Yemeni & the Gulf · Bread
Bint al Sahn
- Advanced
- 45 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
Leads with a sweet edge rounding the corners, richness that coats and comforts.
Ingredients
- 500 g plain flour
- 4 eggs
- 7 g instant yeast
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- about 150 ml warm water
- 250 g samn (clarified butter), melted
- 150 g honey, sidr honey if you have it
- 1 tsp nigella seeds
The skills inside
Proofing: the rise before the ovenResting dough: the pause that does the work
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · dairy · egg
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Mix the flour, yeast, sugar and salt, work in the eggs and enough warm water to give a soft, slightly tacky dough, and knead until it stretches to a translucent window without tearing.
- Prove covered until doubled, about 1 hour, then divide into 10 equal balls, coat each one in melted samn and rest them 20 minutes so the gluten slackens. 60 min
- Stretch each ball on an oiled worktop with flat palms, working from the middle outward, until the sheet is thin enough to read through and wider than the tin.
- Lay a sheet in a buttered 26 cm round tin, brush it with samn and repeat, folding the overhang inward, until all ten are stacked; give the top sheet a heavier coat.
- Bake at 200C (390F) for 25 to 30 minutes, until the top is deep gold and the edges have crisped and pulled from the tin, then brush with more samn while hot, pour over the honey so it sinks between the layers, and scatter the nigella. 30 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the techniques it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Resting dough: the pause that does the work 71 recipes
- It actually rested, covered, for the time stated, not cut short because the rest of the schedule was tight.
- It rolls and shapes without fighting: it stays where it is put, and it does not spring back or shrink on the bench between passes.
- The surface is smooth and supple rather than dry, cracked, or skinned over.
- It is at the temperature the next step needs: cold where the fat must stay solid, cool and relaxed where it must be rolled thin.
- Baked, it holds the dimensions it was shaped to rather than shrinking back from the edges of the tin or the rim of the dish.
Where it goes wrong The rest was skipped or shortened, so the gluten was still tight: the dough fought the pin and sprang back thick and uneven, then shrank down the sides of the tin in the oven.
Proofing: the rise before the oven 78 recipes
- Judged on volume against the container rather than on the clock: visibly grown, and grown by roughly the amount the recipe describes.
- The poke test agrees: a floured fingertip pressed a centimetre in leaves a dent that springs back slowly and only part of the way. Straight back means it is not ready; no spring at all means it has gone.
- The surface is domed, smooth, and slightly sheened: not cratered, wrinkled, or collapsed, and not skinned over and dry from proofing uncovered.
- Handled, it feels alive and airy: light for its size, with bubbles visible under the skin.
- It springs in the oven: the piece lifts in the first minutes and the scores open. A shape that does not move at all was proofed past its point before it went in.
Where it goes wrong It was proofed to the clock in a kitchen colder or warmer than the recipe assumed: overproofed, it collapses as the blade touches it and bakes flat and dense with a sour edge; underproofed, it tears at the side and bakes tight.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Grüner Veltliner
- Also Right
- Vermentino or dry Chenin
- From the Taps
- Saison
- Zero-Proof
- Sparkling water with citrus & herbs
The vegetable whisperers: peppery, high-acid whites that flatter greens, roots, and grains without bullying them.
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