If a flatbread filled with delicious flavors sounds like your thing, then you need to try malawach. The Yemeni dish is popular amongst Jews of that origin, and comes with grated tomato, a chili sauce called zhog, and a hard-boiled egg.
Ingredients:
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup pastry flour
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 1 cup warm water
- 4 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 tomato, finely grated / crushed
- 1 tablespoon zhug
- 1 egg, hard-boiled
Instructions:
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, sugar, and salt.
- Slowly pour in the warm water, and use your hand to stir and mix the dough until it fully pulls away from the bowl. If the dough is not completely combined, stir in half a tablespoon of water at a time, mixing until the dough comes together.
- Knead the dough for around 5 minutes, until it is smooth and elastic. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes.
- Uncover the dough and divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. Keep the dough covered with plastic wrap while you flatten out each ball.
- Prepare a sheet tray by lining it with parchment paper and set it aside. On a clean countertop, rub 1 tablespoon of butter across the worksurface. Place one piece of dough at a time on the buttered countertop and use a rolling pin to shape the dough into roughly an 8-inch circle (you shouldn’t need to use flour to roll the dough).
- Take 1 tablespoon of butter and use your fingers to dollop pieces of it across the surface of the dough. Starting from the center, use the fingers of both hands to press and slide them across the dough, stretching it outwards, to a large 12 x 14-inch rectangle. The dough should be thin enough to see through to the countertop. Don’t worry if there a few tears.
- Starting from the widest edge of the rectangle, fold over the dough in 1-inch increments until a long rope is created. Coil the rope into a pinwheel and place it on the prepared sheet tray. Cover the dough with the plastic wrap that you used previously and roll the remaining pieces of dough. Cover the sheet tray with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough overnight, or until it is thoroughly chilled.
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Use a rolling pin to flatten the pinwheels into 8 1/2-inch circles. Stack the flattened dough in between pieces of parchment paper, and place inside a freezer storage bag. Freeze the dough for a minimum of 45 minutes. If you don’t want to make the malawach now, you can store the dough up to 1 month.
- To cook, lightly butter a large non-stick or cast iron pan and place over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, add a frozen piece of flattened dough to the pan and turn the stove to medium. (The pan should not be smoking.) Cook the dough for 1 to 2 minutes per side until it is golden brown. If you plan to serve all the flatbreads, place them in an oven at 200°F to keep warm until ready to serve.
- Accompany with the grated tomato, zhug, and sliced egg.
