Egyptian · Breakfast
Feteer Meshaltet
- Advanced
- 45 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
Leads with richness that coats and comforts, a sweet edge rounding the corners.
Ingredients
- 500 g plain flour
- 300 ml warm water
- 8 g salt
- 300 g samna, melted and kept warm
- honey, thick cream or salty white cheese, to serve
Equipment
Sheet pan
The skills inside
The wobble & the skewer: testing a bake
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · dairy
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
- Work the flour, salt and water to a soft slack dough and knead just 5 minutes, to smoothness and no further; this dough needs to stretch, not to fight back. 5 min
- Divide into eight, roll each ball through the melted samna until slick, cover and rest 45 minutes, until a poked ball dents with no resistance and does not spring back. 45 min
- On a heavily greased worktop, push and coax one ball outwards from the centre until it is a sheet you can read newsprint through; holes at the thin edge are of no consequence.
- Brush the sheet with samna, fold it in to a small square parcel, and set it aside; repeat with the rest, then stack the parcels, brushing samna between them.
- Press and stretch the stack into a greased tray, brush the top, and bake at 220C (430F) until the top leaves lift, blister and go mahogany and the base is crisp, 25 to 30 minutes. 30 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
The wobble & the skewer: testing a bake 135 recipes
- Tested at the true centre and the thickest point, not at the convenient edge: the edge is done long before the answer is.
- The skewer comes out as the recipe describes, clean and dry or carrying the stated moist crumb, and it does the same on a second test in a different spot.
- The wobble is read in motion: nudged, the centre moves as one set mass with a faint tremble, rather than a liquid ripple travelling across the surface.
- The other signs agree with the test: risen and just shrinking from the sides, the top set and dry to a light touch with no wet gloss on it.
- Pressed lightly at the middle it springs back and leaves no lasting dent.
Where it goes wrong It was judged on the clock and on how the edges looked, so a centre still liquid went to the rack and sank as it cooled, a dense wet seam under a perfectly browned top.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Mimosa (weekends only)
- Also Right
- Cava, straight
- From the Taps
- -
- Zero-Proof
- Fresh orange juice & café au lait
Morning food wants brightness and bubbles, or honest coffee: nothing that argues before noon.
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