Yemarina Yewotet Dabo: Ethiopian Honey Bread
This sweetly spiced bread maximizes honey, both inside and out. For more about this and other unusual Rosh Hashanah breads see my story at the Jewish Week “Beyond Challah and Honey: Rosh Hashanah Breads From Around the World.”
Prep time: 30 minutes
Rising time: 2-2 ¼ hours
Baking time: 1 hour
Yield: One large bread
adapted from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon active, dry yeast
½ cup warm water (about 110º F)
1 tablespoon honey + ½ cup honey
1 egg, beaten, plus 1 egg beaten for wash
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cardamom or cloves
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup warmed milk (about 1 ½ – 2 minutes in the microwave)
6 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
5 ½ cups all-purpose flour + more for kneading
vegetable oil for the bowl
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Place warm water and 1 tablespoon of honey in a medium mixing bowl. Whisk to dissolve the honey; then add the yeast and let foam for 10 minutes.
2. Whisk the egg, ½ cup honey, spices and salt together in a large bowl. Gently stir in the yeast mixture and then add the warm milk and butter.
3. Stir 2 cups flour into the mixture. Add flour ½ cup at a time while mixing. Continue until the dough is smooth and not sticky.
4. Flour the work surface or use a plastic mat to knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic, about 10-15 minutes.
5. Place in a lightly oiled, warmed bowl, turn dough to be coated in oil, and set inside a plastic bag, until doubled in size, approximate 60-90 minutes.
6. Gently deflate the dough to form into round loaf and place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet or inside a parchment paper lined spring form pan. Allow it to rise again for about 45 minutes. After 30 minutes preheat the oven to 325º F.
7. Use a kitchen scissor or knife to slash the top and lightly cover with egg wash.
8. Place into the oven for about 15 minutes; rewash the newly expanded dough and replace in oven switching the direction of the pan to even out the bake, for 45 more minutes, a total of one hour of baking time. If the top begins to look too brown, place a sheet of foil over the top. When it reaches an inner temperature of 190º the dabo should be done; you may also want to tap on the bottom of the bread for hollow sound to determine doneness.
9. Invert the bread onto a wire rack to cool. Eat it warm or let it cool.
Rabbi’s Remarks:
1. Try an organic honey, local to you. I would have loved to use an Ethiopian honey but have not found it.
2. I found that using the kitchen thermometer to monitor doneness, supplements the technique of tapping the bottom of the bread.
about the chocolatebabkaproject
Recent Posts
-
Sweet Treat: Chocolate and the Making of American Jews
You may wonder: how did chocolate help define American Jews? Through chocolate, we see that Jews were part of America since its earliest days. Well, since 1701 at least, Jews in the Colonies made part of their living through chocolate. Several Sephardim, leaders of their New York and Newport Jewish and secular communities, participated in
Read more › -
How About Some Uterus Challah?
When Logan Zinman Gerber felt enraged about the loss of reproductive rights in the U.S., she baked challah. Not any challah. She shaped it into a uterus. It wasn’t long after the birth of her daughter that Gerber, a longtime challah baker and staff member of the Religious Action Center of the Reform movement, considered
Read more › -
A Manhattan synagogue explores the rich, surprising history of Jews and chocolate
I’m grateful for this story written by Rachel Ringer, published at JTA/NY Jewish Week on December 20, 2023: (New York Jewish Week) — In 2006, Rabbi Deborah Prinz was on a trip to Europe with her husband, Rabbi Mark Hurvitz, when they wandered into a chocolate shop in Paris. While meandering about the store, Prinz picked
Read more › -
Exhibit Opens! Sweet Treat! Chocolate & the Making of American Jews
Sweet Treat is a delicious gastronomic adventure into the history and resilience of American Jewish chocolate making. This exhibition invites you to follow the chocolate trail to America, a scrumptious journey through time and place. Chocolate gives us a lens to understand Jewish migration, as the chocolate trade parallels the migrations of the Jewish
Read more ›
Some Previous Posts
(in alphabetical order)
- "Boston Chocolate Party" Q&As with Deborah Kalb
- 2022 Media for The "Boston Chocolate Party"
- About Rabbi Deborah Prinz
- Baking Prayers into High Holiday Breads
- Boston Chocolate Party
- Chocolate Chip Politics
- Digging into Biblical Breads
- Exhibit Opens! Sweet Treat! Chocolate & the Making of American Jews
- For the Easiest Hanukah Doughnuts Ever
- Forthcoming! On the Bread Trail
- Funny Faced Purim Pastries
- Good Riddance Chameitz or, The Polemics of Passover's Leaven
- Injera*
- Jewish Heritage Month: Baseball & Chocolate!
- Matzah - But, the Dough Did Rise!
- Plan a Choco-Hanukkah Party: 250th Anniversary Tea Party
- Prayers Into Breads
- To Shape Dough: A Trio of Techniques
- Why Is Challah On My Matzah Box?