Khubzat al-Mallah

Khubzat al-mallah is an iconic desert bread, baked directly on hot sand or embers (sometimes buried in the sand), a symbol of Saudi cooking heritage and the Bedouin desert tradition. A simple whole-wheat dough is baked on the hot sand, which gives it a distinctive char-speckled crust and a smoky, earthy flavour. It is torn and eaten with ghee, dates or meat, and is the most primal bread of the Arabian desert, made by Bedouins on the move for centuries.

Char-speckled, smoky, dense and chewy, with a crisp crust from the sand and a soft, slightly sweet crumb, a faint earthy note. Torn and dipped in ghee with dates, it is primal, smoky and the bread of the open desert.

The dough is a simple whole-wheat flour, water and salt mix, sometimes with a little sugar and fennel, kneaded and rested. The hot sand (or embers) is the oven: the sand is heated by the fire, the dough is laid directly on it (or buried), and the bread bakes in the radiant heat, developing a char-speckled crust from the sand grains. The sand must be clean and very hot, or the bread does not cook through before the bottom burns.