Easter Recipes – Traditional Saint Lucia – LABABAD!

Preheat your oven to 300-350F. Traditionally this would have been cooked in a wood-fired oven and temperature judged by acquired knowledge and skill. 

Prep your baking trays by greasing them well. 

Add dry ingredients to a bowl and mix to evenly distribute. Note that the addition of baking powder will make the Lababad less hard and dense. In true traditional lababad, there is no leavening. 

Mix in the lard (if used), vanilla essence and wet ginger, again, making sure to mix well. Lard will also soften the Lababad.

Add water carefully until the mixture is a soft dough. No need to knead! Make it just liquid enough to allow it to be poured if you’d like to fill your baking tray rather than form separate biscuits. 

If you’d like to make separate biscuits, then keep the dough a little on the firmer side. Then scoop an amount that will give you the size biscuit you prefer. Traditionally, Lababad are quite big – about 4×6 inches, but if you like, you can go with smaller ones, just remember you might need to reduce cooking times. 

If you want to make a tray full then use a bit more water and pour the batter into the greased tray. You will cut the biscuits when it is half baked.

Now, pop them in the oven and set your timer for 15 minutes (maybe 10 if you’ve made small biscuits).
Also keep in mind that if you have used more water, you may need a longer bake time and perhaps a lower temperature. Keep in mind this is a dry bisucit /cookie, so it’s important not to get the dough/batter too wet. 

If you have made a full pan of dough, then at this point, once the dough has lost its wetness, you will cut the cookies into the size you want, then return to the oven for the rest of the baking.

Wait for the Lababad to cool for it to get to full hardness – and a tip from the older folk…dip into warm milk for a bit to soften before eating.

Enjoy!