Bread Baking Day: Moroccan Kesra Bread

I’m always up for a challenge and eager to participate in events held by blogs.  I was excited to hear about Bread Baking Day through Ya Salam Cooking.  The theme was to make a bread recipe from a country you’d like to visit.  I automatically knew I would make a Moroccan bread.  Unfortunately, I’m not very good at baking bread but I figured I’d never learn if I didn’t keep practicing.

When I told my friend Amanda of MarocMama.com  I was going Moroccan, she informed me she was going Palestinian.  She choose to make traditional Palestinian Kaa’ak typically found in the souk and enjoyed with fresh, hot falafel. So I traveled through my baking to the country of her husband’s origin and she baked her way into Palestine.

Moroccan Kesra Bread  {via Kitchen Chick}

Ingredients:

1 pkg active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm (105 – 115 F) water for the yeast
plus 1.5 – 2 cups warm water
1 tsp sugar

4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cornmeal
plus 1 Tbs cornmeal for dusting
2 tsp salt
2 Tbs unsalted butter, melted

2 tsp sesame seeds

Directions:

In a small bowl, mix the yeast with 1/4 cup warm water. Stir in the sugar. Set aside until the mixture starts to bubble (10-15 minutes).

In a mixer with a dough hook, mix the flour, 1/3 cup cornmeal, and salt. (Or sift together.) Make a well in the center and pour in the yeast mixture and melted butter. Knead, gradually adding the remaining 2 cups water as needed until the dough is smooth and elastic to the touch (8 to 10 minutes). (Note: you probably won’t need all 2 cups.)

Grease two baking sheets and dust them with the 1 Tbs cornmeal. Separate dough into 2 balls of equal size and set each ball on a baking sheet. Press them into circles 8 inches in diameter. Sprinkle 1 tsp of sesame seeds over each loaf, gently pressing them into the dough. Cover the dough with a towel and set aside in a warm place until doubled (about 1 hour. Can take longer).

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Prick the top of each kesra with the tines of a fork. Bake for 10 minutes. Lower the heat to 375 and bake until crusty and golden, 15 to 20 minutes.

Palestinian or not, this bread fresh and warm from the oven, begged to be dipped in olive oil.  We really enjoyed it.  I can imagine how great it would be soaking up the sauce of a great tajine.  I love how both mine and Amanda’s breads incorporated sesame seeds. 

I had intentions of reattempting the recipe using Amanda’s bread recipe, but the baby always had other plans during my “free” time.  Be sure to check out Amanda’s blog for lots of insider tips to Morocco and great Moroccan recipes.