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Interesting steamed Bread process

"Norbert or Jeanette Jacobs" <njretired@copper.net>
Thu, 26 Jun 2008 08:50:52 -0500
v108.n025.7
Our friends had us over to their house yesterday and served one of 
their old family recipes called...Stip and Poofa!  It was 
delicious.  It was what I would describe as a thick slice of soft 
white bread (the Poofa) with a sweet, white pudding ladled over it.

This is how it's cooked:  You make up a large batch of yeast bread 
dough, stir and knead it, so it's ready for it's first rise.  Place 
the already-kneaded dough on the counter, in the center of a very 
large dishtowel or piece of cheesecloth.  About the same time, fill a 
large cooking pot (with a lid) about 1/3 to 1/2 full of water and 
start it to boil.  Take the bread-in-the-towel that's setting on the 
counter, place the pot's lid over the bread and towel and bring the 
corners of the towel up over the lid, tying the corners together in 
knots.  Put this bread-lid back over the boiling water and cook for 
about an hour or so until the bread is steamed-cooked.  Let it cool.

To make the Stif (sauce):  make a large recipe of vanilla 
pudding.  Her's appeared to be made from milk, eggs, and flour, 
cooked until it was thick, but pourable off the spoon.

To serve:  slice a piece of the cooked bread about 1" thick and place 
it in a bowl.  Ladle some pudding over the top and serve.  It was 
really very delicious...sort of like a bread pudding.

They also told that another variation of this was that their 
mother...in the good old days....used to make / steam the bread over 
a pot of beans as they cooked them in order to save steps and 
energy!  Also, they recalled that sometimes the sauce was dark brown 
in color, and that most likely their mother had added some molasses 
to it.  They liked that version, too.

Has anyone every heard of this process or the name for it?  The 
family claims to have German heritage, but perhaps this is NOT a 
"German" recipe.  They said they have also heard it called "Johnny in 
a Sack", but I had no results on an internet search for that name, either.

Jeanette in South Texas