Jachnun
According to the Jewish religion it is not allowed to light fire during Sabbath, which is from Friday evening till Saturday evening, so observant Jews have invented the Sabbath plate (also known as blech), which is a plate of tin mantled on the stove tops. The stove works on a low heat, while all the food is kept in pots on the plate, leaving it warm during the Sabbath. This invention caused development of several slow-cooking dishes in traditional Jewish cuisine. Jachnun is one of them. It is a puff pastry similar to the one used for malawah, cooked slowly in a pot. Traditionally it was consumed on Saturday morning for breakfast accompanied by hard boiled eggs.
The easiest way to prepare Jachnun is in the oven. You will need a sauce pan with a lid that you can put in the oven.
1/2 Kg (1 lb 2 oz) wheat flour
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
100g (3 1/2 oz) samneh or margarine
canola oil
1/2 tsp. salt
6 eggs
Preparation time: 6 hrs. 15 mins + 14 hrs. cooking
Difficulty level: Medium
Servings: 6
Ingredients
Preparation
Sift the flour into a bowl. Add sugar and salt and 2 cups of warm water and knead for about 5 mins. until the dough is uniform and sticky. Cover with plastic wrap and a towel and let rest for 20 mins.
Oil the hands and knead a few minutes until all the oil is absorbed in the dough. Cover again and let rest for a hour.
Divide the dough into 6 equal parts, oil the hands and make 6 balls, brush with oil, cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 4 hours.
Bring the samneh to room temperature. It must be very soft.
Roll out each ball into a very thin round sheet. It is better to do it by stretching the dough by hand, than by using the rolling pin. Brush the surface of the sheet with samneh, then fold 1/3 to the center, brush with samneh again, fold the other side and brush with samneh. You should get a rectangular sheet with 3 layers of dough. 2 long straight edges and 2 short rounded edges . Now roll the sheet starting with a rounded edge. Don't roll it too tight. Continue with other balls.
Put a pita or some slices of bread in a bottom of a sauce pot and line with baking paper above. Arrange the pieces in the pot in few layers. Cover with a lid and bake in 100°C (210°F) for about 12-14 hours until the color is nice brown. Serve like malawach with hard boiled egg, tomato dip and z'hug.
