Omani Date Paratha Bread (Khoubz Mardhouf)

Think paratha, lots of flakey layers and then macerated sweet juicy dates, blended into it. It’s a buttery, sweet love affair of our gorgeous Omani Date Bread.

Ingredients:

• 675g Plain Flour or Chapati Flour (plus extra for dusting)

• 250ml of boiling Water

• 200ml room temp coconut milk or water

• 300g Dates (with seeds)

• 1 TSP Salt

• 3 TBSP Hot Ghee or Hot Vegetable Oil if you want them Vegan

• 200g Warm Ghee (For Rolling & Frying)

Method:

1. Begin by de-pitting your dates.

2. Soak the dates in the boiling water and either leave over night or for a couple of hours to soften.

3. Once soaked, begin to macerate them and massage them with your hands to break them down till you have a pulp.

4. Either in a large bowl or stand mixer, combine the flour, date pulp, coconut milk, salt & ghee.

5. Mix the ingredients together by hand or on a low speed (in your mixer) until it all comes together in a ball.

6. Then knead for 15-20 minutes by hand or knead 10 minutes on a medium speed in your mixer.

7. After kneading, your dough should be soft and smooth. Cover the bowl with cling film and leave to rest for 1 hour.

8. After the rest, divide your dough into 8 balls (if you want large breads) or 14 (if you want smaller breads).

9. Taking one ball at a time, roll them out as thin as possible, ideally trying to keep them square, but don’t worry too much.

10. If you are struggling to roll them out thin, place a bit of warm ghee on your surface and on the dough and it should help to spread.

11. Once you have spread it out as thin as possible, drip two teaspoons of warm ghee onto the dough. Using your hands spread it all around, making sure there are no dry parts.

12. We now want to fold it into a small square. So take the right side and fold it into the middle. Then take the left side and fold it into the middle and top of the right side. So you will be left with a rectangle.

13. Then take the bottom of the rectangle and fold into the middle, followed by folding the top into the middle.

14. Flip over and you should be left with a neat square.

15. Place on a plate, cover with cling film or a cloth and repeat this with all the rest of the balls.

16. Once you have rolled and folded them into squares, begin again doing the exact same process, but you don’t need to roll them out as thin as the first time, but you need them big enough to fold.

17. You want to roll out your squares, keeping the shape, and refolding to create extra layers.

18. Repeat with all of your squares and then leave to rest for at least 30 minutes.

19. Heat a non stick frying pan on medium - high heat.

20. Take one dough square and roll it out, keeping the square shape, till it is about a coin thick.

21. Place in your frying pan and take a teaspoon of hot ghee and spread it round the edge of the dough.

22. Allow the bread to fry slightly so you can pick it up and flip it over, and then take some more ghee and put around the edges of the other side.

23. Press down on the edges so they begin to fry well - we want them to be slightly crunchier with a softer middle which is why you put ghee there first.

24. Flip over the bread and put some ghee all over, then flip again and also spread a bit of ghee all over. We don’t want try bread!

25. Using your spatula press down on the bread, and rotate it in the pan at the same time, to make sure that it browns evenly on all sides.

26. Flip it over do the same thing. If they are browning too quick, make sure to reduce the heat incase it cooks too fast on the outside.

27. Once you are happy that they are fully browned and cooked through, place on a plate and repeat with the rest!