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Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary

cooking up a storm at the edge of the world

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Khobez (Bread machine)

Published on January 15, 2013 • Last updated October 30, 2015 by Elizabeth
khobez

For Belleau Kitchen’s Random Recipes challenge I borrowed a copy of Sally Butcher’s Veggiestan: a vegetable lover’s guide to the middle east with the instruction to make her delicious Imam biyaldi recipe. She suggests serving the stuffed aubergine recipe with plenty of bread to mop up the juices and so I thought I’d try one of her recipes, khobez, an Arabic flatbread. The instructions involved a lot of kneading flour with very little water in it, so I adapted it for use in my new bread machine (why should I do the work when I now own a machine which will do it for me!). The following is my adaptation of her recipe.

I was rolling out the dough into small, flat circles when the OH arrived home from work. He asked me what I was making and I said, in my dreadful and embarrassing accent: “Co-bEZ”

“hhkk – clearing the throat sound – ubbs!” he says, “I remember khobez!”

“I remember once when we lived in Abu Dhabi,” he continued, “we drove to the bakery in an old Nissan Datsun to get some khobez and when we got back to the car Dad saw that the car keys were still in the ignition and the car door was locked. And yea, some guy got a wire clothes hanger and jimmyed the door open for us. There you go, that’s how I remember khobez!”

My bread machine adaptation turned out splendidly. The dough doesn’t form a fine, smooth ball, as regular bread dough does; it forms small clumps of dough in the bread machine. Don’t worry about this – once it’s risen and you’ve kneaded it before cutting it turns out fine. The bread cooks into perfect little breads with their perfect little bread pockets, perfect for stuffing with things (I can’t wait to try this with hummus), or sopping up tomatoey juices or served with fried dates with eggs, as we had the next morning. You could always make these slightly larger and oval in shape and then you’ll have pita breads. I’ll be making this recipe regularly, as unfortunately the only pita breads available to buy on Shetland are the dreadful dry supermarket varieties (and for some odd reason there’s only extortionately expensive gluten-free ones in my village shop!). Yes, I am very glad to have found this recipe.

Khobez
by Elizabeth
An Arabic flatbread with a nice little pocket inside.
Ingredients
  • 7 grams active dried yeast
  • 600 grams strong white bread flour
  • 1/2 tsp caster sugar
  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 200 ml (plus more, if required) water
Instructions
1. Place all the ingredients in your bread machine in the manufacturer’s recommended order and select the dough cycle.
2. When the kneading begins keep an eye on it to see that it is forming a dough – add a few more drops of water if required so that everything just begins to stick, but no more.
3. Allow to run through the dough cycle. When complete, remove dough and knead well.
4. Cut into 12 equal segments.
5. Roll each piece into a flat circular shape, approximately 5 mm thick.
6. Leave to rise, covered with a tea towel, while you preheat your oven to the highest setting. Place the oven rack at the top.
7. When the oven is as hot as it can get bake the khobez on a baking tray for approximately 6 minutes, or until the bread puffs up and is a lovely golden colour.8. Eat within 2-3 days, warm or cold. Freezes well.
Details

Prep time: 2 hour Cook time: 15 mins Total time: 2 hour 15 mins Yield: 12 small khobez

I am entering this Arabic flatbread recipe into Fresh From The Oven, a round up of bread recipes alternately hosted by Purely Food and Utterly Scrummy. At the end of this month Michelle from Utterly Scrummy is doing the round-up. This month the theme is ‘flatbreads’.

Update: I have also entered this recipe into May 2013’s Alphabakes challenge, a food blogging challenge hosted alternately by The More Than Occasional Baker and Caroline Makes. Each month we’re asked to cook something featuring an ingredient or title containing a specific letter. This month it is the letter K.

 

Category: Bread, Recipe

About Elizabeth

Solivagant. Foodie. Calls Shetland home.

Previous Post:Fried Dates with Eggs
Next Post:Nigel Slater’s Slow Cooked Lamb (Shetland Produce)

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Comments

  1. Spin Doctor

    April 1, 2014 at 12:24 pm

    Thanks for the recipe.

    I am desperate to make my own pittas given there is nothing decent in the shops that is as thin as yours and doesn’t contain a lot of oil. I don’t have a bread maker and do it by hand – it took me hours to clean the kitchen! – as it was my first time baking. There was flour everywhere!

    My question has to do with the actual cooking means. You mention a hot oven. I have heard that you can buy something that is especially designed to cook pittas/flatbreads. It might do pizza bases as well. The device sort of looks like a wok with a cover and sits on top of the stove.

    Any ideas?

    Thanks for your help.

    Reply
  2. Caroline

    May 23, 2013 at 11:27 am

    I’d never heard of these, though they look a bit like pitta breads which I love – I wonder if you could stuff anything inside? Thanks for sending these in to Alphabakes.

    Reply

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Cooking up a storm at the edge of the world

Image of Elizabeth Atia making a cake in the Aald Harbour Hoose, Shetland. Photograph by Misa Hay from Shetland Wool Adventures.

Welcome to Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary, Scotland’s most northerly award-winning food blog.

I’m based in the wild and remote Shetland Islands, where I’ve been sharing my adventure-fuelling recipes since 2011.

“Sometimes you need to go outside, get on your bike, and remind yourself of who you are and who you want to be.

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