Ethiopian 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.

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.

Recipe card

Ethiopian Bread | Himbasha , Ambasha , H'mbasha | Traditional Ethiopian / Eritrean Celebration Bread

Kushi

Ethiopian bread is a sweet and savory vegan bread, packed with a delicate aroma of ground ginger and cardamom. It pairs really well with a hot chai-tea latte or cup of coffee.

One of the best bread recipes that can be prepared during Christmas, Holiday season, Thanksgiving, or any special occasion or celebration.

4.98 from 39 votes

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Rest Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Course Breakfast, Side Dish, Snack

Cuisine Eritrean, Ethiopian

Servings 2 skillet bread (10-inch diameter)

Calories 449 kcal

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• ▢ 2 ¼ teaspoon Active dry yeast 1 packet
• ▢ 1 cup Water warm
• ▢ ¼ cup Sugar plus an additional 1 tsp
• ▢ 1 teaspoon Salt
• ▢ 1 teaspoon Dry ginger powder
• ▢ 1 teaspoon Cardamom powder
• ▢ 2 ¾ cup to 3 cups All purpose flour
• ▢ ¼ cup Semolina optional, check tips
• ▢ Butter or Olive oil -  to brush, grease the pan and coat the dough.

Instructions

 

Step I

• In a large bowl, add warm water and 1 teaspoon of sugar. Sprinkle yeast.
  1 cup Water, ¼ cup Sugar, 2 ¼ teaspoon Active dry yeast
• Cover it and leave it undisturbed for 10 minutes. Let the yeast activate.

Step II

• To the yeast mixture, add ¼ cup sugar, salt, ground cardamom, ginger, flour and semolina and mix to form this dough.
  ¼ cup Sugar, 1 teaspoon Salt, 1 teaspoon Dry ginger powder, 1 teaspoon Cardamom powder, 2 ¾ cup to 3 cups All purpose flour, ¼ cup Semolina
• 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.
  Butter

Step III

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Divide the dough into two equal portions. Roll it to the size of your skillet pan or two circles of 10-inch diameter.
• 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.
• Brush with generous amount of butter or oil.
  Butter
• 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.

Notes

• You can also add in ¼ 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  ¼ cup of semolina thus 2 ¾ 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.

Nutrition

Calories: 449kcalCarbohydrates: 95gProtein: 15gFat: 2gSaturated Fat: 0.3gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.4gMonounsaturated Fat: 1gSodium: 1178mgPotassium: 260mgFiber: 7gSugar: 25gVitamin A: 2IUVitamin C: 0.3mgCalcium: 26mgIron: 4mg

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

If you like this Ethiopian bread,

Don't miss to check out Vienna bread which garnered more than a million page views, and 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 ¼ tsp)
Warm water - 1 cup
Sugar - ¼ cup + 1 tsp
Salt - 1 tsp
Ground dry ginger powder - 1 tsp
Ground cardamom - 1 tsp
All purpose flour - 2 ¾ cup to 3 cups
Semolina - ¼ 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 teaspoon 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 a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in size.

Step III

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Divide the dough into two equal portions. Roll it to the size of your skillet pan or two circles of 10 " diameter and place it on the 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 a 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 ¼ cup of butter or olive oil to the dough if desired to make it richer. I have tried adding oil and it tastes good too.
• I have added  ¼ cup of semolina thus 2 ¾ cup of flour was sufficient. If you skip semolina, adjust the 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 and ginger.
• I have used this pan only for presentation. Please use an oven-safe dish or cast iron pan for baking.