Cardamom and Tea

gubta mtumarta stuffed monkey bread

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I have an MA in English literature and I taught poetry and composition for years, but I feel like I never fully, completely understood metaphor. Like, can something be a metaphor for itself? Maybe that’s more like synecdoche? That being said, I’m not sure this is going to be the most compelling thesis, but I’m gonna go ahead with it anyway: this recipe is kind of a metaphor for itself. On the surface, it looks like a food trend. Savory monkey bread is such a fun twist on a classic—there’s Molly Yeh’s za’atar monkey bread recipe from her fabulous book, and my friend Mai’s delicious recipe for halloumi-stuffed za’atar monkey bread, which inspired my recipe. But at its core, at its cheesy center, this recipe is actually all about my family history.

When my grandmother’s family would celebrate Easter on their farm in Syria, my great grandmother, Yemmah Sourma, would always stuff one of the samoon with a little bit of gubta mtumarta (Assyrian cheese that’s preserved by mixing it with caraway seeds and burying it in clay jars underground), and whichever of their four kids got the cheese-stuffed roll got a little special present. (Although, I think the real treat was probably that the winner got to eat the extra-delicious roll.)

As a millennial who grew up playing for softball teams that awarded trophies to all the kids, I think we all deserve a piece of cheese-stuffed bread (just another reason why millennials are actually secretly the coolest), so don’t worry, no one will be left disappointed here. Although… this certainly kills the suspense of “who’s going to get the cheesy roll?!,” which has its own appeal and history. If you’re looking for a compromise, maybe try leaving one piece empty. After all, a prize might be necessary to console the person who drew the short, cheeseless straw.

My friend Mai’s recipe is similarly generously laden with cheesy centers, and inspired by her childhood memories of eating za’atar and labneh sandwiches with friends at school. Food is such a representation of who we are and where we come from, even when it appears new, yet recognizable, in an unexpected way.

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gubta mtumarta stuffed monkey bread

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Ingredients

For the parsley oil:
2 large cloves garlic
1 small bunch parsley, washed and dried (reserve and chop a couple sprigs for garnish)
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
1/8 teaspoon black pepper

For the cheese filling:
2.5 ounces grated parmigiano reggiano (or another hard, salty cheese, like pecorino romano)
6 ounces grated fontina or fontinella
5 ounces manouri (or another soft, mild, crumbly cheese, like ricotta salata or a mild feta)
1 tablespoon caraway seeds

To stuff and bake:
2 pounds pizza dough
cheese filling (above)
parsley oil (above)
parsley for garnish (optional)

Instructions

  1. Make the parsley oil: In a food processor, finely mince the garlic. Then add the parsley and pulse a few times to coarsely chop. Add the olive oil, salt, and pepper, and blend until the parsley is finely minced and the oil is green. Set aside in a medium mixing bowl.
  2. Make the cheese filling: Use a fork to combine the cheeses and caraway seeds (you can mash them until they’re homogenous, or leave them chunky—you’re choice!). Be sure to break up the pieces of manouri/feta.
  3. Stuff and bake the bread: Divide and shape the pizza dough into 20 balls (lightly flour your work surface if the dough is too sticky).
  4. Flatten one of the balls and place 1 slightly heaping tablespoon cheese filling in the center. Seal it up by pinching the ends together. Place the stuffed dough ball in the mixing bowl full of parsley oil. Repeat with the remaining balls, occasionally carefully tossing them around in the oil to keep them from sticking together (pace yourself with the filling so you have enough).
  5. Place the parsley-oiled dough balls seam-side-up in a bundt pan (or another round baking pan). If there are a few drops of oil remaining in the bottom of the bowl, drizzle them over the bundt pan (or discard if you prefer).
  6. Preheat the oven to 350° F and let the bundt pan rest at room temperature for about 40 minutes before baking.
  7. Bake for about 40 minutes, until the bread is cooked through and golden brown on top.
  8. Let it cool in the pan for about 5 minutes before inverting onto a plate. Let it cool for at least 10 more minutes before garnishing with parsley and serving.

Notes

Feel free to make this easy dipping sauce to go with it:

jajik dipping sauce (optional)
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons chopped dill (or parsley if you prefer)
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 small clove garlic, crushed with a garlic press or finely minced

  • While the bread is baking, stir together the yogurt, dill, pepper, salt, olive oil, and garlic.

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chocolate chunk ghraybeh

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If you happen to have gone online or turned on a TV in the last few months, you probably already know about “The Cookies,” Alison Roman‘s delicious shortbread taking the world by storm. Homemade chocolate chip cookies with crispy edges and gooey centers will always be a favorite of mine, but there’s also something so wonderfully nostalgic about making these crunchy shortbread-style cookies at home.

The thing is, chocolate chunk shortbread remind me a little of the kind of chocolate chip cookies you eat from a sleeve, the ones that are programmed by food scientists to taste so delicious you can’t eat just one, the ones my mom used to pack for us in our school lunch boxes along with a PB&J sandwich. My mom is a fabulous cook who has always kind of hated baking, and so when it comes to childhood nostalgia, Chips Ahoy and Famous Amos tug at my heart strings a little harder than Nestlé Tollhouse. And that’s why, for me (and I’m guessing for many people who love them!), Roman’s cookies are magic.

But this post isn’t exactly about the cookies—it’s just about these cookies, my chocolate chunk ghraybeh, inspired by Alison Roman’s recipe. Ghraybeh is a Middle Eastern type of shortbread, made with clarified butter (AKA samneh in Arabic or ghee) instead of sweet cream butter. And since butter makes up so much of shortbread’s structure, this makes all the difference. With clarified butter, all of the water has been boiled off, and the milk solids have been separated out, leaving only butter fat, pure and simple. This means that, as long as you don’t introduce a bunch more water in your cookie dough, shortbread that’s made with clarified butter have a melt-in-your-mouth factor that’s off the charts.

Developing a recipe for ghraybeh that truly tastes like chocolate chip cookies presented a few puzzles, because I didn’t want to just make a batch of ghraybeh that happened to have chocolate chunks in them.

The most important puzzle is that ghraybeh absolutely must be made with powdered sugar, because there is no water present to dissolve grains of sugar as they bake. That means that you can’t use brown sugar, which is a real problem when you want something to taste like chocolate chip cookies. I might even argue that the brown sugar is a more essential ingredient to their iconic flavor than the chocolate chips. I mean, they’re obviously both important, but seriously, if you had to choose between a sugar cookie with chocolate chips in it, or a chipless chocolate chip cookie, which would you rather eat?? If you don’t say the latter, you should really spend some time reflecting on your life and your priorities.

So I solved the powdered sugar problem by adding a little bit of molasses to the dough, which adds the flavor of brown sugar, without any of the graininess. It’s important, however, not to add too much molasses, which could change the texture of the cookies and make them less melty by introducing moisture to the flour. But I found that exactly 1 1/2 teaspoons adds just the right amount of flavor, without sacrificing texture. And since vanilla extract is about 33% alcohol, a measly 1/2 teaspoon also won’t make much of a difference. So we’re good on moisture content, or lack thereof.

Salted butter, a key component of Roman’s cookies, is the second puzzle I encountered while adapting my recipe to hers. When clarifying butter, the salts rise and sink with the milk solids. So I opted for adding salt to the dough instead, which has the same overall effect, and ensures consistent batches.

Finally, I ran into a slight problem slicing through before baking. Ghraybeh are incredibly delicate cookies, and so introducing chocolate chunks into the dough is like… throwing a bunch of chocolate chunk shaped wrenches in the works. But I have found an easy solution, which doesn’t mess with the ghraybeh’s integrity. First, chop your chocolate into small bits, not big chunks. Second, don’t chill the dough too little or too much before slicing. Too much and the chocolate gets chalky and difficult to chop through, but too little and the dough is too soft and crumbly. I found that exactly 45 minutes in the refrigerator does the trick. Third, even if you didn’t listen to my advice, and left your chocolate in big chunks, and refrigerated the heck out of it, all you need to do is just decisively! whack! through! the dough!

I prefer these cookies with decent-sized chocolate chunks (as you can see from the photos), and so I use this technique whenever I make them. Simply place the knife right above the log, and really whack down as fast as you can with your sharpest, heaviest knife (keep your non dominant hand behind your back for this). If you saw back and forth in a careful little mincing motion, your cookie dough will crumble apart. Instead, whack at them like you’re Julia Child having a bad day, and they’ll be just fine.

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chocolate chunk ghraybeh

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  • Prep Time: 45 minutes
  • Total Time: 4 hours 30 minutes
  • Yield: about 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients

To clarify the butter:

  • 227 grams (8 ounces / 2 sticks) unsalted butter*

To bake the cookies:

  • 180 grams clarified butter, at room temperature**
  • 125 grams powdered sugar (about 3/4 cup)
  • 3.5 grams salt (1/2 teaspoon)
  • 12 grams molasses (1 1/2 teaspoons)
  • 3 grams vanilla extract (1/2 teaspoon)
  • 305 grams sifted all purpose flour (about 2 1/2 to 3 sifted cups)***
  • 105 grams chocolate, chopped (don’t leave any large chunks)****
  • Flaky sea salt, for sprinkling

Instructions

  1. To clarify the butter: Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Once the butter has completely melted, reduce the heat to medium-low and continue to simmer. Keep an eye on the temperature and adjust it as necessary, so that the butter solids don’t brown, and so that it doesn’t boil out of control. Within the first couple minutes, the white solids will separate from the yellow liquid (they will float to the top, and then some of them will sink to the bottom).
  2. Remove from heat as soon as the simmering has quieted down a bit, but before it goes silent—this should take about 7 minutes. Use a spoon to carefully skim off any curdled solids from the surface, and then slowly pour the liquid into a measuring cup, leaving behind any of the solids left at the bottom of the pot.
  3. Leave the butter at cool room temperature until it solidifies a bit (although it may still be runny). You can also give it a head start by placing it in the refrigerator for about 30-45 minutes, and then at room temperature.
  4. To bake the cookies: In the bowl of a stand mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter with a paddle attachment for about 1 minute, until the butter becomes a little fluffier. Add the powdered sugar, salt, molasses, and vanilla, and continue to beat for about 3 minutes, until it’s light and fluffy.
  5. Add the flour and mix. Once there are a few dry flour spots, add the chocolate chunks and continue mixing until you can form the dough into a ball.
  6. Move the dough to a long sheet of wax paper, shape it roughly into a log, fold the wax paper over, and use an offset spatula or cutting board to apply pressure over the part where the two sheets of wax meet. Use this pressure to shape it into a round or rectangular log and place it in the refrigerator to solidify for 45 minutes. (Forming it into 2 separate logs will make this easier, if you’re having any trouble).
  7. Once the log is solid enough to hold its shape, slice off pieces that are between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick, and place on parchment-lined baking sheets with some space between them (see above photo). Sprinkle with a little sea salt (gentry press it into the dough just a tiny bit).
  8. Preheat the oven to 325° F, and let the sliced cookies come to room temperature while you wait on the oven to preheat (this prevents cracks).
  9. Bake for about 25 minutes, before they start turning golden-brown. Cool on the parchment for about 10 minute before enjoying.

Notes

* I use European butter (because it’s most easily available where I live), which has less water. If you’re using American-style butter, use an additional 2 tablespoons, because yours might end up reducing more in volume.

** The melted clarified butter is 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons volumetrically, in case you don’t have a scale.

*** If you weigh all your ingredients, you shouldn’t have any issues, but measuring with cups is less exact, so you need to be a bit more cautious if you don’t have a scale. Be sure to sift the flour before measuring 2 1/2 cups (I sift directly into the measuring cup with a flexible cutting board underneath to catch the spillover), and be sure to measure level cups by sweeping the tops with a straight edge (not packing it in). Too much flour will make the dough unable to stick together.

**** If you didn’t chop your chocolate chunks finely enough, it will be difficult to slice through the dough because it will start to crumble apart. If the first slice seems like it’s crumbling apart, have no fear—read the note above the recipe for troubleshooting.

***** A perfect ghraybeh dough will seem crumbly when you mix it together, but it will stick together into a ball when compressed in your hand. If you measure everything by weight, you won’t have an issue, but if you do have an issue, don’t sweat it: if the dough won’t stick together, simply add an additional tablespoon of softened butter and work everything together, adding another one if it really needs it.

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