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Kandil Simidi

A biscuit and not a bread despite the name — there is no yeast and it is meant to snap.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter).

Ingredients

Method

  1. IT IS A BISCUIT AND NOT A BREAD DESPITE THE NAME, and getting that wrong is the obvious trap. Simit means a sesame ring, and the simit on its own page here is a yeasted bread dipped in molasses. This has no yeast at all: it is flour, butter, sugar and egg with baking powder, mixed like a shortcrust, shaped into small rings and baked until it snaps. Approached as a bread -- proved, dipped, baked hot -- it fails completely. The two things share a shape and a name and nothing else.
  2. THE BUTTER IS CREAMED WITH THE SUGAR AND THE FLOUR GOES IN LAST. A biscuit method, not a bread one. Butter and sugar beaten pale, then the eggs, then the dry ingredients folded in just until it comes together. Kneaded like a bread dough it goes tough and the rings come out hard rather than short.
  3. THE MAHLAB IS WHAT MAKES IT TASTE LIKE THIS. Ground mahlab -- the kernel inside a wild cherry stone -- is faintly of almond and marzipan with a bitter edge, and a single teaspoon carries the whole batch. Left out, these are pleasant sesame biscuits that taste of nothing in particular.
  4. THE SESAME GOES ON WITH EGG WASH, ONE FACE ONLY. Each ring brushed on top and pressed face-down into a tray of seeds. Both faces loaded and the ring sits on sesame in the oven, which scorches underneath; one face gives an even golden-brown base and a crusted top.
  5. THEY ARE BAKED UNTIL DRY ALL THE WAY THROUGH AND COOLED HARD. Twenty minutes at 170°C, and they are soft when they come out -- the snap arrives as they cool. Judged by firmness in the oven they are always overbaked; judged by colour, pale gold, they are right.
  6. The butter and sugar beaten together until pale and creamy.
  7. The eggs beaten in one at a time, then the mahlab, mastic and salt.
  8. The flour and baking powder FOLDED IN just until it comes together. NOT kneaded.
  9. Covered and chilled 30 MINUTES.
  10. Rolled into 20 ropes about 20 cm long and each joined into a RING.
  11. Each ring brushed with beaten egg on the TOP FACE ONLY.
  12. Pressed face-down into a tray of sesame seeds, so one face is thickly loaded.
  13. Set sesame side UP on lined trays, well apart.
  14. Baked at 170°C for 18 to 20 MINUTES, until PALE GOLD. They will still be soft.
  15. COOLED COMPLETELY on a rack -- the snap comes with cooling.
  16. TESTED cold: it should SNAP cleanly. Any bend means longer next time.
  17. Keeps 2 weeks in a tin.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

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