Ethiopian bread is a sweet and savory vegan bread, packed with delicate aroma of ground ginger and cardamom. It pairs really well with hot chai-tea latte or cup of coffee.
As you all know, I love baking breads and I post a bread recipe every Wednesday. Today, I am presenting my take on the traditional Ethiopian bread, also known as Himbasha or Ambasha – Ethiopian / Eritrean Celebration Bread. I learnt about this bread while reading an article on popular breads from across the world.
What is Ethiopian bread made of ?
The two unique ingredients that go into its making are cardamom powder (ground cardamom seeds) and dry ginger powder. My husband loves the flavor of cardamom in desserts, and ginger is his all time favorite ingredient. His love for ginger is so much that I maintain fresh stock of dry ginger root, dry ginger powder, fresh ginger root, ginger flavored sugar crystals, homemade ginger-pepper throat drops (only to name a few) in my pantry.
He starts his day with a tall glass of freshly squeezed lemon juice with grated ginger, and almost always ends his day with hot ginger tea. Therefore, I knew deep within that he would be thrilled if I prepared this bread that calls for two of his favorite ingredients! I gave it a shot, and surprised him by the time he was back from the office. He not only loved it, he gobbled up an entire skillet-sized bread in no time.
The recipe calls for very basic ingredients from your kitchen. So making the dough is super easy. You can get as creative as you can as far as decorating this bread goes. I am not a good artist, but I tried my level best to score patterns into this bread as per the traditional recipe 🙂 You can also check more details about this bread on Wikipedia (Himbasha). If you guys try this bread do share your pictures and variations.
Detailed recipe for Ethiopian Bread – traditional Ethiopian bread, also known as Himbasha or Ambasha – Ethiopian / Eritrean Celebration Bread.
Ethiopian bread is a sweet and savory vegan bread, packed with delicate aroma of ground ginger and cardamom. It pairs really well with hot chai-tea latte or cup of coffee.
One of the best bread recipe that can be prepared during Christmas, Holiday season, thanksgiving or any special occasion or celebration.
- 2 1/4 tsp Active dry yeast (1 packet)
- 1 cup Warm water
- 1/4 cup + 1 tsp Sugar
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Ground dry ginger powder
- 1 tsp Ground cardamom
- 2 3/4 cup to 3 cups All purpose flour
- 1/4 cup Semolina (optional) (check tips)
- Butter or Olive oil - to brush, grease the pan and coat the dough.
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In a large bowl, add warm water and 1 tsp of sugar. Sprinkle yeast.
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Cover it and leave it undisturbed for 10 minutes. Let the yeast activate.
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To the yeast mixture, add sugar, salt, ground cardamom, ginger, flour and semolina and mix to form this dough.
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Dust the working surface. Transfer the dough and knead it for at least 5 minutes to form a soft and smooth dough.
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Coat the bowl with oil. Place the dough. Cover and keep it in warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
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Preheat the oven to 350 degree F.
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Divide the dough into two equal portions. Roll it to the size of your skillet pan or two circle of 10 ” diameter.
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Place the rolled dough onto the two greased skillet pans or greased baking pan. Using a knife or a blade, score 3 to 4 cuts across the rolled dough intersecting through the center. Then draw concentric circles to form a wheel pattern.
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Brush with generous amount of butter or oil.
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Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or until it is golden in color.
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Ethiopian Bread is now ready. Serve with additional butter if desired and enjoy.
- You can also add in 1/4 cup of butter or olive oil to the dough if desired to make it more rich. I have tried adding oil and it tastes good too. In this case amount of flour needed may slightly vary.
- I have added 1/4 cup of semolina thus 2 3/4 cup of flour was sufficient. If you skip semolina adjust flour accordingly. I have added semolina mainly for texture.
- Again the amount of flour may vary depending on the weather conditions and the brand of flour used.
- This is a light version of bread. If you like the strong flavors then vary the amount of cardamom, ginger.
- I have used this pan only for presentation. Please use oven safe dish or cast iron pan for baking.
If you like this ethiopian bread,
Don’t miss to check out Vienna bread that garnered more than a million page views, other delicious bread and flatbread recipes
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Preparation time : 1 hour 30 minutes
Serves : 2 small skillet breads (10″ diameter)
Ingredients for Ethiopian Bread
Active dry yeast – 1 packet ( 2 1/4 tsp)
Warm water – 1 cup
Sugar – 1/4 cup + 1 tsp
Salt – 1 tsp
Ground dry ginger powder – 1 tsp
Ground cardamom – 1 tsp
All purpose flour – 2 3/4 cup to 3 cups
Semolina – 1/4 cup (optional), for more details check the tip section.
Butter / Vegetable oil / Olive oil – to brush, grease the pan and coat the dough.
Steps to prepare Ethiopian Bread
Step I
- In a large bowl, add warm water and 1 tsp of sugar. Sprinkle yeast.
- Cover it and leave it undisturbed for 10 minutes. Let the yeast activate.
Step II
- To the yeast mixture, add sugar, salt, ground cardamom, ginger, flour and semolina and mix to form this dough.
- Dust the working surface. Transfer the dough and knead it for at least 5 minutes to form a soft and smooth dough.
- Coat the bowl with oil. Place the dough. Cover and keep it in warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
Step III
- Preheat the oven to 350 degree F.
- Divide the dough into two equal portions. Roll it to the size of your skillet pan or two circle of 10 ” diameter and place it on baking pan.
- Place the rolled dough onto the two greased skillet pans. Using a knife or a blade, score 3 to 4 cuts across the rolled dough intersecting through the center. Then draw concentric circles to form a wheel pattern.
- Brush with generous amount of butter or oil.
- Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or until it is golden in color.
- Ethiopian Bread is now ready. Serve with additional butter if desired and enjoy.
Tips to make Ethiopian bread:
- You can also add in 1/4 cup of butter or olive oil to the dough if desired to make it more rich. I have tried adding oil and it tastes good too.
- I have added 1/4 cup of semolina thus 2 3/4 cup of flour was sufficient. If you skip semolina adjust flour accordingly. I have added semolina mainly for texture.
- Again the amount of flour may vary depending on the weather conditions and the brand of flour used.
- This is a light version of bread. If you like the strong flavors then vary the amount of cardamom, ginger.
- I have used this pan only for presentation. Please use oven safe dish or cast iron pan for baking.
I think this bread looks amazing. I love cardamom and ginger combination, one of my favorites two. I think that you decorated the bread beautifully.
Thank you so much Dawn 🙂
Interesting! I eat Ethiopian every so often and this bread is never offered. It’s typically Injera.
Yes. It was something new even for me 🙂
This type of Ethiopian bread is traditionally served at a celebration. So it would not be common to find at an Ethiopian restaurant. The typical bread they eat daily and is served with their food is injera. It is a sourdough like taste and is flat like a pancake. All of it is so good!
Interesting !! Ginger and Cardamom flavors are a rare match
Thank you Megha 🙂
I love this bread recipe and that cute pan as well.:).. I missed so many post of yours and after publishing this comment , I will start crawling you recipes and interesting posts ….:) hope you don’t mind ;p 😉
Thank you so much Priya 🙂
Love the beautiful spices in this bread! Definitely a winner!
Thank you dear 🙂
What can I say except another sensationally baked bread.
Thank you Nava 🙂
I love baking bread, but I’ve never come across Ethiopian Bread before. It sounds delicious, Kushi…especially with that ginger and cardamom in there. Thanks for sharing!!
Thank you so much David 🙂
You’re killing me today with your Ethiopian Bread. It will be great if we have this bread along with hot chai.
Thank you Puja 🙂
I love baking bread, but I have never had this Ethiopian bread before, but looking at the ingredients I know I am gonna love this.
Thank you Anu 🙂
Ginger and cardamon! This sounds so delicious!
Thank you Kathy 🙂
I think iam seeing ethiopian bread for the first time. Thanks for the recipe
Thank you Smitha 🙂
Love the spices in this beautifully golden bread!
Thank you Angie 🙂
The bread looks super soft and fluffy and I like the ginger and cardamom flavors..
Thank you Hema 🙂
I love cardamom in baked goods, so I know that I would love this bread. So nice of you to bake this for your husband.
Thank you Cheri 🙂
This bread looks beautiful; you did a wonderful job and I’m so glad it’s as tasty as it looks. It’s great to learn about Ethiopian bread as well. I want to try this!
Thank you Monica 🙂
There is an Ethiopian restaurant close to my house and I just love there food, especially the injera which is similar to our dosa, but newer had/saw this bread there.
Kushi your bread looks perfect, loved the addition of ginger and cardamom powder
That sounds interesting. I will try that soon Thank you Rahul 🙂
Gorgeous bread Kushi! Interesting flavors and I’ll have to try this at home so I can see what it tastes like. Bet it’s great for breakfast with your chai tea recommendation. So funny about your Husband’s love of ginger too! 🙂
Thank you Karrie. Do let me know how it turned out 🙂
I’m really interested in this, I’m not sure how it could be both sweet and savoury at the same time so I really wanna give it a go! Would you recommend using the semolina, if given a choice?
I have added one fourth semolina in my recipe. Thank you so much. Do let me know how it turned out.
Looks delicious Kushi 🙂
Thank you dear 🙂
Cardamom AND ginger!! I am so making this!!
Thank you Jacquee 🙂
The bread looks sooooo soft and fluffy. Love the beautiful spices in this bread! Excellent share dear kushi.??
Thank you Deeepa 🙂
Ginger loaded pantry kya? I so wish I can regularly drink the lemon juice with honey and ginger in the morning. Between bread looks so soft and love the texture. Bookmarking it kushi.
oh yes. anytime. Thank you Sri 🙂
Thank you for sharing this, I have been looking for something simple to introduce more spice into our house. I am going to try this tonight. So excited!
Thank you Cara 🙂 Do let me know how it turned out.
Oh my!! It looks so good! Never had Ethiopian bread. Gotta try it!
Thank you Nena 🙂
Looks so good and not too hard to make. I’ll have to try my hand at it!
Thank you Sarah 🙂
Looks so tasty, definitely will try to make it 🙂
Thank you Jelena 🙂
Hello Kushi! My husband suggest my to prepare this bread… it looks very good!! The recipe seems quite easy, doesn’t it?
I never eat the ethiopian bread, but I would taste it! I rather use the ginger and the cardamom in my dishes, I usually often mede Mediterranean spices like basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary and sage.
Thanks for your recipe, I like so much your blog and your english! It’s quite easy to understand: I’m a italian girl, I’m trying to learn english and read your recipe is a good work for me 😛
Now, I’m going to follow you on your different social!
Have a nice day than!
Alice
It’s so sweet of you. Thank you so much. Do let me know how this turn out 🙂 Have a great weekend.
The bread looks so lovely! Do you have to give the dough proofing time like for other breads?
Yeah! I took 1 hour time for resting before baking it! Thank you so much for the comment. Do let me know how it turned out!
This bread sounds new & interesting recipe for me..no doubt bread looks amazing & super soft and you have such a big list of ginger varities in your pantry, that’s wow really..amazing share dear Kushi ?
Thank you Jolly 🙂
Looks delicious, very nice.
Thank you Swati 🙂