Bajan Lead Pipes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add 3 ½ cups flour along with the cinnamon and nutmeg to a large bowl and mix well.

Cut the butter into cubes and rub it into the flour.

Add the sugar and coconut to the flour mixture and knead well to mix.

Pour in the essence and water and bring the mixture together to form a dough, it will be a little pasty. Gradually add in the remaining flour and knead in the bowl for 10 minutes.

Transfer the dough to a floured work surface, flour a rolling pin and roll the dough into a 12” x 12” square.

Using a sharp knife or dough scraper, cut the dough in half (it’s square so it does not matter if you cut long way or across). Now cut each half into 15 pieces, each piece should be about ¾-inch broad.

You should have a total of 30 x 6-inch pieces of dough.

Assemble on lined baking sheet; you can place them close together so they all fit or spread them apart. Score the dough by making crisscross cuts.

Brush with sugar water and bake for 20 minutes. At the end of the 20 minutes, remove the pan from the oven, brush again with sugar water or dust with sugar and return pan to oven and bake for another 20 – 25 minutes or until the lead pipes are hard to the touch.

Remove from oven, rest in pan for 5 minutes and then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.