Fit’fit (Butter Spiced Crumble Bread)

Yield: 4 servings

This is very tasty, eaten with the hands.

1 ½ cups butter
3 teaspoons of berbere
6 cups of torn injera pieces, or other bread with the crusts removed

1. Melt the butter over a low heat, watching carefully so it does not burn. Add the berbere and stir constantly over a low heat for 1 minute.
2. Remove from the heat. Let stand for 5 minutes.
3. Return to the heat and warm the butter, stirring constantly, for 1 minute.
4. Pour the melted butter over the torn injera in a large bowl. Mix vigorously, using a fork, until you have a quantity of buttery crumbs.
5. Eat, without utensils, but forming the crumbs into small balls with your fingers.

H’mbasha (Festive Cardamom Bread)

Yield: 1 large loaf
This slightly sweet bread is my favorite. Normally it is made on special occasions and is served with tea or coffee. I use in as a change from injera.

1 packet active dry yeast
3 ½ cups warm water (110°F)
¼ cup oil
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
7 ½ cups flour
¼ cup raisins
½ teaspoon cardamom seeds (from 16 pods)

1. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the oil, sugar, and salt.
2. Add 2 cups of the flour and stir. Sprinkle the batter with the raisins and mix them in.
3. Sprinkle the batter with the cardamom seeds and mix them n.
4. Add the remaining 5 ½ cups of flour, 2 cup at a time, and mix it in. In the later stages you may find it easier to use your hands to incorporate the flour.
5. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead it until it is springy and elastic. This will take about 10 minutes.
6. Put the dough in a covered bowl and place it in a warm place to rise for about 1 hour.
7. Give the dough a sharp smack and knead it briefly to remove any large air bubbles. Return it to the covered bowl and let it rise for 1 hour more.
8. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Grease a pizza pan.
9. Give the dough a sharp smack and form it into a large, flat circle on the pizza pan.
10. Decorate the dough in a traditional way by slashing it with a serrated-edged knife. Slash lines about ¼ inch deep, radiating from a central point to the outside edge of the dough. Let rise for 30 minutes.
11. Place the pan in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.
12. Remove the bread from the oven and cool it on a rack.

Injera (Flat Sourdough Bread)

Yield: 18 rounds

In Eritrea, this is usually made from a very small gray grain called teff. The bread is an integral part of most traditional Eritrean meals. Each piece is the size of a large pizza. Injera serves as both plate and utensil; foods are ladled onto it, and pieces are torn off and used to scoop up the food. Normally, one or more pieces are planned per person. However, at home Jack and I use a fork and either break up the injera in the dish or use it like Italians use bread and sop up the juices. We generally eat 1/3 of a round per meal.

This recipe uses ingredients and methods the Eritrean Diaspora living in America follow. Unless you already have sourdough in the refrigerator, you need to start at least four days ahead of when you plan to eat it. It takes three days to prepare the sourdough starter and an additional day to make the bread.

2 cups all-purpose flour
Water
8 cups of self-rising flour
½ cup cornmeal
9 teaspoons solid shortening

1. Mix the all-purpose flour with 2 cups of water. Put the mixture in a large jar and cover the jar with plastic wrap.
2. Let the jar stand at room temperature for (3 days). This is the sourdough starter. Discard the water that has risen to the top of the starter.

3. In a large bowl, mix together the self-rising flour, cornmeal, 8 cups of water and all of the sourdough starter. Let this batter stand at room temperature for (24 hours). It will become bubbly.
4. Remove 1 cup of the batter to a pot and add ½ cup of water. Cook this mixture over a low heat while stirring until it becomes thick about (10 minutes).
5. Remove the mixture from heat and let it cool. Stir the mixture back into the batter.
6. Add 2 ½ cups of water and mix well. Let the batter stand at room temperature for (2 hours).
7. Remove 3 cups of the batter and put it into the jar you used to make the sourdough starter. Refrigerate the batter and use it as the sourdough starter the next time you make injera (beginning with Step 3).

8. Melt ½ teaspoon of the solid shortening in a large frying pan.
9. Remove 1 cup of the batter from the bowl and pour it in a stream into the hot pan in a counterclockwise spiral, starting from the outside edge of the pan.
10. Cover the pan and let the injera cook until the edges begin to brown and curl up and the middle is dry about (2 minutes).
11. Invert the pan over a clean dishtowel. The injera should fall out of the pan. The first injera may not turn out as well as the following ones.
12. Repeat the steps from Step 8, until all the batter is gone.
13. The rounds may be used immediately or; after they cool, they may be stored wrapped in plastic in the refrigerator for a few days.

If you like to make bread, this is fun. However, Martha buys ours from a bakery. If you live close to an Eritrean restaurant (there’s one in Boston & Cambridge, and another in Portland, ME), you may be able to order injera from them.

Jenny’s Banana Bread

3 bananas mashed
½ cup melted butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs beaten
8 Tablespoons of milk
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 handfull of chopped walnuts (optional)

Add all ingredients to a big mixing bowl and mix with a hand blender until batter is fully moist.

Spray loaf pan with Pam (or grease with butter or oil). Use 1 large loaf pan or 3 small ones.
Pour batter into pan.

Bake at 350* for 60 – 70 minutes. (If you use 3 small loaf pans cook bread for 45 minutes).

To test if bread is done stick a knife into bread and if it comes out clean – it’s done. If knife is gooey cook for 5 - 10 minutes more.

Good luck! October 2010

Zucchini Nut Bread

3 cups flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
¾ tsp baking powder
1 tsp grated lemon peel
2 cups grated unpeeled zucchini
1 cup copped walnut
1 cup raisins
2 cups sugar
1 cup salad oil
4 eggs

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Grease and flour 2 9x5x3 loaf pans.
2. Sift flour, cinnamon, soda, salt, and baking powder in a bowl. Combine lemon pieces, zucchini, walnuts, and raisins.
3. In large mixing bowl combine sugar, salad oil, and eggs. Beat until smooth.
4. Add sifted dry ingredients, mixing till smooth.
5. Add zucchini mixture, stir well until combined.
6. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 55-60 minutes.
7. Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove from pan. Cool on wire racks.