Himbasha is an Eritrean and Ethiopian round flat bread that is tender-soft and slightly sweet. It’s decorated by cutting designs into the top of the dough, usually a spoked wheel with patterns inside each wedge, making it ideal for pulling apart and sharing. Himbasha is often baked for special occasions and holidays like Christmas, and breaking this bread over a child on their first birthday is considered a blessing for strength and prosperity.
This dough is usually leavened with yeast and enriched with oil and sugar. From one baker to another, there is a lot of variation on which, if any, of the following dough inclusions are used: orange/lemon zest, nigella seeds, black sesame seeds, raisins, ground cardamom, cinnamon, and ginger. One source noted that raisins are more common in Eritrea. A few recipes use baking powder in addition to commercial yeast, perhaps for extra airiness. In recipe translations, black sesame seeds and nigella seeds are sometimes simply called black seeds, so it can be difficult to know which is being used. But both are grown in this region of East Africa and I could see both being used in videos I watched. If you want a bitter-sweet combo, use nigella seeds, and for less flavor contrast, use black sesame seeds.
For this Himbasha recipe, I used orange zest and black sesame seeds — and I tried sourdough leavening instead of yeast. However, if you prefer a faster process and no tang of sourness to the bread, you can skip the sweet stiff levain and use 1-2 tsp yeast instead. Check out the article, Sourdough Starter and Maillard Reaction in Enriched Doughs for a deep dive into the reasons for using a sweet stiff levain. The oil and sugar in this dough slow the fermentation quite a bit, so in either leavening choice, make sure to watch the dough and not the clock.
Himbasha is often cooked on a circular griddle — the same appliance used to cook the fermented teff flatbread injera — called a mitad in Amharic and mogogo in Tigrinya. Himbasha can also be cooked in a wide flat pan on the stove or baked in the oven. In the videos I watched where a griddle or stove was used, the bread is flipped halfway through using a woven grass circle, a “pizza peel” of sorts. This made for a toasted surface on both sides of the bread. I have a couple of pizza peels in my kitchen but to make the recipe more accessible to people who don’t have a peel, I tested a 1-minute broil at the end of the bake, and this worked to achieve a toasty top to the bread.
Here’s a video that shows some pattern ideas, the mitad, and the woven peel.
Sourdough Himbasha (Yeast Option)
Himbasha is a soft, slightly sweet Eritrean and Ethiopian flat bread with cut designs on its surface. Also written as Ambasha and H’mbasha, this bread can simply be enriched with oil and sugar, or it can feature inclusions like citrus zest, nigella or sesame seeds, spices, and raisins. Enjoy Himbasha with coffee or tea, plain or paired with cheese or marmalade.
Ingredients
If possible, use the weight measurements rather than volume.
See the notes for yeast conversion information.
Sweet Stiff Levain
- 40 grams sourdough starter (scant 1/4 cup)
- 40 grams flour (1/3 cup)
- 20 grams water (1 1/2 Tbsp)
- 16 grams sugar (1 Tbsp)
Final Dough
- 375 grams all purpose flour or bread flour (3 cups)
- 150-200 grams warm water (2/3 – 7/8 cup)
- All of the sweet stiff levain
- 50 grams sugar (1/4 cup)
- 36 grams oil (3 Tbsp)
- 6 grams salt (1 tsp)
- 6 grams black sesame seeds (1 1/2 tsp)
- zest of one orange (~1 Tbsp, 6 grams)
- optional 1/2 tsp ground cardamom, cinnamon, or ginger (1.3 grams)
- optional 60 grams raisins (1/3 cup, rounded)
Baker’s Percentages Sweet Stiff Levain (Overall Ingredients)
- 100% flour
- 66% water
- 28% sugar
Baker’s Percentages Final Dough
- 100% flour
- 48% water
- 31% sweet stiff levain
- 13% sugar
- 10% oil
- 1.6% salt
- 1.6% sesame seeds
- ~1.6% orange zest
- optional 0.34% ground cardamom, cinnamon, or ginger
- optional 16% raisins
Instructions
- In a cold kitchen, my sweet stiff levain needed 6 hours to double. I would have liked to see it triple in size but it had stalled so I used it at double. My final dough then took quite some time to rise, likely because of the combination of the levain strength, the oil and sugar in the dough, and my cold kitchen. This actually worked well for an overnight rise of 13 hours. In a warm kitchen or a proofing box, this rise might have only been 5-8 hours. The final proof of my dough, again cold kitchen, was 3 hours.
Sweet Stiff Levain
- Combine the ingredients for the levain in a small bowl and mix thoroughly. Tranfer to a small jar, pressing the levain flat with a spatula. Cover and mark the level on the jar.
- Place the levain somewhere warm if possible and let it expand to at least double in size. This can take 4-8 hours depending on the ambient temperature.
Dough Mixing and First Rise
- By hand or with a stand mixer, mix together all of the dough ingredients, using the smaller end of the water range and adding more only as needed. Mix or knead until you have a smooth, supple dough.
- Cover and let the dough rise until it is double in size. In a cold winter kitchen ~65°F, my dough needed 13 hours. In some of the videos I watched, the bakers only gave the dough one rise.
Shaping and Final Proof
- For your baking surface, you want space for a himbasha that is 10-12″ diameter — and it is easier to make cuts in the dough when there is no lip on the baking sheet. Some options are to use an inverted baking sheet or use parchment paper under the dough, allowing you to slide the dough onto a flat surface for the cutting stage. Otherwise you can simply oil your baking sheet.
- Carefully scoop the dough out of the bowl onto the baking sheet and press it into a circle. If the dough resists stretching, cover it for a few minutes and let the gluten relax.
- Once the dough is 10-12 inches in diameter, lightly oil the top and cover it (invert another pan or lay plastic wrap over it) and let it rise for 1-3 hours. It should puff up a bit during this time.
Decorating and Baking
- Preheat your oven to 350°F.
- Using a knife, cut across the dough in a pattern like spokes on a wheel and then make additional cuts within each wedge in whatever design you like. You can also use a glass to stamp rings or a fork to prick dots.
- Bake the bread for 25-30 minutes. If the top of the bread is not a toasty brown by the end of the bake, switch to the broil setting for 1 minute. Keep your eyes on the dough the entire time it is broiling. Or if you have a peel and want to flip the dough, do this about halfway through the bake.
- Serve the bread warm if possible. On subsequent days, the bread can be warmed in a toaster oven or microwave.
Notes
To use instant or active yeast in this recipe, simply skip the sweet stiff levain. Your dough will be 116 grams smaller but this isn’t a problem. Hydration will be similar and the absence of 16 grams sugar will be offset by the lack of sourness in a yeast bread. Expect the first rise to be 1-3 hours if you use 1-2 tsp yeast and your kitchen is warm. The final proof should be 30-90 minutes, again in a warm kitchen.
