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Each month, we feature one recipe we’d love for you to try out. We pick ones that are easy to follow, quick to make and inspire you with fresh ideas and clever combinations that broaden your culinary horizons and show off your cooking skills, at whatever level they are. After you have a go please send us your thoughts and pictures via @timeandleisure and we’ll make sure to share on our socials.

This month we’re making bread and turning to Lebanon for a special bake: holy bread (“qorban” in Arabic).This is the bread that was served at communion when I was growing up in Lebanon.  It’s a sweet bread bun, heavy with the scent of orange blossom and mastic.  We came across mastic in Sami Tamimi’s recipe for pistachio and lemon cookies in the July issue of this column.  For me, it’s come to mean comfort during troubled times so when I looked through Lebanese chef Hisham Assaad’s second cookbook Taboon, filled with tempting recipes for Lebanese bakes, it was this recipe that stood out.

Hisham writes in his introduction: “The experience of making food, making bread, is a humbling one.  Make this bread and savour every moment, enjoy it with those around you”.  If that’s not enough for you to be inspired to try this recipe out, then bear his next few words in mind: “In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients…” .  Hooray- everything goes in at once.  This bake as exotic as it sounds, is straightforward. I immediately set about making my own and hope that you will too. I list the lessons I learned making this recipe below in case they’re helpful to you.

ANGELA’S SUGGESTIONS:

1. My memory of this bread is on the sweet side and I think that sweetness helps the mastic flavour stand out more so I also added 100g of light brown sugar (also depends how you’re going to enjoy the qorban- I just like them plain or with a little butter. If you want to slather them with cream and jam then you won’t need the extra sugar).
2. If you can’t get your hands on mastic- swap it out for cinnamon. Of course you’ll get a whole other bread bun doing this but the joy of baking lies in going off piste every now and then- cinnamon is a natural sweetener and lends itself well to sweet bakes).
3. For the buns, I suggest that each dough ball is about 85g for an even bake.
4. Flatten the dough balls with your palm as they do puff up significantly.

Angela Zaher is a freelance writer based in London.  Her articles have been published in The Evening Standard, Delicious, Platinum, Good Housekeeping and Business Insider. Find her on Instagram @angela_zaher

Maronite Qorban

Maronite holy bread buns

MAKES 6 BUNS

Ingredients:

• 55 g (1⁄4 cup) white granulated sugar
• 4 pieces of mastic (total equivalent to size of 2 lentils)
• 500 g (31⁄3 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour, plus extra for dusting
• 1 teaspoon instant dried yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 250 ml (1 cup) water (or use an aniseed infusion with 1 tablespoon aniseeds)
• 2 tablespoons milk powder (or 50 ml/3 tablespoons full-fat milk)
• 60 ml (1⁄4 cup) orange blossom water, plus 1 tablespoon for brushing
• 2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
• 1 tablespoon rose water, for brushing

Method:

1. Pound the sugar and mastic together in a pestle and mortar until powdered.
2. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients, except the oil and flower waters for brushing. Knead until a dough comes together. Cover and set aside to rest and rise for about 30 minutes, or until doubled in size (this time will depend on the ambient temperature in your kitchen).
3. Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F/gas 6).
4. Scrape the dough from the sides of the bowl, turn out onto a floured surface and divide into 6 portions. Roll each portion into a ball, dust with flour and place on baking trays, leaving enough space for the dough to expand. Dust the tops with more flour, cover with a clean dish towel and leave to rise for 15 minutes.
5. Poke 5 holes in the middle of each bun with a wooden skewer, forming the shape that the number 5 does on dice.
6. Bake in the oven for 15–20 minutes until golden brown.
7. Mix the remaining orange blossom water with the rose water. As soon as the buns are removed from the oven, brush them with the flower waters. Remove from the tray and leave to cool on a wire rack or a dish towel. Store in a plastic bag or airtight container for up to 4 days, or freeze for up to 1 month.

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