Ka'ak

Another lovely recipe from The Book of Buns.  This Ka'ak recipe was given to Jane Mason by a Syrian friend.  These buns are small and a nice little dipper to put on the table with a few nibbles: maybe olives, some hummus, and as Mandy suggested some taramasalata.

I had already mixed the dough, and it was rising when Mandy popped over for a lovely chat.  We sat in the garden, and after she told me about the lovely new lens for her really posh camera, I brought out my 'very little' new IXUS 275 HS, and took this zoomed picture of some miniature strawberries over six feet away, with it.

 I was already on 'oven alert', with the kitchen timer in the garden, as four loaves of Granary bread were baking.  When these were baked, we went back into the kitchen and had a good laugh as we shaped th Ka'aks...I tried one as a long bread stick, and we even thought more off piste, and may make noughts and crosses next time!

As they need no further proving, they go straight into the oven, and watching them rise, we could see straight away that longer thinner sausages curled over to make large holes were needed.  The first few came out not quite as the photograph in the book.  This is Mandy's little goodie bag to take home to have with her Friday night tipple...

To get the crunch and dryness we baked the batches for a little longer...and when Mr S came home, I saw there were one or two less, and a little trail of sesame seeds on the floor!  With the cumin, mahlab and ground anise they are a savoury but aromatic nibble.  We made 40...