For filmmaker Dana Schneider, visiting her family in Ramat Gan always included a Shabbat morning ritual of jachnun, a Yemenite bread that cooks overnight like cholent or hamin. It’s the overnight cooking and lots of butter layered into the dough that results in the caramelized pastry with crunchy edges and a chewy interior. Jachnun is customarily served with brown eggs, a herby Yemenite hot sauce called schug, and grated tomato, and Dana’s mom Amalia swears it tastes better when eaten with your hands. Dana’s grandmother, Malka, also served it with fried fish, which her husband Zion loved.
Dana learned how to apply the right pressure while shaping the dough by the clinking sounds her grandmother’s bracelets made. Since Malka’s passing last year, Dana has carried on the tradition, making jachnun while wearing those same bracelets.
The dough’s resting time is vital, so the gluten can relax and the dough will be soft and easy to work with. After shaping it in balls, let it rest for at least 2 hours in the fridge, but overnight is even better. Jachnun is traditionally baked in a tall aluminum pot, though any oven-safe, medium sized pot with a lid will work. Place it in the oven alongside a pot of eggs for slow cooking.
If you want to make your jachnun in advance, wrap each log in plastic wrap and freeze before baking. When ready to bake, remove the plastic, arrange them in the pot, and let them defrost in the refrigerator for 5-6 or hours before baking.
Read more about Dana's family in "How One Yemenite Granddaughter Is Embracing Her Heritage with Film and Jachnun."