Makes 14 logs, which will feed 7
You can halve the recipe if you are feeding fewer people, but honestly, while you are at it, make it all and eat what you will… which will probably be more than you think. Freeze the rest, as it defrosts well.
Love for this morning pastry has spread from the Yemeni community to the entirety of Israel. On Saturday mornings you can smell it baking in ovens all over the country. You can buy it frozen and ready-to-bake from the supermarket, and those who can’t be bothered to bake it themselves can buy it from roadside stands, where they serve grated tomatoes and slow-cooked eggs to go with it—the traditional accompaniment.
When we first moved in together, Sarit decided to make it for me for breakfast as a treat. She was kneading and stretching, brushing and rolling. We finally went to bed with the oven glowing in the darkened flat, and promises of waking up to a pastry-scented home and a glorious breakfast. We woke up extra early, stomachs rumbling and mouths watering with expectation, but soon realized we couldn’t smell anything. We rushed to the kitchen to see the oven still glowing, and the jahnoon pot sitting there, just near it, on the cold kitchen counter.
The timing is key in this recipe. If you want it for breakfast, you need to make the dough sometime between 4pm and 7pm and then put it in the oven to bake about three hours later, depending on how early you want to wake up. That way it will have enough time to bake while you are sleeping, but not so much time that it dries out (about eight or nine hours is ideal). Once it is baked, just turn off the oven and leave it there until you are ready to eat—it’ll stay warm. But do remember to put it into the oven before you go to sleep.
500g bread flour
500g all-purpose flour
100g granulated sugar
1 tbsp table salt
1 tsp baking soda
400g/ml water, plus maybe a little more
200g/ml vegetable oil
250g unsalted butter
60g honey
Mix all the dry ingredients for the dough in a bowl. You can use an electric mixer with a dough hook, or simply use your hands. Add the water in a constant fast stream while mixing to form a nice supple dough. If you are using a mixer, you can work on quite a high speed to develop a lovely shine. If you are hand-kneading, get some action going and go to town—you want the end result to be supple, soft and shiny.
Once you feel the dough is as lovely as it can be, divide into 14 pieces of about 110g–120g each. Roll each into a tight ball between your palm and the work surface. Take a large cake tin or a tray with a rim and pour the vegetable oil in. Roll each ball in the oil and then leave to sit in it (with a bit of space between each one) for 30 minutes. This is an important stage as it allows the dough time to relax. You can leave it for up to an hour, but ideally no longer.
Preheat the oven to 400°F/375°F convection. Melt the butter. Choose a pan with a tight-fitting lid (or improvise one with plenty of foil). (If you are making a half batch, choose a smaller pan so that the layers of dough will be snugly stacked.) Line the base with a large piece of baking parchment that comes right up the sides, leaving plenty of overhang so that when everything is baked you can simply pull the whole thing out in one piece.
Moisten your hands with some of the oil in the tin or tray containing the dough balls. Pick up a ball and place it on the work surface with the really oily part on top. Then use your palms to spread the dough out as thinly as you can to create a large sheet. You should see the work surface through the dough. If you want to be accurate about it, then try to create a rectangle of 7 inches × 14 inches. Brush the dough sheet all over with melted butter and roll into a tight log from one of the shorter ends, so you end up with a 7-inch-long log of rolled pastry, like an old scroll. Place the log in the bottom of the lined pan, as close to the edge as you can. Repeat the process with the remaining dough balls–the first ones may look a bit manky, but after you’ve done a few you should have mastered the process. Place each one as close as possible to the one before and continue in a single layer until the base of the pan is full. Lay the next layer at a 90 degree angle to the first, so that the two layers are at right angles.
Once all your logs are in the pan, mix the honey with whatever butter you have left and drizzle all over the top. Cover the surface directly with greaseproof paper so that it touches the dough logs. If you decide to cook eggs to go with the bread, this would be the time to place them in their shells on top of the greaseproof paper (no need to pre-cook). If not, simply seal the pot with its lid or lots of aluminum foil.
Place in the center of the oven and bake for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350°F/325°F convection for a further 20 minutes. Finally, reduce the heat to 250°F/225°F convection and leave for a minimum of 6 hours, or up to 9 hours for the fully caramelized version.
In the morning, simply grate your tomatoes, shell the baked eggs and serve with some chile paste on the side, peeling away layer upon layer of buttery bread and asking yourself: how come this is the first time I’ve tried this dish?