Kahk Snow and Kahk Blobs
*names have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals
Elle* remembers Ramadan as a child in white clouds of powdered sugar – like snow. She watches her grandmother’s chef, fascinated by the deft movement of his hands – kneading, squeezing, shaping the soft kahk dough. Plumes of sugar and flour rise from the baking surface, and she is given a large pot to mix the dough in. The air is sweet with freshly baked biscuits, and hot with the heat of approaching summer. She blends the flour, sugar, yeast and ghee as well as she can until he tells her to stop. Although Elle can never tell the difference, somehow her grandmother’s chef always knows exactly when the dough is ready. Somewhere, in her grandmother’s kitchen, Umm Kulthum is playing on the radio.
Little Doaa* palms the kahk dough in her hands and balls it into a blob, giggling happily. Her tita watches her with a warm grin in her eyes as she places a mixture of nuts into her own kahk dough. With her fingers, tita gently presses the ball into a little wooden mold, forming a perfect round shape. Doaa watches as her cousins also create their own formless dough shapes. One looks like a snake. The other could perhaps pass as a deformed cat. It doesn’t matter. She can smell the fragrance of warm kahk baking in the oven and she is so happy. Happy to be with her cousins, with her misshapen kahk blob, with tita.
The Secret Ingredient
Our Executive Chef, (let’s call him Chef K.) is our pride and joy at Breadfast. Since Breadfast began in 2016, Chef K was the one who created all our bakery recipes from scratch, based on his passion for food, and decades of culinary experience. This is a story that he likes to tell us:
There are two couples living in Egypt. One couple is extremely wealthy, but the marriage is a disaster and the pair hate each other. In another part of the country lives an impoverished couple, but the husband and wife absolutely adore each other. He is her sunshine, and she, his moonlight.
One day, both husbands go out to buy their wives ingredients to make dinner. The rich husband buys the freshest, most expensive fish available in the market with choice herbs for seasoning. But when his wife serves the meal, the fish still tastes bland because the wife has no affection for her husband. On the other hand, the poor husband can only afford to bring home beans for his wife. Upon seeing her husband however, the poor wife is filled with love from him and prepares the beans from her heart, cooking the most delicious meal even from the simplest ingredients.
There is a sort of science, or art (as some may prefer to call it,) to Kahk making. It has to be the perfect balance of soft and firm, with a buttery sensation that melts on your tongue. But according to Chef K., the ultimate secret ingredient to any dish – even a simple dish made from beans – is love.
Love is what inspires us not to cut corners when we bake our products. Love for our Egyptian culture and heritage, is what drives us to bake with the best local Egyptian ingredients. Love, even for strangers, is what reminds us to give to others in need of our help. And finally, love for our family and friends is the secret ingredient that sprinkles homemade happiness into our kahk. Ramadan Kareem, Breadfast fam.
