Egyptian Ramadan and Eid El Fitr go hand in hand with an abundance of butter and ghee. Which I don’t eat purely for flavour related reasons. Yes, I know I’m weird. No, I failed to change my taste bud preferences. Anyway; since this year a lot of fellow Egyptian Coptics are fasting-plus I’m really craving snowy white ghee-less kahk that unfortunately is not sold at any kind of self-respecting bakery mere days before Eid-I’ve decided to make an experiment.
This isn’t your regular gooey, melt-in-your-mouth kahk recipe, but it hits the spot for people like me (Anyone else out there? That will make two of us.) or my Coptic buddies who are fasting these days but would like to enjoy some kahk with their morning cuppa.
Quick note: I haven’t tried stuffing this kahk because the dough is kind of delicate. You need to warm some in your hand first then gently create a small ball.
Ingredients:
250 grams all-purpose flour
125 grams oil
30 grams honey OR sugar
1 teaspoon kahk flavour
1 Tablespoon sesame seeds
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon yeast
1 teaspoon water
Directions:
Add salt, sesame seeds and kahk flavour to flour.
Gently heat the oil until it’s very warm. Make sure you do not let it reach its smoking point.
Add hot oil to flour mixture and mix thoroughly, making sure all flour particles have been coated with oil.
When mixture cools down to being slightly warm add yeast, honey (or sugar), and water. A tiny teaspoon is enough. Don’t add any more or the kahk will be too dry. Mix well with your hands.
Start shaping the dough in the palm of your hands by making small balls. It will be a bit crumbly so it might be easier to use some kind of mold to shape it. I used a special maamoul mold as well as a small watermelon scooper for bite size kahk.
You can then make little crevices on the kahk using a small fork or even this. Again, press gently so the kahk doesn’t crack.
Bake in a preheated 180-190 c oven for 15-20 minutes until the kahk is a light tan in color and the bottoms are just starting to brown.
When it cools down, sprinkle with powdered sugar and keep in an airtight container for up to a week.
I leave you with some bloopers.
Kahk (Vegan)
- 250 grams all-purpose flour
- 125 grams oil
- 30 grams honey OR sugar
- 1 teaspoon kahk flavour
- 1 Tablespoon sesame seeds
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon yeast
- 1 teaspoon water
- Add salt, sesame seeds and kahk flavour to flour.
- Gently heat the oil until it’s very warm. Make sure you do not let it reach its smoking point.
- Add hot oil to flour mixture and mix thoroughly, making sure all flour particles have been coated with oil.
- When mixture cools down to being slightly warm add yeast, honey (or sugar), and water. A tiny teaspoon is enough. Don’t add any more or the kahk will be too dry. Mix well with your hands.
- Start shaping the dough in the palm of your hands by making small balls. It will be a bit crumbly so it might be easier to use some kind of mold to shape it. I used a special maamoul mold as well as a small watermelon scooper for bite size kahk.
- You can then make little crevices on the kahk using a small fork or even this. Again, press gently so the kahk doesn’t crack.
- Bake in a preheated 180-190 c oven for 15-20 minutes until the kahk is a light tan in color and the bottoms are just starting to brown.
- When it cools down, sprinkle with powdered sugar and keep in an airtight container for up to a week.
