Kaak Bread
Couldn’t help to share my recipe for the most original looking and of course incredibly delicious Kaak bread. It’s a Lebanese street bread, sold by cart vendors. Kaak is a purse or handbag shaped crispy and soft, slightly chewy bread that’s covered with sesame seeds. Usually it’s filled with zaatar or Lebanese picon cheese spread. It’s a perfect “ on the go snack” and happens to be the most beloved bread among locals. I had a hard time finding a video tutorial for Kaak, searched and came across with only a few different Kaak recipes and since I’ve got quite an experience with bread baking and recipe writing, decided to simply gather the list of ingredients needed for traditional Kaak and make my own recipe for it.
Tasted the recipe only once and it turned out so delicious, that I stopped on that single try.
Hope you guys give it a try and enjoy it as much as we did.
Happy baking!
Ingredients
1 cup warm milk, I use 2% fat , full fat should work too
1 cup warm water
2 tbs olive oil
1 ½ tbs sugar
2 tsp salt
1 tbs instant dry yeast, if using active dry yeast, be sure to activate in warm water
1 cup whole wheat flour
3 ½ cups all purpose flour, you may need a little more, but don’t add too much flour
1 egg for egg wash
1-2 tbs sesame seeds
You will also need 2 lined half size baking sheets
To make the zaatar spice
Mix together following ingredients
3-4 tbs dried thyme ( or oregano)
2 tbs toasted sesame seeds
2 tsp ground sumac
1 ½ tsp sea salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp cumin
Additionally if you want to make a zaatar spread add as much olive oil as you need to make it into a paste mixture
Directions
In a large bowl combine and mix together: water, milk, olive oil, sugar, yeast
Start adding the flour and salt, mix with a spoon and switch to hand kneading later
Transfer the dough to lightly floured work surface and knead about 5-7 minutes, as more flour if needed, but not too much!
The dough should be soft and non sticky
Place the dough into lightly greased bowl, cover with towel or plastic and set in a warm place
The dough will rise and double in size in 1-2 hours ( to speed up the rising I place the bowl into another bowl filled with lukewarm water)
Place the dough on your work surface, knead a 3-4 more minutes to remove the air
Put it back again into a greased bowl for second rise, should take another 35-50 minutes
Lightly flour your work surface, remove the dough, punch the air out and divide into 4 portions
There are 2 option for shaping into handbag shape
Option #1
Roll the dough into log about 22”-23” long, as you roll go thinner on the ends
Let the center thicker than the ends
Stick the ends together and using your fingers or a rolling pin make the middle part wider and flatter, shaping it as a handbag
Option #2
Shape each portion of the dough into a ball
Roll out into about 9” diameter flat circle
Using a large 5”-6” cookie cutter or a saucer plate cut out a circle on top to form a handle
Place the shaped breads on lined baking pans
Loosely cover with a plastic or kitchen towels to rise another 25-30 minutes
Preheat the oven to 500°F/220°C degrees
Egg wash the breads, sprinkle with sesame seeds and bake in steamed oven about 15-18 minutes
To create the steam, simply drop 3-4 ice cubes into the bottom of hot oven right before closing the oven door
Allow the breads to cool down on cooling rack 5-10 minutes
Enjoy with zaatar spice, spread, cheese or any of your favorite snacks
