{BBB} Tanta Wawa

Food art is always impressive. Ice sculptures are chipped away with incredible patience. Vegetables are carved into magnificent flowers. People even “paint” beautiful pictures with beans and grains. Even children glue pasta onto construction paper to make a picture. Admit it, you enjoyed doing that too, right?

As soon as I was invited to be part of the Bread Baking Babes, I knew that when it was my turn to be Kitchen of the Month, I wanted to have my fellow babes attempt something Peruvian, and what better way to start than with one of the most creative bread art projects than the Tanta Wawa (or Guagua) which is made in abundance at this time of the year, especially in the mountain regions of Peru.

What are tanta wawas? They are delicate figures made of bread or cake, of different sizes, which represent children, animals or other forms depending on the region. The meaning comes from bread (pan in Spanish & tanta in Quechua) (bebe in Spanish & wawa in Quechua) or “bread in the form of a baby”. These breads are decorated with candies, raisins, anise, ceramics faces or glaze. People in the Andean regions give these breads as a gift during All Saints Day or Day of the Dead (November 1st & 2nd) which allows them to deal with familial relationships. On November 2nd, these bread babies are taken to the cemetaries in town so they can be left as offerings to those that have passed away and then are broken apart and eaten among the visitors. It is unknown when this Andean tradition began but it is known that from long ago, special breads were made and eaten in this manner. (Translated from viajeros.com)

Last November, I searched high and low in the city of Arequipa for the famous Guagua and was delighted to find beautiful bread loaves with painted ceramic heads. Because of the time required to create the tanta wawa, they are typically limited to the month of October. There is nothing more perfect than twelve bread baking babes baking bread babes. I am so glad they were willing to join in the fun and I had a blast making bread babies and animals. Check out other Bread Baking Babes Tanta Wawa breads also!

Don’t miss out on the fun – you too can bake Peruvian Bread Babies and be a Bread Baking Buddy! You have one week from today to bake Tanta Wawa, post your “baking the bread” experience on your blog with a link to the Kitchen of the Month (that’s me this month!) and then send me an email at canelaycominoATgmailDOTcom with your name and the link to the post. I will include you on the list of Tanta Wawa – Bread Baking Buddies and send you a BBB award for this bread that you can add to the post on your blog.

Tanta Wawa (Peruvian Bread Babies)

Makes 4 small loaves

sponge:
1 egg
1/2 cup of all purpose flour
1 tablespoon of sugar
1/4 teaspoon of yeast

dough:
1/2 cup of all purpose flour
1 cup of whole wheat flour
2 cups of bread flour
1/2 cup of white sugar
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of dry yeast
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon of ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon of sesame seeds
2 teaspoons of salt
1/2 cup of milk
1/4 cup of water
1/4 cup of butter
2 eggs (at room temperature)
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
1 egg yolk (for painting)

1. In a bowl create the sponge by combining 1/2 cup of flour, 1 egg, 2 tablespoons of water, a pinch of instant yeast and 1 tablespoon of sugar. Stir together, cover and let rest for a few hours.

2. In a bowl, mix the flours, sugar, yeast, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and sesame seeds. Sprinkle over the sponge. Don’t stir. Cover and let rest for a few hours.

3. Add the 2 eggs and vanilla to the flour mixture. Measure the milk, water and butter in a measuring cup. Heat for 30 seconds in the microwave, pour into the flour mixture. Mix well, then turn out and knead for 10-15 minutes, using additional flour if necessary. Divide dough into 4 equal portions. Form them into ovals. Cover and let the dough rest for 10 minutes.

4. Stretch each dough ball into the form of a “fat baby” and place them on baking sheets. Cover with plastic and let the dough babies rise for 2 hours (there won’t be too much rise at this point).

5. Preheat the oven to 180C. Brush the egg yolks evenly over the dough babies. Bake bread at 180C for 30 minutes.

Tanta Wawa, or Peruvian Bread Babies, are being submitted to YeastSpotting this week.