The Breads of Egypt: Battaw with Fenugreek - بَتّاو بالحلبة

Battaw is a name spoken up and down Egypt to describe a few different types of bread, some thin and crispy, others soft and chewy. The name “Battaw” comes from the generic name for bread in the native Egyptian language spoken long before Arabic. This offers one explanation as to why a few different types of bread can be called Battaw in Egypt.

Another explanation is the availability of ingredients. Different varieties of wheat flour, barley flour and corn flour appear in varying combinations as and where they are available in the country. The south, also known as Upper Egypt, bakes a few of these varieties but the common characteristic is that they are thin and crispy with lots of small bubbles on the surface.

The traditional method of baking across Egypt is in dome shaped mud-brick ovens that are heated by fire. Bakers would place the dough directly on the hot oven floor. For baking at home, a hot surface can be created by preheating a baking stone or a cast iron pan in the oven. If these options are not available to you, use the largest ceramic baking dish you have and place it upside down.

In this recipe, we focus on the mixture of corn flour and all-purpose wheat flour which is flavored with a small amount of ground fenugreek seeds. This variety is found in the Asyut region in Upper Egypt. Fenugreek is a particularly strong flavor and should be used sparingly at first if you’re unfamiliar with it. You need to use a white, finely ground corn flour for this bread. The amount suggested here is reasonable for a home baker interested in exploring new types of bread. Whatever you do, make sure you bake it long enough until it’s darkened a bit and has lots of bubbles. Otherwise it will look like this about an hour or so after baking:

Under baked battaw

If the bread doesn’t bake long enough, that means there’s a bit more water left in it which makes it a little bit pliable. As it cools out of the oven, it continues to lose moisture and dry out while becoming randomly misshapen like that. So the longer it bakes, the more water evaporates out of the dough and it cooks through and sets which makes it keep its shape after baking. As for what to do with it, anything spreadable works perfectly well on battaw or you can just simply have it for breakfast with your favorite cheese or jam.

Ingredients:

200 grams white corn flour

200 grams all-purpose flour

10 grams salt

1/4th teaspoon ground fenugreek

210 grams water

Steps:

1-   In a mixing bowl, add both types of flour, the salt and the fenugreek and mix well with a spoon. Make a well in the center and add all the water. Mix the water until all the flour is hydrated and no dry flour remains.

2-   Knead the dough by hand for about five minutes or until it is smooth and uniform. This dough will not develop much elasticity or gluten since the corn flour, which is half of it, doesn’t have any gluten or elasticity.

Dough mixed and ready

3-   Cover the dough and allow it to rest for at least half an hour.

4-   Preheat your oven to 240 ˚C or as high as it can go. Place a baking stone, cast iron pan or an inverted large ceramic baking dish in the center of the oven. The objective here is to create a very hot surface for the dough to be baked on so make sure you place it when the oven is cold so it’s fully heated.

5-   Turn the dough out and divide it into 6 pieces, about 100 grams each. Dust your work surface lightly with flour and begin rolling out one piece into a thin disc that’s roughly 25-30 cm in diameter and thin enough that you can see your hand through it. Keep the other pieces covered so they don’t dry out.

Piece of dough rolled out

6-   Transfer the rolled-out piece of dough directly onto the hot surface in the oven and bake for 7-10 minutes or until the bread is lightly browned and lots of little bubbles appear.

Battaw done!

7-   Remove from the oven and allow to cool thoroughly. Repeat with the remaining pieces. This bread keeps for at least a month stored in a paper bag.