While my in-laws were here, I tried to impress them by making a special Palestinian breakfast called “imtabak” (meaning: layers). I guess it’s the American equivalent of cinnamon rolls as their both pretty labor intensive. The difference though, is that I made shortcut imtabak. The normal recipe calls for making dough then stretching it out very, very thin and folding it to form a square. This essentially forms thin layers that bake up so wonderfully.
Well, I’m not one to make dough and roll it out until it becomes very, very thin. So I tried the next best thing: egg roll wrappers.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Assemble one or two packages of large square egg roll wrappers, a bowl of extra virgin olive oil, and a pastry brush.
Place one sheet down and brush both sides with oil. Repeat with a second sheet directly on top of the first.
Fold down one corner.
And then the other to form a triangle. No need for perfection.
Place triangles on a foil lined baking sheet in a single layer. Do not overlap otherwise they will not brown.
Depending on your oven, bake for approximately 10 minutes. Watch them so that they do not turn brown. Just bake until lightly golden.
Remove from baking sheet and place on a tea towel or sheet. Lightly spritz with water and cover with towel or sheet until ready to serve.
Sprinkle with sugar. You can’t have imtabak without sugar. It’s also really tasty with Panela cheese or any other white cheese that isn’t very salty.
Please don’t attempt to eat imtabak without making mint tea. It just wouldn’t be right.
And just so you know what the real imtabak process produces:
My mama stretching out a thyme version of imtabak.
A big ol’ mess. No thank you.
Before baking. This stuff doesn’t sit around long enough after it comes out of the oven to be photographed.
