Khafush, Yemenite or Yemeni Bread

Is Khafush Yemeni or Yemenite bread? It’s both or neither depending on whom you ask. Whether you call yourself Yemeni or Yemenite depends on your religion. Jews from Yemen usually refer to themselves as Yemenites, while Muslims use Yemeni to describe their nationality. However, Adanis claim Khafush as their bread. As such, the bread is neither Yemenite nor Yemeni, but Adani. Adanis did not consider themselves part of Yemen until Aden became the capital of South Yemen. Well, it’s complicated… I learned about Khafush from my late mother, who was born in Rada’a, Yemen. My mother passed away this summer, and baking Khafush for World Bread Day 2014 allows me to explore and reconnect to her Yemeni Jewish baking traditions. Many bake Khafush these days with commercial yeast. Traditionally it was baked using khamira, a wild yeast starter. I decided to create a starter for baking this bread. The starter took longer than I expected to establish, so I first used active dry yeast to bake my first Khafush. My first attempt to bake this bread with the established starter was unsuccessful. The bread did not rise much and I ended up with a dense loaf. Few days later, the starter became much more active after I fed it with whole-wheat flour. I used twenty-percent starter to bake the bread. It rose nicely, but I would have liked the crumb to be a bit lighter. It still tasted good and I am sorry I won’t be able to share it with my mother. I added haba sowda, or black seed (nigella sativa), to the dough, as is the custom. Also known as haba al-baraka (seed of blessing), the seed has many healthful properties. It is also traditional to add chopped raw onion, spreading some of it on the bottom of the pot and incorporating the rest into the dough. The bread is quite good with yeast. But I plan to practice more baking it with a starter. Here is the recipe with yeast as I am not ready to give precise instructions for the starter version. Enjoy!