The Breads of Egypt: Qoras - قُرَص

There are many social habits and traditions across Egypt that involve food of some kind, and baked goods have a special place in traditions. One of the oldest traditions involving baked goods is eating qoras when visiting cemeteries to pay their respects to the dead. Historians attribute this tradition all the way back to ancient Egypt and it still lives on to this day. The family of the deceased would have some qoras for the road and for everyone else they would meet there. It’s a simple baked good that fills people up on these long and emotionally heavy days when food is just a necessity, not a pleasure.

So what are they? Well qoras are simply buttermilk buns flavoured with anise seeds and fennel seeds. They are enriched with a liquid fat of some type, such as oil or melted butter or ghee, which along with the buttermilk (called laban rayeb in Egypt) makes them soft, fluffy and not chewy at all. There is a variation where sesame seeds are used instead of the anise and fennel seeds though this is less common. Some bakeries also make them plain, while a sweet take on qoras is made where the dough is plain and then stuffed with date paste (known as agwa - عجوة) which is quite popular during Eid al-Fitr (the post-Ramadan holiday).

Plain qoras and qoras with agwa filling I got from a nearby bakery

The name qoras (قُرَص) is a plural form of qors (قُرص) which means disc in Arabic; just a description of what the finished product looks like. Although there are other baked goods in Egypt that also look like discs, these buttermilk buns are the ones meant by the name qoras. The name is written as “qoras – قُرَص” while the pronunciation in Egypt is “oras”. This is a very common feature of Egyptian Arabic where the letter qāf (ق) is skipped and becomes a vowel sound instead of the Standard Arabic voiceless uvular plosive pronunciation. This simplification, though very common in the north of the country, is not a consistently observed rule and many words keep the formal qāf sound.

As mentioned earlier, these are soft buns. So the order of mixing the dough matters. By adding all the dry ingredients first and then adding in the oil, the flour granules are coated with oil which somewhat water proofs them. This makes the flour less likely to fully hydrate when the buttermilk is added which inhibits gluten formation. Gluten formation is what produces chewy baked goods so it stands to reason that this is minimized as much as possible in this case. The fat content from the oil and buttermilk also contribute to the richness of these buns, which make a really nice snack alongside some olives, fig jam and cup of minty tea.

Ingredients:

400 grams all purpose flour

1 teaspoon (5 grams) salt

1 tablespoon (15 grams) sugar

1 tablespoon yeast

1 teaspoon anise seeds

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

80 grams oil (sunflower, canola, rapeseed, corn or any neutral oil)

220 grams buttermilk

Time needed: 2 hours, 30 minutes to 3 hours

Mixing and kneading: 10 minutes

Rising time: 2 hours - 2 hours, 30 minutes

Baking: 20 minutes

Steps:

1- In a large bowl, mix the flour, salt, sugar, yeast, anise seeds and fennel seeds. Add the oil to the dry ingredients and mix well until the flour looks like damp sand. If you grab some flour and press it with your hand, it should hold its shape.

Dry ingredients mixed with oil

2- Add the buttermilk and mix until a smooth dough is formed. Knead for five to ten minutes until the dough becomes elastic and doesn’t tear easily when stretched. Cover the dough and leave it to rise for one and a half to two hours or until doubled in size.

Dough before and after rising

3-Divide the dough into eight equal pieces, about 90-95 grams each. Form each piece into a ball then press them down into discs about 10 cm in diameter and about as thick as your finger. Place them on baking paper on an oven tray, cover them and leave them to rise for half an hour.

Dough divided into eight pieces

Qoras shaped and ready for the final rise

4- Heat the oven to 180 degrees.

5- After the qoras have risen on the tray, transfer them directly to the oven and bake for 17-20 minutes or until lightly golden on top.

Finished qoras

6- Remove from the oven and allow the qoras to cool down to room temperature before eating.