A Yemeniyah's Recipes

To make the VERY ELASTIC dough that is the secret of this recipe you will need:

1) 1 tsp of yeast dissolved in 1/4 cup of warm water

2) 4 eggs

3) 3 cups of white flour (I used North dakota)

4) 1/4 cup of water (in addition to the 1/4 of cup in which you have dissolved the yeast)

5) 1 tsp salt

6) 1/4 cup of melted butter(or ghee if you have some at hand)

In a bowl hand whisk the eggs, add the salt, water, yeast mixture and whisk well. Slowly add the flour and knead into a dough. Slowly pour the melted better and continue kneading until all the butter is incorporated. You can use a mixer for this, but we usually knead it by hand.

The dough takes on a yellowy color from the eggs and the butter!

OVEN MUST BE PREHEATED TO 400 degrees F.

Divide into 16 balls of equal size and cover so they do not dry up ( REMEMBER to flour the plate you put them on, so they do not stick to the plate). Let rise for about 20 min. You can use a rolling pin and start opening up each circle as big as you can–each one has to be so thin that you can literally see through it. Our yemeni mothers and sisters do th is by hand. I continue with my hand here, tossing it from one hand to the other. BE CAREFUL it does not break! It will be VERY thin, almost see through.

With a spoon sprinkle some melted butter onto a round metal oven dish (about 14 inch in diameter). Then place the first layer onto the butter–make sure the edges stick to the oven dish. Sprinkle more butter on this layer and repeat the process of opening up the balls of dough–basically repeat the previous three steps–until you get the to last one. Don’t sprinkle the top of this layer with butter, but rather brush it with some egg yolk and sprinkle some black seeds on it.

Place in the preheated oven about 20 minutes, until it rises and browns on the top. Serve with HONEY.