Zaatar Rolls

Zaatar is an Arabian spice mix which I had only heard of. Then one of my dear friends Tamra gifted me some of this spice blend quite a while back. It had been lying in my refrigerator since a while and I used it the other day to make these rolls. In my enthusiasm to get a nice brown crust it got a bit overbaked.

But the zaatar itself has a dark colour that is adding to the dark colour of the rolls and it is not really burnt as it appears to be.

So here is the simple recipe for the rolls. Now that I have found instant yeast I love making bakes like this.

Ingredients

3 ¼ cup of refined flour,

1 tablespoons of sugar,

A teaspoon of salt,

4 tsps of instant yeast,

3 ½ tablespoons of melted butter,

¾ cup warm milk + some more,

1 egg at room temperature

Filling

Little less than half a cup of olive oil,

½ cup of zaatar spice mix,

Glaze

Little beaten egg

Method

Combine the flour, instant yeast, sugar and salt. Mix them well.

Now mix together the egg, melted butter and the warm milk in another bowl. Ensure the milk is just warm and not hot. Mix this with the dry ingredients and mix them in.

I used just my hand to knead the dough. You will need to knead for about 6-8 minutes. In case you feel the need, you can add a little extra warm milk or water.

Place the dough in a bowl and drizzle some oil over it and leave it covered till it doubles in size.

Punch it down and roll the dough into a flat rectangle. I used my kitchen top for this.

Mix the olive oil and zaatar spice mix.

Spread this over the entire dough rectangle. Once the entire dough rectangle is covered start rolling it to a long pipe. Then cut it evenly into slices. Try to get about nine to ten slices.

Place the slices around in a cluster in your baking tray. Leave a little space between them to swell up while baking. Keep it covered for about 15 minutues and then glaze it with the beaten egg.

Pre heat the oven at 220^oC. Place your baking tray in the pre-heated oven and bake for about 25 minutes.