Darabeel

Ingredients

• Flour500 g
• Warm milk250 ml
• Dry yeast8 g
• Sugar60 g
• Butter120 g
• Egg1
• Date paste400 g
• Ground cardamom2 tsp
• Saffron1 pinch
• Sesame seeds40 g
• Salt1 tsp

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Dissolve the yeast with the sugar in the warm milk and leave it ten minutes, until it foams.

   12 min

2. 2

   Steep the saffron in a spoon of hot water and knead a dough with the flour, egg, half the butter and cardamom.

   18 min

3. 3

   Let the dough rise somewhere warm for an hour, until doubled.

   62 min

4. 4

   Warm the date paste with the remaining butter and cardamom until soft.

   8 min

5. 5

   Roll the dough into a rectangle half a centimetre thick and spread the date paste over it.

   15 min

6. 6

   Roll it up tight and cut it into two-centimetre rounds.

   12 min

7. 7

   Set them cut side up, prove them twenty minutes and bake at 180 °C for twenty-five minutes.

   50 min

About the dish

The date paste is warmed with butter to a pliable state. Cold, it will not spread over the dough and tears it as it rolls.

The dough is rolled thin and the roll wound tight. A loose roll unwinds as it bakes and the spiral on the cut is lost.

Cardamom and saffron go into both the dough and the filling. The scent has to come from both parts, or the bun is merely a date one.

Worth knowing

• — Make the date paste from soft pitted dates blitzed in a blender. Dry dates are steamed soft first.
• — Cut the roll with thread rather than a knife. A knife crushes the spiral; thread passes clean and leaves the pattern.
• — Brush the baked buns with date syrup. It gives the shine and keeps them from drying by the second day.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

380 kcal

Protein

7 g

Fat

12 g

Carbs

62 g

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