Za'atar Tear and Share Bread

I’ve definitely waxed lyrical about za’atar before – it’s an incredible spice mix that I first had, smeared on fresh flatbread, in Beirut. When I travel, my souvenirs are food related. I love exploring the cuisine of new places and then trying to recreate it at home.

And I love bread. But I find flatbread difficult. Enter, the simple and delicious tear and share loaf, made in a bundt cake tin. Now I’ve mainly seen sweet recipes for this kind of bread (cinnamon, caramel etc) but the savoury one piqued my interest.

The bread kind of got away from the too-small pan

I served it with falafel and some gyros-style chicken but it would be great as a snacky dinner centrepiece with an onion-garlic dip.

serves about 6, probably (I ate half myself)

Ingredients

• 7g yeast
• 180ml lukewarm water
• 1 tsp sugar
• 470g plain flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 70g vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp sesame seeds
• 2 tbsp butter, melted
• Za’atar spice

Method

Mix together the yeast, water and sugar and let sit for a few minutes.

In a large bowl, add the flour and salt and mix. Make a well in the centre and pour in the yeast mixture, eggs and oil. Bring together roughly with a spoon and sprinkle in the sesame seeds.

Kneed the dough for a few minutes until silky smooth.

God, it's beautiful

Allow to rise in an oiled bowl for 2 hours until doubled in size.

Divide the dough into 24 pieces, each about the size of a golf ball.

Prep-work! Melted butter, za'atar and a greased tin

Dip them in the butter and roll to coat in the za’atar spice mix.

Pile them into a greased bundt tin, then cover loosely and let rise for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C.

Bake for 35 minutes.

Small tin, large amount of dough = exploding bread!

Allow to cool in the tin for a few minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool a bit more before serving.