Kubaneh

Ingredients

Dough

• 700 gplain flour
• 10 ginstant yeast
• 50 gsugar
• 2 tspsalt
• 400 mlwarm water
• 2 tbspoil

To laminate

• 250 gsamneh or softened butter

Pot

• 6eggs, in their shells
• 1 tbsphoney or date syrup, optional

To serve

• grated fresh tomato
• zhug
• salt

Directions

1. Make a soft dough with the flour, yeast, sugar, salt, warm water and oil, and knead it 10 minutes until smooth and elastic.
2. Prove for 1 hour 30 minutes until doubled.
3. Divide into six or eight pieces, oil each, and rest them 15 minutes.
4. On a well-oiled surface, flatten one piece and stretch it outward with oiled palms until it is a thin, almost transparent sheet.
5. Stretch rather than roll, and go thinner than feels safe. The layers are the whole dish and a thick sheet gives you a bread roll.
6. Smear the sheet generously all over with soft samneh.
7. Now roll it up loosely into a long rope, then coil that rope into a flat spiral, like a snail.
8. Roll loosely and coil loosely. Wound tight, the layers fuse into a solid mass instead of separating into the strands you pull apart.
9. Set the coils side by side in a heavy round pot, touching but not squashed.
10. Trickle honey or date syrup over the top if you want the darker crust.
11. Sit the whole eggs on top of the coils, in their shells.
12. Cover with baking paper, then the lid, sealing the rim with foil if the lid is loose.
13. Seal it properly. The whole method is trapped steam over many hours, and a pot that vents dries out and browns instead of baking soft.
14. Bake at 100°C (215°F) for 10 to 12 hours, or overnight.
15. Very low and very long. It goes in before Shabbat begins and comes out for breakfast, which is exactly why it is cooked this way.
16. It turns deep golden and pulls apart in soft buttery strands, and the eggs turn beige and creamy right through.
17. Serve hot, torn by hand rather than cut, with a brown egg each, grated raw tomato and zhug.
18. Grate the tomato on the coarse side of a box grater and throw away the skin left in your hand.
19. It is Yemenite Jewish Shabbat morning bread, and jachnun is its close relative: the same overnight pot, the same eggs and tomato, but rolled into separate logs rather than coiled into a pan.

Technique

• The brown eggs are haminados, cooked so slowly that the whites colour and the yolks turn dense.
• It is eaten with the hands, pulled apart in strands, and cutting it with a knife defeats the point.
• Frozen kubaneh is a supermarket staple in Israel and is what most households use.

Substitutions

• Butter or margarine in place of samneh.
• A slow cooker on low overnight, which suits it well.

Variations

• Jachnun, the rolled version, baked the same way.
• With nigella seeds scattered between the layers.
• Sweetened more heavily with date syrup.

History

Yemenite Jewish Shabbat bread cooked slowly in a sealed pot, since cooking is forbidden on the day itself.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kubaneh?

Kubaneh is a bread & pastry from Israel: buttery pull-apart bread baked overnight, served with grated tomato and zhug. Yemenite Jewish Shabbat bread cooked slowly in a sealed pot, since cooking is forbidden on the day itself.

How long does Kubaneh take to make?

Kubaneh takes 40 min plus 2 hr rising of preparation and 10 hr of cooking. The recipe makes 1 pan, 8 portions. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Kubaneh?

Yes, within limits. Butter or margarine in place of samneh. A slow cooker on low overnight, which suits it well.

What is the most important thing to get right in Kubaneh?

Stretch rather than roll, and go thinner than feels safe. The layers are the whole dish and a thick sheet gives you a bread roll.