When I first did this recipe, I was expecting a really spectacularly spicy flavored bread or bun.  Not so much.  There are no spices to speak, of just nuts.  I think the naming (spiced)  is a bit of a misnomer.   I would have said nut bread myself but here you have it.  A wonderful flavorful bun if not exactly spicy just nutty.

Khubz al-Abazir

(Spiced Bread)

Translation:

Take good flour and put a third of a pound of sesame oil on every pound, and an ounce of sesame seeds and a handful of pistachios and almonds, and kneed it. And when it has risen, bake it in the bread oven in round buns, the thickness of the buns is two fingers.  When they brown and are done, take them and eat them with halwa.

Rodinson, pp. 431

Ingredients:

3 cups flour                  ½ cup sesame oil          1/3 cup water    1 tsp yeast

2 Tbs ea sesame seeds, almonds, pistachios

My Redaction:

I believe the term “spiced bread” may be a misnomer as there is no spicing in the bread other then sesame oil with seeds and nuts.

When making this, I combined the flour and oil together then water and yeast.  I have made these with just flour and sesame oil, the oil overwhelms any flavor of the nuts; hence the cutting of sesame oil by half.  The water is necessary to compensate for lack of oil.  The yeast is not directly mentioned but it is referred to as commented in the translation as  “…when it has risen…”.  Most kitchens do not have enough wild yeast to elicit this type of rising with out help from yeast.

Once the dough was mixed together, I added the nuts.  The original did not mention if the almonds or pistachios were chopped so I kept them whole.   The dough was allowed to rise for an hour then formed into thick “patties” about a finger’s width in height.

When cooked the buns rose to about 2 finger widths in height.

These buns are a great delivery for flavor of just about anything sweet or even savory.  (I tried these with a home made spaghetti sauce the other night too!).

These buns are excellent with plum jam or halwa paste.