Kubaneh (Yemenite Pull-Apart Bread)
Kubaneh (Arabic: كبانة ; Hebrew: כֻּבַּאנֶה), is a leavened bread baked in a greased pot with a tightly-sealed lid, where it cooks in its own vapors. Traditionally eaten by the Jews of Yemen on Sabbath days and holidays, the pot is usually placed in an oven (formerly a clay oven where it was laid upon dying embers or coals) shortly before nightfall where it remains until the following day, when it is eaten for the Sabbath meal or at brunch.
Total
03:00
Yield
8
Ingredients
- 1 tsp salt
- 2½–3 cups lukewarm water (or enough for kneading dough)
- 1 tsp dried yeast
- 3 tsp white granulated sugar
- 3 cups white, all-purpose wheat flour (optional: try using some sorghum flour)
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil or other fat
- 1 tsp black cumin (Nigella sativa; optional)
- Total:
- 03:00
- Yield:
- 8
Instructions
-
1Dissolve salt in lukewarm water.
-
2Sprinkle yeast over lukewarm water and add sugar. Leave for 10 minutes until yeast is foamy.
-
3Add yeast mixture to flour, and knead to form a dough.
-
4After kneading the dough, allow it to sit 10 minutes until it begins to rise.
-
5Repeat process: turn it and knead it again and let sit 10 minutes until it rises. Repeat this process 3 or 4 times until dough rises to the top of the kneading bowl and one is left with a uniform texture and consistency.
-
6Grease the baking pot with the vegetable oil.
-
7Divide dough into smaller pieces (8–10 round pieces).
-
8Place all dough pieces in pot, one after the other; compacted together. Fill to one-third the capacity of baking pot and cover tightly with lid.
-
9Preheat oven to 225–280°F (107–138°C). Bake bread for 1 hour at the higher temperature or 3 hours at the lower temperature. It should be golden brown.
-
10Turn bread out onto a plate, turn bread upside down, and restore to baking pot.
-
11Cover pot with lid and bake another hour; or reduce oven temperature to and bake overnight. If desired, remove from oven and afterwards return it only close to the Sabbath.
-
12Serve hot with clarified butter, usually also with tomato salsa mixed with chopped coriander.
- Method
- Baking
Recipe Attribution
Wikibooks Cookbook
Printed from recipe.exchange
https://recipe.exchange/recipes/wb-415033
Printed on October 30, 2026