Jerusalem kaak
The bread sold from carts in the streets of Jerusalem's Old City, in its characteristic shape of an elongated ring that looks a little like a purse with a handle. It is not boiled like a bagel; the secret lies in a soft dough and a long stretch after coating in sesame. It usually comes with a paper twist of za'atar for dipping every bite.
Your own work in that: 45 min.
- Dough 25 min
- Rising 90 min
- Shaping and sesame 45 min
- Baking 20 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneKnead a soft, sticky dough
Mix all the dough ingredients and knead 10 minutes. The dough runs at 67 per cent hydration and will be soft and distinctly sticky — deliberately so, because only a soft dough can later be stretched hard without tearing.
Ingredients: 600 g strong bread flour · 400 ml water · 7 g dried yeast · 2 tbsp sugar · 2 tsp salt · 40 ml oil · 2 tbsp milk powder
Rise 90 minutes until doubled
Cover and leave 90 minutes, until doubled. Kaak is a simple bread, but the rise must be complete — underproved dough springs back as you stretch and the rings come out short and thick.
Ingredients: 600 g strong bread flour · 400 ml water · 7 g dried yeast · 2 tbsp sugar · 2 tsp salt · 40 ml oil · 2 tbsp milk powder
Roll ropes and join into rings
Divide into 6, roll ropes 40 cm long and join the ends, pressing firmly. The join must be solid — otherwise it opens during stretching and the ring becomes a plain stick.
Ingredients: 600 g strong bread flour · 400 ml water · 7 g dried yeast · 2 tbsp sugar · 2 tsp salt · 40 ml oil · 2 tbsp milk powder
Forty-centimetre ropes and a firmly pressed join.Mix molasses water for dipping
Stir the molasses into the water in a shallow dish. This is the glue for the sesame that also darkens the crust. Sesame alone will not stick to dry dough and falls off at the first touch.
Ingredients: 200 g sesame seeds · 150 ml water · 1 tbsp carob or grape molasses
Dip and coat both sides in sesame
Dip the ring in the molasses water, shake off the excess and press both faces into a tray of sesame. It should cover the whole surface — kaak carries so much that it forms a separate crisp layer.
Ingredients: 200 g sesame seeds · 150 ml water · 1 tbsp carob or grape molasses
Both faces pressed down — the sesame is a layer of its own.Stretch the ring over your hands
Slip your hands inside the ring and stretch it, turning, until it forms an elongated oval with a wide hole at one end. That shape is kaak's signature and comes only from stretching, never rolling.
Ingredients: 200 g sesame seeds · 150 ml water · 1 tbsp carob or grape molasses
Stretched over the hands — hence the handbag shape.Rest 20 minutes before baking
Lay them on a lined tray and leave for 20 minutes. Meanwhile heat the oven to 230°C. Stretching tightens the gluten; without this pause the rings shrink in the oven and lose the elongated shape that is the whole point.
Ingredients: 600 g strong bread flour · 400 ml water · 7 g dried yeast · 2 tbsp sugar · 2 tsp salt · 40 ml oil · 2 tbsp milk powder
Bake briefly in a very hot oven
Bake 18–20 minutes at 230°C, until the sesame is golden and the bread sounds hollow when tapped underneath. Serve warm with za'atar mixed with oil, or dry in a paper twist.
Ingredients: 4 tbsp za'atar · 3 tbsp olive oil
Before you start
There should be too much sesame
In Jerusalem kaak the sesame is not a topping but a layer — covering the surface so densely that the dough hardly shows. Two hundred grams for six looks absurd, but plenty of it stays on the tray anyway.
Za'atar is inseparable
Vendors in Jerusalem hand over kaak with a paper twist of za'atar, sometimes with a hard-boiled egg. The herb blend with sumac and sesame completes a bread that is fairly neutral in flavour on its own.
A day, then reheating
Kaak is best on the day it is baked. By the next it hardens — sprinkle it with water and give it 5 minutes in a 180°C oven and it turns soft inside again. Frozen it keeps a month.
