I love this bread. It is wonderfully fragrant. Ambasha is a spiced bread baked in Ethiopia. It comes in a number of variations. Some are a barely sweet, like this one. Others add Fenugreek, Pepper, Cayenne, and even Garlic to them. They are usually baked, but sometimes even fried. It is frequently served at festive occasions. You can enjoy it as part of an Ethiopian meal, or just on its own.
Traditionally it is not usually enriched as much as this recipe, but I had to make modifications to make it both a handle-able dough, and gluten free.
Ingredients
- 3/4 C Greek yogurt
- 1/3 C Warm milk
- 3 Tbs Oil
- 3 Tbs Honey
- 1 Tbs rapid rise Yeast
- 1 Rounded tsp Baking Powder
- 2 Eggs
- 1/2 tsp GF Dough Enhancer
- 1 slightly rounded Tbs Ground Coriander
- 2/3 tsp ground Cardamom
- 1/4 tsp ground Ginger
- 1/8 tsp Cinnamon
- 2-3 Cloves, ground
- 1/2 tsp salt
- ~ 2 1/2 C GF Bread Flour
- I used the New French Bread Flour Mix from Betty Hagman’s Gluten Free Gourmet Bakes Bread
- (3.5 C Rice Flour; 2.5 C Tapioca Starch; 2 Tbs Xanthan Gum; 2 Tbs Egg Replacer; 2 Tbs Sugar)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425F.
- Combine 2 cups of the flour mix, dry ingredients, and spices in a bowl and whisk together.
- Add the yogurt, milk, oil, eggs, & honey to the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Start mixer, and slowly add the dry ingredients. Beat on medium speed until smooth. Slowly add the additional flour until you get a soft dough.
- Heavily flour a board/counter with rice flour, carefully turn the dough out on the board and form a ball, smoothing the top as much as possible. Put baking parchment on a baking tray and place the ball of dough on it.
- Pat it out into a round disk about 1/2 inch thick.
- Spray the dough with cooking spray and allow to rise about 20 minutes.
- Beat an egg yolk with a few drops of water, and brush the top of the bread with it.
- Allow to rise an additional 10 minutes.
- Make shallow slashes in the bread with a razor, in an 8-pointed design like a snowflake.
- Bake for about 15 minutes.
- Allow cool 15 minutes and enjoy with butter!
Uncompromising Flavors 