Monday, April 10, 2017

H'mbasha/Ambasha/Himbasha/Ethiopian Flat Bread

Himbasha/Ambasha is a popular Ethiopian/Eritrean celebration bread which is cooked traditionally in stove top as a round shaped bread with a frying pan. However many baked versions do exists. This bread is served at special occasions. Do you know Ethiopian tradition involves breaking the himbasha over the back of a child at his first birthday to give him strength. Though its a celebration bread it can be also eaten during breakfast or for snacks with spreads,jams or else with some stews where you can tear a piece of bread and dip in the stew and enjoy. This bread is prepared with many variations and the most favourite flavoring goes to grounded cardamom seeds. Some people adds raisins in their Himbasha while some adds Black sesame seeds, grounded fenugreek seeds etc.

Ethiopian Himbasha, Ambasha

Though this bread is cooked in stove top or baked in oven, the shaping of this bread involves just spreading the dough as much as possible as your large frying pan and scoring a wheel like pattern on the top. Thats the particularity of this bread. Since am trying Himbasha for the first time, i dont want to experiment with grounded fenugreek seeds and i kept mine as simple as possible. I opted for grounded cardamom powder and black sesame seeds to flavor my Himbasha. This flatbread came out extremely prefect and we finished our brunch with this fabulous bread. Though this bread is sweet and savory bread, i loved having this bread slices with peanut butter and jam. Am running this month's blogging marathon with A-Z baking around the world as theme, and my today's post is this Ethiopian Himbasha bread.

Dont forget to check my previous post under this Megamarathon:
Aysh Abu Laham from Saudi Arabia
Bhapa Doi from India
Cemita Buns from Mexico
Dobos Torte from Hungary
Earthquake Cake from America
Fonott Kalacs from Hungary
GougĂ©res au Fromage from France

Himbasha, Ethiopian Flatbread

Recipe Source: Here
4cups All purpose flour
1tbsp Instant yeast
1/4cup Sugar
1tsp Cardamom powder
1/4cup Oil
1tsp Salt
1+1/2cups Luke warm water
1tsp Black sesame seeds

Take the flour, instant yeast, sugar, salt, cardamom powder,black sesame seeds, oil in a bowl.

Add the luke warm water, and knead everything well to form a smooth dough.

Drop the smooth dough in a greased bowl and let it sit in warm place for atleast two hours.

Once the dough gets rised, punch down and drop the dough in a kitchen top.

Knead and flatten it, take a large frying pan, grease it generously with oil, drop the flatten dough to the pan.

Ethiopian Ambasha, Himbasha

Slowly start flattening it until it covers the pan, now score concentric circles on the top of the dough to form a wheel pattern.

Let it sit again for few minutes, brush the top with oil. Preheat the oven for 350F.

Bake for 20-25minutes until the top of the bread turns golden brown.

Slice and serve.
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 75

13 comments:

vaishali sabnani said... Reply To This Comment

oh what a lovely name and what a awesome pick for the alphabet ! The history of the bread is so interesting , loved reading about it . And the bread , it looks gorgeous with that wheel scored on it .

Namratha said... Reply To This Comment

Wow your Himbasha looks perfect! I was fascinated with the pinwheel design too and almost had it on my list, but it's saved for another time :D Cardamom in it sounds great!

Srivalli said... Reply To This Comment

Wow Priya, that's one superb find...very nice reading about this bread!..so many now to bookmark and bake!

Sharmila kingsly said... Reply To This Comment

The pattern has come out really well.. It is indeed hard to do with hands,.. It s only your magical hands that brought this beautiful bake!!

Shobha said... Reply To This Comment

Bread looks nice.. would go well with some spicy gravy.

Sowmya :) said... Reply To This Comment

Each of your bakes is so unique Priya! Love this flat bread and find it amazing how many traditions are woven around food...bookmarking this!

Harini R said... Reply To This Comment

Interesting history for this bread, Priya. The wheel pattern looks very cute too.

veena said... Reply To This Comment

Oh my, the bookmark is ever growing. Have bookmarked this too Priya. Lovely bread

Srividhya said... Reply To This Comment

I love the wheel pattern.. The recipe name is a tongue twister but not the recipe. :-) Great pick for H

Sandhya Ramakrishnan said... Reply To This Comment

That is a great choice for the alphabet and a very new bread for me. I am always looking for flatbreads as everyone in my family loves them. Love how beautifully you have made the patterns on top.

Pavani said... Reply To This Comment

What an amazing bake this is Priya. Loved reading about it and it looks so pretty with that pattern on top.

Unknown said... Reply To This Comment

Very different name. Loved the bread and the reading too.

Unknown said... Reply To This Comment

Nice pattern on the bread. Amazing bake...