Gellete. Pronounced ga-le-ta. When I grew up, there were a handful of foods that we always had on hand. Gellete being one of them. For those of you that don’t know what gellete is, they are small, hard, dry buns. My foster mother said that when they lived in Paraguay, they would take trips to the city on horse and buggy which would take a couple of days, and they would bring gellete for food to eat during their journey. It preserved well and was a great snack. When I was a kid, the adults would eat gellete with coffee and jam, but because I was too young for coffee, I would mimic the adults by eating mine with milk and jam. They would place a galette in the palm of their hand, and hit it with a spoon to break it. Then put the broken bread in the spoon, top it with jam, dunk it in their coffee and eat it. She made containers of it at a time so we always had it on hand. I remember on summer days, I would fill up a bag with gellete and head out to the bush near our house for the day. I would eat my gellete with saskatoons, hazelnuts, and chokecherries which I would forage while trekking through the bush.
Almost right after I finished making the gellete for this post, I was hit with the flu. Close to death, I took the final pictures, and retreated to darkness (at least that’s all I could see). The next day, I didn’t feel like eating anything. I had been telling my kids when they were sick that even though they didn’t want to eat, they still had to try to eat something. So I figured I should probably take my own advice and set an example. Luckily I had gellete on hand to get me through the day.
If you have ever had gellete, please let me know what you thought of it, and how you liked it.
There are a few recipes online, but they just aren’t what I grew up with. The recipe in my foster mothers cookbook called for baking ammonia, which I didn’t have, so I just substituted it for baking powder and it turned out great.
To make gellete, you will need 1 1/2 cups of warm water, 1 tablespoon of yeast, 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder, 1/2 a cup of oil, and 4 cups of flour.
First, mix 1 tablespoon of yeast and 1 teaspoon of sugar into 1 1/2 cups of warm water and let it sit for about 10 minutes.
Then put 4 cups of flour, 1/2 a teaspoon of baking powder, and 1/2 a teaspoon of salt in a mixing bowl. Add the water/yeast mixture, and 1/2 cup of oil and stir.
Gradually add more flour while mixing until you have a nice firm dough.
Cover and let rise for 1 hour.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Celsius. Roll dough into a long rope.
Cut 1/2” pieces, and place on baking tray.
Bake for 15-20 minutes or until brown.
Dump onto a cooling rack and let them sit as long as you want. Seriously. If you leave them there for a week, they will still be good! Ok, maybe not a week, but put them into a container whenever you have time.
Serve and enjoy!!
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- 1 1/2 cups Warm Water
- 1 Tbsp Yeast
- 1 tsp Sugar
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/2 cup Oil
- 4 cups Flour
- First, mix 1 tablespoon of yeast and 1 teaspoon of sugar into 1 1/2 cups of warm water and let it sit for about 10 minutes.
- Then put 4 cups of flour, 1/2 a teaspoon of baking powder, and 1/2 a teaspoon of salt in a mixing bowl. Add the water/yeast mixture, and 1/2 cup of oil and stir.
- Gradually add more flour while mixing until you have a nice firm dough.
- Cover and let rise for 1 hour.
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Celsius.
- Roll dough into a long rope.
- Cut 1/2'' pieces, and place on baking tray.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes or until brown.
- Cool and serve.
Excited to try this recipe! My dad grew up in Paraguay as well and loves these things, and they stay good forever! (Almost). thanks for the recipe; seems simple! I’m making them for his birthday, and I think he’ll also enjoy taking them to the bush (as his pandemic escape) for his coffee breaks:)
Oooh i grew up having them dunked in milk! Never thought to have them with jam. Thank you as well for the pronunciation. My Dad always called them “Guy-ett-ahs” so it’s neat to see regional dialect changes (or if he just kinda forgot exactly what they were called 😂) he never made them though, would buy them from this little menno lady so i never learned how to make them.