Today I am sharing with you my updated Guyanese Style Bakes or Floats recipe. I shared my original recipe a few years ago. It is quite popular among followers. That recipe is a fail proof way of making sweet and delicious bakes (do Guyanese people even say bakes?). This new recipe is another way of making perfect, fluffy and soft fried bakes or float with a slightly crunchy exterior. Just the way I like it!
Differences in the two recipes:
- The biggest difference in the two recipes is the introduction of some fat into the dough. I used coconut oil, but you can use butter, lard, ghee or even some cooking oil.
- In this recipe I also roll the dough into a giant flat dish then use a biscuit or hand pie cutter to cut it into bakes. This is really great for if you have little helpers (children). My children love using different shapes for their own unique cut outs.
The Updated Easy to Follow Bakes/Float Tutorial:
Previous Guyanese Style Bake/s Tutorial:
Make Some Bake/s Today!
The Printable Guyanese Style Bakes Recipe Card
Guyanese Style Bakes /Floats
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Bakes or Floats is a slightly sweet dough that is deep fried. It is enjoyed for breakfast in Guyana and across the Caribbean.
Author: Althea Brown
Recipe type: Breakfast
Cuisine: Guyanese / Caribbean
Serves: 12 Bakes
Ingredients
- 3 cups of All Purpose Flour, plus more for dusting work surface
- 2 teaspoons of baking powder
- ½ teaspoon of salt
- ½ cup of brown sugar
- 1 cup of warm water
- 1 tablespoon of fat (coconut oil, butter, shortening, ghee or cooking oil)
- 4 cups of oil for frying (sunflower, grapeseed, avocado or canola oil)
Instructions
- Add brown sugar and warm water to a small mixing bowl and mix together until sugar crystals completely dissolve
- Then add flour, baking powder and salt to a large mixing bowl
- Mix together well then add the fat (coconut oil, butter, ghee, oil) to the dry ingredients and mix in using finger tips until a crumbly texture forms
- Then make a well in the center of your ingredients and add the sugar water solution to the center
- Next mix together the sugar water solution and the dry ingredients to form a soft dough, you may dust with a little bit of flour if the dough is too sticky
- Then turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead well into a smooth ball
- Place the dough ball into a greased bowl, cover with a kitchen towel and let the dough rest for 30 minutes
- After the dough has rested for 30 minutes, turn the dough onto a floured surface and roll (with a rolling pin) until it is about ⅛ of an inch thick
- Then using a cookie, biscuit or hand pie cutter large enough for palm size circles, cut the dough into 12 circular pieces (see video for method with zero dough wasted). For this step you can also use a round bowl or the cover/lid of a round container
- Next add 4 cups of oil to a medium sized stock pot or frying pan, on medium to high heat. Please ensure pot is large and deep enough for deep frying. Here's a linkto the pan I used in the video.
- Bring the oil up to temperature
- Then add your cut out bake dough to the oil. You may cook 1-3 bakes per time if your pot can accommodate it
- Cook bake for about 1 minute on each side or until golden brown, then flip to the other side and fry for another minute or so or until bake is golden brown
- Remove from the oil and place in a bowl lined with a few sheets of paper towel or a kitchen towel
- Continue steps 12-14 until all the bakes are cooked
- Serve warm with some salt fish!
Love this recipe? Try my other fail proof Guyanese recipes:
Beginner Roti
Tennis Rolls
Yes, we still call it bake
Right 1 bake 2 bake?
I tried this recipe and this was the first time my float bakes came out so good. They actually swelled up and stayed soft and so yummy!!!
Yay! Thank you for sharing.
I just finished cooking and eating mine with some bacalo…hmm hmm good! Thanks
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This bake recipe is the bees knees. I’ve been using it quite a bite over the last few months and my bakes are always soft and delicious. Thanks for taking the time to test recipes so that we all can enjoy delicious treats!🤤🤤
So i just tired the recipe, it’s my first time making it but to my surprise it was okay 😂
Thanks for sharing the recipe💜
With this recipe, Bakes are perfection every time !
What an awesome recipe. Made it this weekend and everyone loved it.
Thank you so much!
Naz
This is my go to recipe for bakes. I half the sugar and it still tastes delicious. I could have people thinking that I can actually cook with this recipe. 🤣
Love this recipe. My bakes looked like a pufferfish.. They were soft and Fluffy and yessssss… Delicious. It was a bit on the sweeter side so next time I will use less sugar. My kids enjoyed it. Thank you so much for sharing… Xoxo
You’re welcome.
Why are they called floats? I’ve always known them as bakes. These are what Indians call bathura, it’s an Indian dish originally brought from the Indians, but the name was changed mistakenly because people could not speak Hindi. A friend of ours who is of Indian nationality and lived in Guyana explained this to me. Instead of Bathura it was shortened to baith and thus we got the word bake. I only recently noticed everyone calling it floats, I never knew this while living in Guyana.
I think because when you fry them and they start to float you can soon eat them (and start to bloat).
I miss my Grano so much. Eating these are sure to make me cry (happy tears).
Indeed! That’s why they’re called floats. And we have several kind of “bakes” in Guyana. So to differentiate we’d say “float or float bake.”
My first time trying and they came out great! Everyone loved them, thank you. I was reluctant to try for years only because I thought it would be hard and I would screw it up and I didn’t. I was never really good at frying, and this made me more confident. Thank you again.
Thanks for sharing and so glad it came out great
Perfect. Mi eat dem off real quick
❤️❤️❤️
Thank you, this recipe was delicious 😋
So glad you liked it
Hi,
My bake won’t puff up.
They float up to the top but won’t puff up.
I’ve tried FIVE TIMES! Each time with baking powder, lukewarm water and yeast.
What do you think I’m doing wrong?
Possibly outdated baking powder. And ensure you mix the dry ingredients well…and allow the 30 minute or more period for setting. This is just my fallible opinion.
Metemgee is God sent, since quarantine I have been following her recipes and they all taste just like my grandmother and moms. Thank you so much for sharing yout craft with us:-)
Thank you!
Easy to follow recipe & perfectly delicious every time!!
Thank you, thank you!
I tried these while I am by my friend and they came out peeeeeerfect! Now I have to be making bakes every other day for bfast.
Love it. Thank you.
Thank you for this ! It’s hard to have my mom teach me when all she says it’s “e easy, yuh jus put lil flowah and yuh bakin powda and yuh fry am” haha but she makes triangle, do you have a video making it triangle way? I want to impress my mom
Possibly outdated baking powder. And ensure you mix the dry ingredients well…and allow the 30 minute or more period for setting. This is just my fallible opinion.