The most authentic Homemade Jachnun Recipe – exactly the way my Yemenite grandmother makes it
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What is Jachnun?
Jachnun is a Yemenite Jewish pastry, and is traditionally served on Shabbat morning alongside hardboiled brown eggs, grated fresh tomato, and spicy schug. Yemenite Jewish immigrants have popularized the dish in Israel since immigrating in the early 20th century. It has also gained popularity worldwide as a delicacy for weekend brunch.
Want more great brunch recipes? Check out:
ISRAELI BOUREKAS WITH MASHED GOLDEN POTATOES AND CARAMELIZED ONIONS
HAWAIJ SPICE ROLLS WITH COFFEE GLAZE
How to make Jachnun
Jachnun is a labor intensive dish that not many make from scratch anymore, like the older generations of grandmothers and aunts used to.
But guess what? I watched my grandmother and aunts, and took careful notes! Making Homemade Jachnun from scratch is such an amazing tradition to share with the whole family, especially kids. There’s nothing like making pastry from scratch.
First, start by mixing the flour, baking soda, salt, water, sugar, and silan/honey in the bowl of a stand mixer. You can also do this by hand, but just beware that the dough is (and should be) sticky. Mix for about 5-6 minutes on low, then let the dough rest and rise at room temperature, covered for 5 minutes. Gently stretch and fold the dough until the surface becomes smooth. Cover the dough again and let it rest on the counter at room temperature for about an hour.
Next, divide the dough into about 12 small pieces, and roll each piece into a smooth ball. Let the dough balls rest on the counter for 5-10 minutes.
Then, brush the work surface generously with avocado oil. Work with one dough ball at a time, and begin to stretch the dough in a large thin circle. Work slowly and gently to stretch the dough so thin, it should basically be see through.
Use your hands to smear on about a tablespoon of softened butter over the whole circle of dough. Gently lift the left side of the dough and fold it into the center. Rub on more butter, then bring the right side into the center, overlapping, and smear on more butter.
Start and the short end closest to you, and roll up the dough into a log. Pull the dough gently as you roll to create tension, and to make the layers even thinner.
Layer the jachnun rolls into the special round jachnun pan, there should be 2 layers of jachnun in one pan.
divide the dough
roll into smooth balls
stretch the dough very thin – almost see through!
fold in left side
fold in right side
roll up tightly
ready to bake
What are Haminados?
Haminados, or braised eggs, are a traditional Sephardi Jewish dish, popular in Israel, and commonly served as an accompaniment to a jachnun and several other Sephardic and Yemenite dishes.
Before you bake the jachnun, place a layer of parchment paper on top of the pastry, then layer in cleaned, raw eggs. The eggs with slowly hard boil. As the homemade jachnun slowly cooks overnight, the hardboiled eggs become brown, and have a distinct nutty, toasty flavor.
How to cook Jachnun
Homemade jachnun is ideal for the Shabbat (saturday) breakfast. Ideally you would mix and roll the Jachnun on Friday morning/noon, then place it in the pan, and refrigerate until evening. In the evening, place the pot with jachnun and eggs into a very low oven, 225 degrees F, and let it cook all night (around 9-10 hours). I will be beautifully golden brown and gift your house an amazing sweet aroma in the morning.
You can technically cook Homemade Jachnun in a glass pyrex dish, or any pot with a lid, but I prefer the authentic round metal pot, like my grandmother uses. You can find the real-deal jachnun pot here
Ingredients
- unbleached all purpose flour – I prefer to use King Arthur Baking Company flour for most of my bakes. Their flour is available is most American grocery stores, an online, and always delivers consistent, professional results.
- baking powder – make sure that your baking powder is fresh. Jachnun doesn’t have much rise to the dough, but it does help the dough puff slightly while baking.
- kosher salt – I always use Morton’s kosher salt. I love the level of salinity. If you’re using Diamond Crystal, add an extra 1/2 teaspoon.
- sugar – use granulated sugar for this recipe. The sugar dissolves in the water, before adding the dry ingredients.
- silan or honey – silan is date syrup! It’s a sweet and sticky syrup, and an incredible sweetener with serious molasses notes of flavor. One of my favorite brands is Just Date Syrup.
- You can typically find silan in kosher markets or Middle Eastern grocery stores.
- butter – it’s very important for the butter to very soft here – just before melting! it has to be easy to smear across the paper thin dough without tearing it! My favorite brand of grass fed butter is forever Kerrygold.
- avocado oil – I brush a generous amount of avocado oil onto my work surface, as well as my hands. This makes working with the dough much easier, and helps me stretch the dough out into a very thin layer. I prefer avocado oil over vegetable or canola oil because it’s a much cleaner option.
How to serve Jachnun
Yemenite Jachnun is traditionally served with raw grated tomato and spicy Yemenite schug. Schug (pronounced skh-oog) is a fiery green condiment made of cilantro, parsley, chilis, and toasted cumin. Mix a tiny spoonful of schug into your grated tomato for the perfect slightly sweet, spicy bite. Serve with the peeled haminados hardboiled eggs.
JACHNUN IS FINGER FOOD. PLEASE DON’T USE A FORK AND KNIFE! You’re meant to eat jachnun by peeling layer by layer, not slicing it like salami 🙂
Make Ahead
The beauty of homemade jachnun is that it can easily be made ahead! This recipe makes about 12-13 rolls, so you can bake 1/2, and freeze the other 1/2 for the following week. Once the rolls are formed, simply wrap each piece individually in plastic wrap. Then place all of the wrapped jachnun pieces in an airtight ziptop bag, and freeze.
When you’re ready to bake them, unwrap each piece, place in the greased jachnun pan, and bake as normal.
How to Store
Jachnun is better eaten fresh for brunch, after baking all night in the oven. Store any leftover pieces of jachnun in an airtight container in the fridge. To reheat, place the jachnun on baking tray lined with aluminum foil into a preheated 350 degree oven. Bake for about 15 minutes, until it is thoroughly heated.
I can’t wait for you to make Jachnun in your own kitchens! This recipe is not just close-to-my-heart, it IS my heart! and I’m so thankful to share it with you! Remember to tag me @lions.bread when you make this, or any recipe from the blog – I love to see it!
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serve with grated fresh tomato and spicy schug
eat with your hands, not a fork and knife!
Homemade Yemenite Jachnun
The most authentic Homemade Jachnun Recipe - exactly the way my Yemenite grandmother makes it
Ingredients
- 3 cups room temperature water 695g
- 2 tablespoons silan date syrup or honey, 35g
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar 50g
- 8 cups unbleached all purpose flour 1000 g
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 2g
- 4 teaspoons kosher salt 20g
- 16 tablespoons room temperature softened butter 227g
Instructions
- To the bowl of a stand mixer, add the room temperature 695g of water, the 35g silan or honey, and 50g granulated sugar. Whisk to dissolve the silan into the water.
Attach the dough hook, and add the 1000g of flour, 2g baking powder, and 20g of kosher salt to the bowl. Mix on low speed for 3 minutes. The dough should be fairly sticky and tacky, but should pull away from the sides of the bowl and come together in a dough ball, 3-4 minutes.
- Pull out the dough hook, and cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel and let it rest at room temperature for five minutes.
- With damp hands, reach your hands down the sides of the bowl, and gently lift the dough up from the center to stretch it. Let it fall back down, wet hands again, and stretch and fold the sides of the dough up and over to build up gluten strength. Work your way around the dough, giving the bowl a quarter turn each time you stretch and fold the dough over on itself. Cover the dough with a clean kitchen towel, and let it rest at room temperature for about an hour.
Next, divide the dough into about 12 small pieces, and roll each piece into a smooth ball. Let the dough balls rest on the counter, uncovered for 5-10 minutes.
Then, brush the work surface generously with avocado oil. Work with one dough ball at a time, and begin to stretch the dough in a large thin circle. Work slowly and gently to stretch the dough so thin, it should basically be see through.
Use your hands to smear on about a tablespoon of softened butter over the whole circle of dough. Gently lift the left side of the dough and fold it into the center. Rub on more butter, then bring the right side into the center, overlapping, and smear on more butter.
Start with the short end closest to you, and roll up the dough into a log. Pull the dough gently as you roll to create tension, and to make the layers even thinner.
Layer the jachnun rolls into the special round jachnun pan (linked above), there should be 2 layers of jachnun in one pan.
Optional: Add a round piece of parchment paper on top of the dough, and place 4-5 raw eggs on top. They will slowly hard boil in the oven overnight, and become "Haminados" - very toasty, and nutty and delicious hardboiled eggs.
Place the lid on top of the pan, or cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil, and bake for 10-12 hours at 225°F.
Enjoy while hot from the oven. Serve with grated fresh tomato, and spicy Yemenite schug (a spiced green chili condiment).
Do not use a knife and fork! Jachnu is meant to peeled apart with your fingers, layer by layer, then scoop up the grated tomato.
Recipe Notes
How to store: See notes above 🙂
The post Homemade Yemenite Jachnun Recipe first appeared on Lion’s Bread Blog.
Jacqueline S Strand says
I haven’t made this yet but I want to try it when my grandaughter comes to stay for a couple of weeks. Thank you for sharing such a personal recipe.