With the holiday season approaching, I figured this is the perfect time to learn and adapt as many of my mom’s Egyptian recipes as possible. This is baking season after all! And what better way to reintroduce this beloved category then by my mom’s incredibly fluffy Egyptian Fayesh recipe!
For those of you who are not familiar with Fayesh, it is basically bread that’s baked, sliced, and then re-baked in order to turn them into hard tea rusks. Think of them as an Egyptian Biscotti. In Egypt, dried Fayesh is usually eaten during tea time (growing up, I remember my parents had tea about 3 times a day!!) Since the bread is so hard after it’s re-baked, many people like to actually dip it into their tea kind of like dipping your cookies in milk.
You’ll find a couple ingredients in this recipe that you might not be familiar with. You can USUALLY find these spices at your regular grocery store or any middle eastern supermarket. First there’s turmeric which is a root plant (in the same family as ginger). Ground Turmeric is actually pretty common in foods such as curry or mustard. In this recipe, we use a small amount to give the Fayesh its trademark yellow color. Next there’s mahlab which is a sweeter spice derived from cherry seeds. Again, we use a small amount to help bring out the sweet flavor of the bread.
Additional "Recipes from Mom" can be found on my website here
This recipe is very easy to make! But just like with any bread recipe, the most time-consuming part is waiting for the raw dough to rise before you can actually bake it. One thing to note is that this bread is so incredibly soft when it first comes out of the oven. It will be one of the best rolls you’ll ever taste. If you prefer the bread to remain soft, make sure you store it in an air-tight container at room temperature! Or if you want to go the traditional Egyptian route and turn the bread into hardened tea rusks, then you should slice the bread into long pieces and re-bake it.
I’ve outlined the full recipe for you down below and I am so excited to finally be sharing it with everyone! I love introducing new and uncommon recipes such as this one and I look forward to doing it more often in the months to come. After you’re done making this Fayesh, be sure to check out my mom’s famous and loved Egyptian Baklava recipe as well! Enjoy! 🍞 ☕️👩🏻👩🏻🍳
PREP TIME: 1 hour 30 minutes
BAKE TIME: 20-25 minutes
MAKES: 12 bread rolls
