set the rewena in action but I was not rewarded with too many bubbles as it should have. Yet, I bravely kneaded the dough and prayed hard to the bread gods and also started looking out for an alternative in case this did not work out. Thankfully I was reasonably rewarded with a lovely crumb and crust. Later I figured that I had reduced the quantities in the recipe significantly and hence did not get a perfect result. But the bread is so aromatic and flavourful that I have vowed to redo this one in larger quantities and enjoy it immensely! Also this was the first time I tried to use a stencil on the loaf for a bit of design. I didn’t get anything more than the daughter’s toys. I should hopefully have a better stencil next time round. If you are trying out this recipe, I would recommend at least doubling the quantities I have used to get optimum results.

Country – New Zealand

Makes one small loaf

Recipe adapted from here

WHAT WE NEED

For the rewena

Potato                      25 gms

Water                       40 ml

All purpose flour   40 gms

Honey                       1 tsp

For the dough

Rewena as above

All purpose flour       100 gms

Salt                                1/4 tsp 

Honey                            5 gms

Dried rosemary           1 tbsp

Lukewarm water         40 ml

Instant yeast                 a pinch
WHAT TO DO       

For the rewena

• Peel and thinly slice the potato
• Cook it in the water till it is of mashable consistency
• Mash the potato in the water and add additional water to make the total weight 55 gms
• Set aside to cool
• Once cooled, add the flour and honey and mix to form a dough
• Transfer to a bowl and cover with cling wrap and leave it for 48 -60 hours
• In the first 24 hours, you will see the dough transform to a batter like consistency and few bubbles in the rewena
• The next day there will be more bubbles and the rewena is ready for use between 48 and 60 hours 

For the bread

• Mix all the ingredients for the dough and knead well to form an elastic dough
• Set aside in a greased bowl covered with cling wrap till it doubles in size
• Punch it down and let it rise again for 30 minutes
• Take out the dough and shape it as a round shape and transfer it to a greased baking dish
• Set it aside for two hours
• Preheat the oven to 220C with a baking tray inside
• Add 5-6 ice cubes to the baking tray
• Bake for 10 minutes and turn the baking dish around 
• Reduce the temperature to 200C and bake for 20-25 minutes or till the bread is dark brown
• Let it cool completely before slicing
• Enjoy with a dash of butter!

This is my post for the mega marathon under the letter R.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 75