Yemen Bread Recipes

URI SCHEFT'S YEMENITE JACHNUN (DAIRY)

Steps:

• Place the flour, sugar, baking powder, honey, and salt in a large bowl.
• Add the water to the bowl and stir until the dough is shaggy and the water has been absorbed.
• Knead the dough in the bowl for 2 minutes (it will be pretty wet and sticky).
• Set the dough aside at room temperature to rest for 5 minutes.
• Slide your hand beneath the dough toward the center so your fingers point up (beneath the dough).
• Lift the dough from the middle, moving your hand toward the edge of the bowl to stretch it.
• Release the dough, give the bowl a quarter turn, and repeat 7 times.
• Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set the dough aside to rest at room temperature for 1 hour.
• Lightly oil a large plate. Oil your hand and pat some oil under the dough and over the surface.
• Grab a corner of the dough and squeeze your forefinger and thumb around it, pushing a baseball-size ball of dough up through the circle made by your finger and thumb.
• Break off the ball, place your thumb in the center of the ball, and use your other hand to fold the edges over your thumb, using your thumb to pinch down each of the edges as they get folded over.
• Pinch all the corners shut and then set the dough on the oiled plate, smooth-side up.
• Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough to make 10 baseball-size balls.
• Cover the dough loosely with a kitchen towel and let it rest at room temperature for 5 minutes.
• Adjust an oven rack to the lowest position and preheat the oven to 225 F.
• Fold a long piece of parchment paper in half lengthwise and place it across the bottom of an 8-inch or 9-inch springform pan or kubaneh pan so the edges of the parchment hang over the sides (like a sling).
• Put the butter in a small bowl close to your work area. Heavily butter your work surface and set a ball of dough on top.
• Butter the top of the dough ball and use your hands to push and stretch the dough into a very thin (paper-thin) rectangle (stretch it as far as you can without the dough tearing, adding more butter as needed to prevent tearing-but don't worry if it tears).
• Fold the left side of the rectangle over the center (lengthwise), lightly butter the top of the fold, then fold the right side over (lengthwise) creating a simple fold. Lightly butter the top.
• Starting at a narrow, short edge, roll the dough into a tight cylinder. Set the cylinder in the parchment paper-lined pan, perpendicular to the length of the paper.
• Repeat with 3 more balls.
• Once the first layer of the pan is full, set the next layer on top of the first, across the first layer in a crosshatch pattern.
• Place the final 2 cylinders around the edges of the pan.
• Butter another doubled sheet of parchment paper and place it, buttered-side down, on top of the dough. Cover tightly with a lid, or a doubled piece of heavy-duty foil.
• Bake the jachnun overnight, for 12 hours.
• The next morning, remove the jachnun from the oven.
• Uncover the pan and discard the parchment paper.
• Place the jachnun on a platter and serve.

KUBANEH (YEMENITE JEWISH BREAD)

Steps:

• Sourdough Prep
• If you're doing the sourdough version, make the sweet stiff starter the night before you plan to bake. After mixing the ingredients, knead the starter dough a bit on your counter to fully incorporate the ingredients, then place the blob in a jar, press it down with your knuckles and cover loosely. The starter should double (or more) in 8-12 hours, and you can proceed with the rest of the instructions.
• Mixing
• Pull 57g/half stick of butter from the refrigerator, unwrap it, and place it on a small plate to soften. Fold the wrapper in half and save it to grease your springform pan and countertop. Reminder: The butter doesn't go into the dough during mixing.
• Whisk the dry ingredients in a large bowl: flour, sugar, (yeast), and salt.
• Add the water, whole egg, egg white, (and sourdough starter broken into pieces). Mix thoroughly until the dough is smooth.
• Pour 1 tablespoon of oil on top of the dough, cover, and let the dough rise until it has more than doubled. In a warm summer kitchen, this took 1 hour for the yeast version and 4.5 hours for the sourdough version.
• Shaping and Final Proof
• Smudge a bit of the softened butter onto your saved butter wrapper and grease a 9-inch springform pan. Use this wrapper to lightly grease your countertop too.
• Scrape the dough out of the bowl and de-gas it by pressing your palms into it.
• Divide the dough in 12-18 pieces. See the photo galleries for different outcomes with fewer large pieces (yeast) versus more smaller pieces (sourdough).
• Working one piece at a time, spread the dough thin with butter-coated fingertips. Don't worry if you tear the dough a bit.
• Layer more butter on the thin dough, then sprinkle it with nigella seeds. (Have a paper towel nearby to occasionally de-seed your buttery fingers as the seeds will shred the next dough ball.)
• Fold the dough in thirds, and then roll it from a short side.
• Place the roll in your pan, working from the center outward. It's okay if the rolls topple over a bit. You can adjust them later, and a little chaos adds to the appeal.
• When all the rolls are done, cover your pan and let the dough rise until it has more than doubled. This was 1 hour for the yeast version and 2.5 hours for the sourdough version. See the photo gallery for expansion.
• Baking
• Preheat your oven to 350F.
• Beat the egg yolk with a tablespoon of water and brush the top of the dough. Sprinkle with nigella seeds and bake for 30 minutes uncovered.
• Let the dough cool on a rack for about 20 minutes before you remove the outer ring of the pan. Serve on the base.

KUBANEH (YEMENI PULL-APART ROLLS)

Steps:

• Prepare a 9-inch springform cake pan by buttering it and placing it on a sheet tray. In a stand mixer fitted with the hook attachment, mix water, yeast, flour, sugar, salt and 1 egg (reserve the other egg for egg wash) on low speed. Once they're combined, turn up to medium-high, and knead for 10 minutes. With the machine running, add the 2 tablespoons of butter a bit at a time, waiting until it's fully incorporated before adding more. Continue to knead until the dough balls together and becomes very elastic, or 5 more minutes. Remove the hook, cover the bowl loosely with plastic wrap and rest for 20 minutes.
• Use lightly floured hands to turn dough out onto a lightly floured cutting board. Cut in half, and again, and again, until you have 16 even-size pieces. Cover with plastic wrap, and set aside. Spread 2 tablespoons of soft butter across your work surface, and place a piece of dough in the center. Cover the palms of your hands with another tablespoon of soft butter, and without lifting the dough off the counter, use your fingers and palms to flatten and smear the dough out, until it is smooth and thin and sheer in places, or approximately 12 inches in diameter. The exact shape doesn't matter much, and neither do some small rips here and there in the dough. Sprinkle some nigella seeds over the dough, then roll the dough into a long, skinny log: starting from the end farthest away from you, push the dough toward you with 8 fingertips until it gathers up into a thick enough piece to begin rolling it, then roll it all the way toward you. Wind the log up into a snail shape, and place it in the center of the prepared pan.
• Repeat the process for the remaining 15 pieces, buttering your work surface and hands each time as needed, and continue arranging the finished buns loosely around the first. Cover the pan with a towel or plastic wrap, and allow to rise in a warm spot for 1 hour, or until the buns have almost doubled in size.
• Preheat the oven to 350. Whisk remaining egg with a tablespoon of water, then gently brush the egg on top of the buns. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the buns at the center are as puffed asthe buns on the edges. In the meantime, grate the tomato, then season it with olive oil and salt. Allow the kubaneh to cool for a few minutes, then serve with the tomato on the side.

LECHUCH (YEMENITE YEAST BREAD)

Steps:

• Combine all the ingredients with a mixer until you get a smooth batter without lumps.
• Place the bowl, covered with aluminum foil, in a warm place for about an hour, and allow the batter to rise.
• Choose a good Teflon frying pan.
• The frying pan must be cold.
• Oil very lightly, you can use a spray, place on a high flame and pour in a ladleful of the batter.
• When the batter begins to bubble (after a minute or a minute and a half), turn the frying pan over onto a dry towel.
• Keep the lechuch in a pile, back-to-back, face-to-face.
• Cool the bottom of the frying pan with tap water, and put back on the stove.