Thursday, July 30, 2009

BBB: Sukkar bi Tahin



My friend, Natashya, was the hostess this month for the Bread Baking Babes. Her choice was Sukkar bi Tahin, or, Beirut Tahini Swirls. Looks delicious, sounds delicious, similar to Algerian Flatbread that I made several months ago, but more on the sweet side.


Well, sort of. Don't you just love that delicious combination of garlic and sugar? Oh, I know I do.



Seems that the tahini paste I purchased (from TJs) not only contained garlic, but, when mixed with sugar, transformed into a runny sauce. This made rolling the dough quite a challenge in many respects. After having viewed Natashya's photo collage tonight, I'm wondering if our tahinis came from two different planets. How come your filling was crumbly, and mine was soupy?



In my hot kitchen, as I rolled up the dough, the filling kept scooting along in front, like a tidal wave, and then oozed over the final edge, creating a tahini-sauce lake on my board. So much for the 2 1/2 tablespoons.


For the second one, I drastically reduced the amount of filling, which helped, so the remainder received maybe a tablespoon of filling altogether. Any ideas for the leftover tahini-garlic-sugar soup?



Oh, but then came the second rolling phase. The first coiled bread managed to goop up my rolling pin sock so badly I had to remove it. Then, of course, the rolling pin stuck to each of the remaining buns. By the time I rolled out the third one, I was ready to walk away.

But I didn't.



While the first batch was in the oven, baking into huge puffy things, I took a deep breath and tackled the remaining 3 pieces of dough. Thankfully, they behaved in a more civilized manner and rolled out more thinly and nicely than the first batch.



I ate the two ugliest ones.

They were actually pretty tasty, but I fear I'm developing a liking for garlic-sugar.

To try your hand at this interesting bread, go to Natashya's blog for the recipe. I'll submit this to the Babes and hope I don't get drummed out of the Buddy group for this near-disaster. Next time I'll check the tahini container more carefully.

4 comments:

NKP said...

Oh dear! You must have found a tahini sauce rather than the straight sesame paste.
Your new found fondness of garlic-sugar is safe with me, and might generate some interesting ice cream recipes! ;-)
I did find that the second batch of tahini that I bought was runnier, only from extra oil in it though.. not garlic or spice, thank goodness!
Thank you so much for baking with us.

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

... (that's me thinking very quietly: garlic sugar, what would that taste like?? I don't know.)

They look perfect. I understand just what you mean about sticking to the board when the stuff squeezes out, happened with plenty of mine.

Engineer Baker said...

I'm not sure I want to know what garlic sugar tastes like... As for the tahini-sugar combo, mine was quite crumbly. Did you stir up your tahini before using it? Mine settled a bit, so that helped. Oh, and mine were definitely uglier than yours - yours look wonderful!

Anonymous said...

They look awesome. I love tahini.