Rewena Paraoa

Rewena bread is a traditional Maori potato sourdough 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. I found a lovely recipe at Wild Yeast Blog which I have adapted with quite a bit of success.

Ingredients & Equipment

For the rewena

• Potato                       75-90 gms
• Water 120 ml
• All purpose flour 120 gms

For the dough

• Rewena as above
• All purpose flour 300 gms
• Salt 8 gms
• Honey 12 gms
• Dried herbs 1 tbsp
• Water 120 ml
• Instant yeast a pinch

• OTG / Microwave Oven for baking
• Mixing bowls
• Jar / bowl for the potato starter
• Vessels for cooking potatoes
• Spatula
• Dutch oven / Baking trays
• Wire rack to cool the loaf

Making the potato starter

We first need to prepare the starter for the bread with potato and flour. Firstly we heat the 120 ml water. Then we wash and peel the potato. We then dice it into small pieces to help it cook faster. After the water has come to a boil add the potatoes and let it get cooked to mash-able consistency. Transfer the potato and water to a bowl and add some more water to get the total weight of the potato and water to 165 gms. Once the potato pieces are slightly cooled mash them well so that no solid pieces remain. Cover with a cling film or plastic wrap and set aside to develop. It will have the consistency of a slightly stiff dough.

Developing the starter

The starter can take anytime from 24 hours to 60 hours depending on the weather at your location. It took me around 26 hours in summer (around 32C) and about 48 hours in winter (20C). We know it is ready when the starter is bubbly active and increasing in volume. After around 14 hours or so it should start relaxing and become more loose and sticky. Once you see the starter having too many bubbles and it is frothing and has a nice smell, it is ready.

Mixing & kneading the dough

Once the starter is ready, add it to a large bowl. Add the flour, salt, dried herbs, honey and water to it. Mix and knead well to form a soft and supple dough that is not too sticky. Test the dough for the windowpane test wherein we stretch a small part of the dough to a thin layer such that we can see light passing through without the dough tearing. You should be able to achieve this by kneading for 15 to 20 minutes by hand. Once the dough is mixed, keep it in a well oiled bowl for it to double in volume. It should double in around 4 hours or so.

Shaping and Proving

Once the dough doubles in volume, we need to shape it. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface. Shape it like a ball by pulling it from all four sides to the center. Once it is shaped nice and tight transfer it to a banetton or any vessel or small basket with a cloth in it. Dust the cloth with some rice flour to ensure the dough doesn’t stick. Cover and set aside for 2-3 hours till it rises to double the volume.

Baking & Cooling

Preheat the oven to 220C. Then grease a dutch oven or any oven friendly vessel which can be covered to bake. It will generate steam within to given the bread a beautiful crust. If you do not have that, then use a baking tray. In that case, add another empty tray to the oven at the lower rack of the oven while preheating. Just after putting the dough in the oven add some ice cubes to the tray at the lower rack. This will help in generating steam for the crust. Bake for 10 minutes at 220C and for 20-25 minutes at 200C. Uncover the vessel in the last 10 minutes. Once the top of the loaf has nicely browned, take it out the oven and transfer it to a wire rack to cool. The loaf will need around 2 hours to cool. Slice the loaf only after it cools completely.

I had previously published this recipe post for the Maori Potato Bread a couple of years ago when I had made a very small loaf and I have been planning to make a bigger one and get better results. Now I did it and am making some changes to the quantity of ingredients and pictures of my new loaf but the method stays the same with some additional insights.

Pin for later

For other sourdough breads check out Seeded Sourdough Boule and Sourdough Burger Buns. I also have the Roasted Garlic and Potato Bread and Potato Pizza which use potatoes in bread beautifully.

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

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