Kobz Abraj — date breakfast pastries

Kobz Abraj with mint tea

I love North African cuisines with their blend of Mediterranean-Middle Eastern foods and remember with great longing the breakfast pastries we had in Fes, Morocco, so when Zingerman's Bakehouse held a Tunisian bakery demo class I signed up immediately.

The demo instructors were Majid and Onsa Mahjoub, of Les Moulins Mahjoub, which produces a range of amazing products from their hand-processed sun-dried tomatoes, organic olive oil, hand-gathered wild capers, and zingy orange marmalade. Onsa demonstrated five different Tunisian breads and pastries, all adapted for ingredients available here in the States, while her husband Majid filled in the history and production methods of their beautifully made organic food products.

One of their more intriguing products Majid showed us is their geranium water, a by-product from the "perfume-side" of their business where they process the essential oils from orange blossoms and geraniums, which they sell to the perfume industry in Paris. I keep rose and orange blossom water in my pantry, but I've never seen geranium water before, which as you might imagine, smells of scented geranium. Ari of Zingerman's said that they were going to try to stock it in the future.

But back to the baking...

Onsa brought brik from Tunisia. Brik is a Tunisian bread that is roughly similar to spring roll wrappers (phyllo dough is actually thinner than brik), but has a different texture. She used to make rolled pastries filled with orange marmalade and stuffed fried packets of egg, farmhouse cheese, capers, and sun-dried tomatoes (sort of like wonton or samosa). One of my fellow attendees claims that you can get brik from the R. Hirt company (2468 Market St, Detroit) near the Detroit Farmer's market, or you could try using spring roll wrappers as a substitute. Onsa also made a beautiful orange cake, skillet flat bread (I had this in Morocco, and I swoon for this stuff.), and two date-based pastries.

I was particularly taken by the date pastries. I have these vague fond childhood memories of date cookies, with a thin layer of date between two layers of dough, that my grandmother would buy. So when Onsa made the Kobz Abraj, I was stirred with a powerful desire to make them myself immediately upon getting home. Joe pointed out that we had a tub of dates in the pantry, well... the rest is history.

Kobz means "bread" and abraj means "portion", so this is "bread in portion". It's commonly served for breakfast. Onsa likes it with coffee, but I'm a tea person.

(Recipe in extended post.)

Kobz Abraj
adapted from Onsa Mahjoub's recipe (as close as I could make it, and with differences noted)
Makes two 6-inch rounds

250 grams semolina flour  (approx 1 1/3 cups)
50 grams all-purpose flour (approx 1/4 cup)
1/2 to 1 tsp salt
100 grams olive oil, warmed slightly
some warm water
date filling

Date Filling
You can buy processed date paste from Aladdin's market on Packard street, or make your own from pitted dates. The filling I made ended up being enough to fill three breads.

About 30 pitted deglet noor dates — about 3 cups (Note: I needed 60 dates to equal 3 cups.)
Zest of 3 oranges (I used a table spoon Penzeys dried orange peel soaked in some water.)
Optional: ground cinnamon (I used a teaspoon)
Optional: olive oil (I used a few tablespoons)
Kitchen Chick's addition (optional): a touch of orange blossom water. (a tsp?)

For the filling:
Combine the dates and orange zest and cinnamon in a food processor and process to a paste. Add a little olive oil to create a smoother paste.  If your dates are hard, your food processor might not be able to grind them. (Ask how do I know? At least I was clued-in enough to stop before I burned out the motor!) I splashed a small amount of water on mine and heated them in the microwave to soften them. Worked a charm. I also added a touch of orange blossom water.

For the breads:
Combine flours and salt in large bowl. Add the oil, a little at a time, kneading as you go. Add enough water (start with just a few tablespoons!) to achieve a soft dough. Divide into quarters and knead each quarter on a work surface. Pat a quarter into a 6 inch round. (The dough may tear, keep pressing it together.) Cover with date filling, leaving about 1/8 inch around the edge. (I left about 1/4 inch.) Pat another quarter into a 6 inch round and put this on top of the date filling. Press together, seal the edges, and shape into a neat circle. Cut into 8 wedges — like a pizza. Repeat with remaining dough.

Heat cast iron skillet until quite hot. Add as many pieces as will fit without crowding. Cook, turning once or twice, until browned on both sides and the dough is cooked through (i.e. does not look raw). I start the pan on high and I found it useful to turn down the heat after adding the wedges so that I did not burn them before the dough could cook.

Comments

[Paul Rados]

i was at that demo as well... Kobz Abraj was among my favorite as well. I have been having pretty good luck with the maloui.

[Kitchen Chick]

Hi Paul. I fell in love with the mlaoui-equivalent in Fes, Morocco. We ate them at breakfast with honey and yogurt-like cheese. The cooks at my riad showed (they didn't speak English or French) me how to make them. I took notes, but never tried to make them myself. Now I think I will be able to make them.

[RobynT]

I love that these are dairy-free! Will need to try them some time.

[kasha]

Crazy cool recipe! Thanks!
kasha
http://www.grubandstuff.blogspot.com/

[Leila.]

OMG.

My dad was Tunisian, and we lived there for a while when I was growing up . My grandmother made those date pastries...and duh! I never found out how to make them, and to be honest, I never even knew what they were called so I could search.

I'm bookmarking... Thanks!

[Ashe]

I'm so sorry I missed that demo - didn't even hear it was happening, although I thought I was on the Zingerman's e-mailing list.

You don't have any notes on how to make the skillet flatbread, do you? Or what it's actually called so I can do a search? I've been looking for the flatbread recipe since I was in Morocco four years ago, and I'd love you forever if you had any pointers! The stuff is so perfect with orange marmalade...