Читать книгу Feasts From the Middle East - Tony Kitous - Страница 22

‘Kaak’ in Arabic means ‘bread’, and these, with their distinctive handbag shape, are at their best fresh from the oven. Topped with sesame seeds, they are thinner than other breads, but you can prise them open and fill them with anything – salty feta and slices of juicy ripe tomatoes are always good in my book. You can see the shape in the photo.

SESAME SEED BREAD

KAAK BIL SEMSSOUM

MAKES 6

150ml tepid water

12–15g dried yeast

50g sugar

500g white bread flour, plus extra for rolling

10g salt

1 medium egg

100ml vegetable oil, plus extra for greasing

sesame seeds, to sprinkle

FOR THE EGG WASH

2 medium eggs

1 tsp white wine vinegar

Pour half the water into a bowl and sprinkle over the yeast. Add a pinch of the sugar and stir everything together. Set aside to allow the yeast to activate for 5 minutes.

Sift the flour into a large bowl and stir in the rest of the sugar and the salt. Make a well in the middle and add the egg and oil. Whisk the egg to break it down. Pour the yeast mixture into the middle, rinsing out the bowl with a little of the remaining water so that all the yeast goes in. Pour the rest of the water into the flour mixture.

Mix all the ingredients together to make a rough dough, then tip it on to a board and knead well until it’s really smooth. This will take about 5–10 minutes,. Put into a clean bowl, cover and leave in a warm place for about 40 minutes.

Divide the dough into six equal pieces. Take each piece and roll it in the palm of your hand to make a ball.

Lightly flour the work surface and roll out one piece until it measures about ½cm thick and about 15cm across. Use a 5-cm round cutter to cut out a circle at the top, near the edge on one side of the round. Pull this bit of dough out to make a handbag shape.

Beat the eggs and white wine vinegar together in a bowl. Brush this all over the dough, then spread liberally with sesame seeds, pressing them down so that they stick to the egg wash. Slide on to a lightly oiled baking sheet (or lined with baking parchment). Do the same with the rest of the dough until you’ve made six breads in total. Put to one side at room temperature for 40–50 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/gas mark 6. Transfer the baking sheets to the oven and bake for 15–20 minutes until golden.

TONY’S TIP

You can bake the small rounds of dough you’ve cut out to make little rolls. Brush with the egg wash, scatter over the sesame seeds and put them on a separate tray. Bake them for about 10–12 minutes.