Bread Baking Babes bake Shubbak el-Habayeb.

This month it is Karens ("Karens kitchen stories") choice and it's a great one! A delicious little bread with a slight sweet taste. It's the second time I've baked them. The first time I rolled them too thin, this time it was better, a bit thicker that made a lovely crumb. Even though I didn't make the slices right :) . It's a lovely little bread to bake along with us. So give it a try and become our Bread Baking Buddy by baking and telling us about it.

Send your findings and results to the Kitchen of the month to Karen ( karen.h.kerr@gmail.com), check out her blog for more information. Deadline 29th of the month. Have fun baking!

Shubbak el-Habayeb

Yield: 12 rolls

(PRINT recipe)

600 g  all purpose flour

3 g tsp instant yeast

100 g sugar

225 g milk, scalded

2 large eggs

1/2 tsp orange blossom water

1/2 tsp rose water

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

1/2 tsp ground mahlab

12 g salt

50 g butter, melted and cooled

about 100 ml water, added to the dough by wetting your hands as you knead the dough.

glaze

1 egg

1 TBsp water

Pinch of salt

Pinch of sugar

Sesame seeds (white and/or black)

Pour the flour into a bowl, and create a well in the middle. Sprinkle the yeast and sugar into the well, and add the milk. Cover the milk with some of the flour from the sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a towel, and let rest for one hour.

Add the eggs, flower waters, cardamom, mahlab, and salt to the mixture in the bowl and mix with your hands to form a rough dough. Turn it out onto an unfloured counter, and knead for 10 minutes.

Add the butter, and knead for 10 more minutes. While kneading, if the dough is too stiff, dip your hands in the water, and continue to knead. Continue to dip your hands in the water until you have a supple dough. You can also do this with a dough hook, adding the water, one tablespoon at a time. Place the dough into an oiled bowl and let rise in a warm spot, covered, for about two hours, until doubled.

Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and form them into balls. Cover with a towel or oiled plastic wrap, and let rest for 15 minutes.

Roll each ball with a rolling pin into a square that is about 1/2 inch thick. Cut the dough with a sharp knife to make short vertical cuts in each quadrant of the dough. Open the slits with your hands to make sure they are cut through.

Place the squares on baking sheets (two sheet pans, prepared with parchment), six squares per pan.Cover each sheet pan with oiled plastic wrap, and let rise for one hour. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 220ºC) with a rack in the middle of the oven.

Whisk together the glaze ingredients and brush the glaze over the rolls on one of the sheet pans. Sprinkle with the sesame seeds. Bake the first pan of rolls for 15 minutes, until golden. Remove them from the oven and cool on a wire rack. Repeat with the second pan of rolls.

(source: Jane Mason – “Book of buns”)