Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Yemeni Kubaneh - Buttery Rolls #BreadBakers

A traditional bread, made from dough spread liberally with butter or margarine, Yemeni kubaneh bakes up light and fluffy. It’s perfect with your morning coffee or an afternoon cup of tea.

Food Lust People Love: A traditional bread, made from yeast dough spread liberally with butter or margarine, Yemeni kubaneh bakes up light and fluffy. It’s perfect with your morning coffee or an afternoon cup of tea.

There appear to be as many recipes for Yemeni kubaneh as there are Yemeni mamas and grandmas.

When our international bread theme was chosen for this month’s Bread Bakers, I immediately started to research for an unfamiliar bread to test and bake. We were supposed to choose a bread from a country that is not our own but I decided to take that one step further and choose a recipe I'd never heard of before. In my search, I came across kubaneh first on Food52, and it was beautiful. Seriously, go have a look. Theirs is much prettier than mine.

The instructions, however, seemed a bit challenging to follow without step-by-step photos or a video. So down the rabbit hole of YouTube I went. So many recipes and so many methods! And different spellings: Kubane, kubaneh, kubana, kubani, kubneh. What they all seem to have in common is using lots of butter or margarine to create layers of thinly rolled or hand stretched dough before baking.

Food Lust People Love: A traditional bread, made from yeast dough spread liberally with butter or margarine, Yemeni kubaneh bakes up light and fluffy. It’s perfect with your morning coffee or an afternoon cup of tea.


Although I didn’t follow the instructions or measurements exactly, this YouTube video (in Italian – the presenter - and Hebrew – the baker) was my best guide. You might find it helpful to watch as well. I gathered, from my faulty Italian (which is really just a mix of Portuguese and Spanish, since truth be told, I don't speak Italian) is that Yemeni kubaneh was originally part of the main family meal, which in Yemen is served in the middle of the day, rather than in the evening.

According to references, including Wikipedia, kubaneh is a Yemenite Jewish bread, found in many varieties throughout Yemen. And if the YouTube video and website ItaliaEbraica are any indication, Italy as well. I'm going to hazard a guess to say you'll probably find it being baked anywhere people of Jewish Yemeni heritage are living. Kubaneh was traditionally baked long and slow, in the embers of the evening fire, to be eaten the next day on the Sabbath. Nowadays, in all the YouTube videos I watched, it seems normal ovens are used.

Yemeni Kubaneh

This traditional Yemeni bread can be slightly sweetened by a sugar glaze, as this version is, or can be served with a tomato sauce.

Ingredients
For the bread dough:
1 1/4 cups or 300ml warm water
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons quick yeast
4 cups or 500g flour
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup or 75g butter, softened, plus some for the baking pan

For the sugar syrup:
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup or 60ml warm water

For garnish (and flavor):
1 teaspoon sesame seeds and/or 1 teaspoon nigella seeds (I used both.)

Method
In the bowl of your stand mixer or a large bowl, combine the sugar, yeast and warm water. Leave to proof for a few minutes.


When the foam and bubbles form, sift in the flour, baking soda and salt. According to the video, this eliminates the bugs and foreign objects.


Add in 1 whole egg and 1 egg yolk, reserving the second egg yolk. Mix till well combined and then knead until you have a stretchy bouncy dough.

Drizzle in 1 tablespoon of olive oil and form the dough into a ball, turning it to coat with the oil.



Cover with a cloth and set in a warm place to rise for 40 minutes.



Oil your clean work surface with the rest of the olive oil and turn the dough out onto it. Wet your hands and use them to divide the dough into 8 equal pieces.


Set your softened butter by your clean work surface. Use your hands to spread one of the dough pieces into a thin square. Top this with bits of butter, spreading it around. Don’t be shy with the butter. The dough may tear a little. Just pat it together again.

Repeat with a second piece of dough.


Then gently lift the second dough square and put it on top of the first one. Press them both out even larger.


Roll the dough up into a log, starting from end farthest from you. Set the log aside and continue the process with the other six pieces of dough.



You should now have four dough logs. Line a baking pan with baking parchment which you have rubbed with softened butter.

Using a sharp knife, cut the dough logs into 8 pieces each and fit these into the prepared pan, cut side up.


Drizzle a few drops of water into the reserved egg yolk and whisk to combine. Use a pastry brush to coat the dough with egg yolk. Sprinkle with the sesame and nigella seeds.


Cover with cling film and leave to rise in a warm place while you preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C.


Bake in the oven for 38-42 minutes, covering the pan with foil if the bread starts to brown too quickly.

Meanwhile, make the sugar syrup by dissolving the 2 tablespoons of sugar in 1/4 cup or 60ml hot water.

Remove the Yemeni kubaneh from the oven. Use a spoon to drip the sugar syrup glaze all over the bread.

Food Lust People Love: A traditional bread, made from yeast dough spread liberally with butter or margarine, Yemeni kubaneh bakes up light and fluffy. It’s perfect with your morning coffee or an afternoon cup of tea.


Pop the pan back in the oven for another 5-6 minutes, watching it carefully so it doesn’t burn. Turn it midway through if your oven doesn’t heat evenly.

Allow to cool a bit before serving because apparently, the best way is to let everyone help themselves and pull a piece (or three) off.

Food Lust People Love: A traditional bread, made from yeast dough spread liberally with butter or margarine, Yemeni kubaneh bakes up light and fluffy. It’s perfect with your morning coffee or an afternoon cup of tea.


Enjoy!

Food Lust People Love: A traditional bread, made from yeast dough spread liberally with butter or margarine, Yemeni kubaneh bakes up light and fluffy. It’s perfect with your morning coffee or an afternoon cup of tea.

Many thanks to our host today, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm for this great theme, and for all of her behind-the-scenes work. I am always delighted at the opportunity to learn something new and this Yemeni kubaneh was definitely that!

Check out all the other international breads we are sharing today:

BreadBakers
#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely bread by following our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated after each event on the #BreadBakers home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

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Food Lust People Love: A traditional bread, made from yeast dough spread liberally with butter or margarine, Yemeni kubaneh bakes up light and fluffy. It’s perfect with your morning coffee or an afternoon cup of tea.
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Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Blackberry German Butter Cake - Brombeere-Butterkuchen #FoodieExtravaganza

Butterkuchen or German butter cake is baked with a butter enrich yeast dough, that is topped with sugar and yet more butter. In this version I've named Brombeere-Butterkuchen or Blackberry German Butter Cake, I’ve also added some wild blackberries to the topping.

Food Lust People Love: Butterkuchen or German butter cake is baked with a butter enrich yeast dough, that is topped with sugar and yet more butter. In this version, I've named Brombeere-Butterkuchen or Blackberry German Butter Cake, I’ve also added some wild blackberries to the topping.

If you’ve never had butterkuchen or German butter cake, let me assure you that the name is well-deserved. This rich cake swims in the butter topping when it comes out of the oven. As the cake cools, the butter sinks in, making it super moist and delectable.

This month my Foodie Extravaganza friends are sharing German recipes to celebrate the Oktoberfest which, despite its name, starts on Saturday, 16 September in Munich, extending only slightly into October with an end date of October 3rd this year.  Make sure to scroll down to see the dishes we’ve made in anticipation.

Meanwhile, you might want to check out my cheese-filled pretzels, homemade spicy German beer mustard and the obatza cheese spread I recreated for Sunday Supper, all three perfect for your Oktoberfest party.

This time around, I chose a sweet dish since every good and hearty meal should end with dessert, don’t you think? I'm pretty sure all German meals are good and hearty.

Blackberry German Butter Cake (Brombeere-Butterkuchen) 

This recipe is adapted from several I found on the internet. Here are three: ChefKoch.de, Lecker.de and GermanFood.org. Don't let the yeast scare you! This cake is really quite simple to make.

Ingredients
For the sponge:
1/4 cup or 31.25g flour
1 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast
1/2 cup or 120ml lukewarm milk (110°F or 43°C.)
1/2 teaspoon sugar

For the cake dough:
2 cups or 250g flour
1 large egg, at room temperature
7 tablespoons or 100g butter, softened, plus a little for buttering your baking pan
3/4 cup or 150g sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

For the topping:
1/2 cup or 75g fresh berries, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup or 100g sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
9 tablespoons or 127g butter, softened

Method
To proof the yeast, we first make a sponge. Place flour in a large mixing bowl or stand mixer. Sprinkle in the dry yeast and add the teaspoon of sugar. Mix in the lukewarm milk.


Let the sponge sit in a warm place for 15 minutes. It should get foamy and increase in size. If it doesn’t, toss it out and start again with new yeast.

Assuming you have good, active yeast, add in the flour, egg, the softened butter, sugar and salt to the yeast mixture.

That's the foamy "sponge" on the bottom right. Good yeast! 


Mix until the dough is smooth and forms a ball.

One of the recipes I consulted online says to add up to 1/2 cup additional flour if necessary but I decided to leave my dough slack to make it more cake like, and less bready. So it didn’t really form a stiff ball. This probably makes it unauthentic, but, hey, I’m not even a little bit German plus I’ve added wild Jersey blackberries, so that makes it unauthentic already.


Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and leave to rise for 30 minutes in a warm place.

Press the dough out into a lightly buttered 8x8in or 20x20cm pan. Let it rest again for 15 minutes while heating oven to 375°F or 190°C.

Wet your hands slightly (so they don’t stick to the dough) and use your fingers to create dimples in the top of the dough.


Mix the sugar and cinnamon together with the berries and sprinkle evenly over dough.



Cut topping butter into small pieces and dot them evenly all around the cake. Mine was pretty soft so it was more a matter of spooning small bits on.

Food Lust People Love: Butterkuchen or German butter cake is baked with a butter enrich yeast dough, that is topped with sugar and yet more butter. In this version, I've named Brombeere-Butterkuchen or Blackberry German Butter Cake, I’ve also added some wild blackberries to the topping.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 25 minutes or until the cake is golden brown and the sugar on top has caramelized. There is still going to be quite a bit of butter bubbling on top but don’t worry, it will sink in as the cake cools.

Food Lust People Love: Butterkuchen or German butter cake is baked with a butter enrich yeast dough, that is topped with sugar and yet more butter. In this version, I've named Brombeere-Butterkuchen or Blackberry German Butter Cake, I’ve also added some wild blackberries to the topping.

Enjoy!

Food Lust People Love: Butterkuchen or German butter cake is baked with a butter enrich yeast dough, that is topped with sugar and yet more butter. In this version, I've named Brombeere-Butterkuchen or Blackberry German Butter Cake, I’ve also added some wild blackberries to the topping.


Many thanks to this month’s host, Sue of Palatable Pastime for choosing our theme and her behind the scenes work. It’s almost time for Oktoberfest! How will you celebrate?




Foodie Extravaganza celebrates obscure food holidays or shares recipes with the same ingredient or theme every month.

Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook group Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you!

If you're a reader looking for delicious recipes, check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board!


Pin it!

Food Lust People Love: Butterkuchen or German butter cake is baked with a butter enrich yeast dough, that is topped with sugar and yet more butter. In this version, I've named Brombeere-Butterkuchen or Blackberry German Butter Cake, I’ve also added some wild blackberries to the topping.
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Monday, August 28, 2017

Swiss Almond Vanilla Muffins #MuffinMonday

Fluffy rich vanilla muffins are studded with chocolate covered almonds in these Swiss almond vanilla muffins which I created to match the flavors of my husband’s favorite Häagen-Dazs ice cream.

Food Lust People Love: Fluffy rich vanilla muffins are studded with chocolate covered almonds in these Swiss almond vanilla muffins which I created to match the flavors of my husband’s favorite Häagen-Dazs ice cream.

From as far back as I can remember, my husband’s favorite ice cream has been Swiss Almond Vanilla, made by Häagen-Dazs, sold in the pint-sized containers. He doesn’t eat a lot of ice cream so the occasional pint was a rare treat. Then it started getting harder and harder to find.

When we moved to Dubai, there was a small Häagen-Dazs outlet in our neighborhood so I stopped in to inquire about his favorite flavor. The guy had never heard of it. He checked online and then delivered the bad news. It was now called “vanilla Swiss almond” and apparently flavors vary by region.  Sadly, vanilla Swiss almond isn’t made in the Middle East.

Not being a person who gives up easily, I figured I had two choices. I could make my own or I could fudge it. I bought a pint of Häagen-Dazs vanilla bean ice cream. I let it soften slightly then I mixed in a package of good quality chocolate-covered almonds. I scooped my newly created Swiss Almond Vanilla back into the Häagen-Dazs tub, perched the lid on top (since it didn’t quite all fit in now) and popped it in the freezer.

As we sat around last week brainstorming muffin ideas, my husband reminded me of that story and said he’d like some Swiss Almond Vanilla Muffins. Which sounded like a splendid idea to me!

Swiss Almond Vanilla Muffins


Ingredients
2 cups or 250g flour
3/4 cup or 150g sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup or 240ml sour cream
1/4 cup or 60ml milk
1/4 cup or 60ml vegetable oil
1 egg
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste (or sub vanilla extract)
1 cup or about 180g chocolate covered almonds, divided

Method
Preheat oven to 375°F or 190°C. Lightly grease 12 muffin cups or line the pan with paper baking cups.

Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large mixing bowl.

In a smaller bowl, whisk together the sour cream, milk, oil, egg and vanilla paste.


Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just moistened. Set aside 12 of the chocolate-covered almonds for decoration and fold the rest into the batter.


Use a scoop or tablespoon to divide the batter between the 12 muffin cups. Top each with a reserved chocolate-covered almond, pressing the candy gently into the batter.

Food Lust People Love: Fluffy rich vanilla muffins are studded with chocolate covered almonds in these Swiss almond vanilla muffins which I created to match the flavors of my husband’s favorite Häagen-Dazs ice cream.

Bake 17-22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of muffins comes out clean.

Food Lust People Love: Fluffy rich vanilla muffins are studded with chocolate covered almonds in these Swiss almond vanilla muffins which I created to match the flavors of my husband’s favorite Häagen-Dazs ice cream.

Enjoy!

Food Lust People Love: Fluffy rich vanilla muffins are studded with chocolate covered almonds in these Swiss almond vanilla muffins which I created to match the flavors of my husband’s favorite Häagen-Dazs ice cream.

Can you find Vanilla Swiss Almond Häagen-Dazs ice cream in your neck of the woods? Do let me know. And make sure you check out all the creative muffins my Muffin Monday group have for you today!

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page.


Pin it!

Food Lust People Love: Fluffy rich vanilla muffins are studded with chocolate covered almonds in these Swiss almond vanilla muffins which I created to match the flavors of my husband’s favorite Häagen-Dazs ice cream.
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