Half Hour Pull-Apart Chummus Basar Challah with Beer Caramelized Onions

Half an hour and perfect for a crowd! These soft bread rolls are filled with sweet beer-caramelized onions and brushed with rosemary olive oil. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, and they are the perfect dipping materials you need for….dumdumdum….chummus basar! 

*This recipe first appeared in the magazine Whisk by Ami Magazine. Cover photo by Malky and Yossi Levine(you can check out their website here.)

An Israeli staple, Chummus Basar is a dish of sautéed onion and chopped meat, served on a bed of hummus. It sits in the centre of the table to be shared. It’s heartbreakingly Middle Eastern. It is delicious. 

We are serving this Chummus Basar directly in the center of our challah. The challah is baked in a springform tube pan, which is a pan with a hollow centre and detachable sides. Normally used for cakes, this pan will keep our bread in the round shape we are going for, and make ample space in the center for the meat, while also making it easy to remove the bread. 

Once baked, you can fit a bowl in the hollow centre of the bread, or like me(who doesn’t have that perfect size bowl), simply place the challah on a serving plate, spread the centre with chummus, and fill with meat. 

The sautéed meat is tantalising and I had a real hard time stopping myself from eating while we were shooting this recipe! 

Let’s go through the process from the beginning.

First you will need a batch of Half Hour Honey and Olive Oil Challah. This is a special challah recipe- in that it doesn’t take a first rise, and only rests for 10 minutes before baking, getting you from scratch to ready-to-eat- bread in just 30 minutes. It’s quite genius if I may so myself.

While you proof the yeast for the dough, saute some onions in beer. These are DELICIOUS!!! They need a nice slow sautée so keep your eye on them while you make the bread. Once the dough is kneaded, continue here with the recipe.

Spray a tube pan with baking spray. Fill one bowl with sesame seeds, and another with rosemary olive oil. Divide the dough into 20 equal pieces. You can use a kitchen scale and be precise, or not. Press each piece down with the heel of your palm into a small disc shape. Fill the discs with caramelised onions. If they are super hot use a spoon!

Bring up the edges of the discs to meet in the centre and give it a pinch. They will look kind of like dumplings! Hold the pinched bit and dip the opposite sides into the sesame seeds. Half will get sesame. Place them evenly into the oiled tube pan, away from the centre(remember the bigger the center space the more meat you can fit!)

Place the remaining 10 pockets along the outer edge, in between each sesame pocket. Brush them with rosemary olive oil. Cover the pan with a kitchen towel and let these sit for 10 minutes.

get a tube pan like this HERE.

While they are resting preheat the oven. Bake them. Carefully remove the bread round(see how nicely it bakes?!) so golden! Place it on to a serving platter and now is when you will search your kitchen for that perfect size bowl or do what I did. Spread the chummus on to the serving plate and up the sides of the rolls in the center. Fill with meat. Sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley. Serve hot!

Hope you Love this awesome Challah! Tag your photos with @estee_bestie and follow along on Instagram!!

Half Hour Challah recipe here.

Half Hour Hummus Basar Challah with Beer Caramelised Onions

Estee

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Servings 2 rounds

Ingredients

  

• One batch of Half Hour Honey Olive Oil Challah RECIPE LINK IN ABOVE POST^
• Caramelized Onions:
• 1 1/2-2 Tbs olive oil
• 2 onions thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup beer
• 1/2 tsp Demerara sugar
• Topping for the rolls:
• sesame seeds for rolling
• 1 Tbs rosemary crushed
• drizzle of olive oil
• Egg wash:
• 1 medium egg
• 1 tsp Water
• Chummus Basar: for filling two rounds
• 1 pound or 1/2 kilo ground meat
• 1 Tbs Oil
• 1 Onion chopped
• 3-4 Garlic cloves minced
• 1 tsp Black pepper more to taste
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp Cumin optional
• 1/4 cup Parsley chopped
• One package of hummus

Instructions

 

Caramelise Onions and Arrange Challah

• To caramelise onions, heat up olive oil in a frying pan, and add the sliced onions. Saute until soft and golden. Add the beer and demerara sugar, and cook until the beer dissolves. Set aside to cool. At this point prepare the challah.
• Prepare a springform bundt pan or springform pan with a ball of aluminum foil in the center and spray it with cooking spray. I prefer the springform bundt pan because the center is widest and easier to fill with the hummus basar!
• Sprinkle your work surface with flour. Divide the challah dough into two. Cut each half into four pieces, and each of those into five pieces, so you have 20 small pieces(from each half of dough).
• Press each piece with the palm of your hand to flatten into a disc, and fill the inside with caramelised onions. Take the edges and bring them up to meet in the center to close the dough into a small parcel. Take half of the parcels and dip the smooth side down into a bowl of sesame seeds.
• Take the 10 parcels with seeds, and place them sesame seed side-up around the center of the pan, not touching the middle piece. (the more space you have in the center, the bigger size bowl you can fit!)
• Take the other 10 parcels and place them along the outer edge of the pan, each in the center of two with the sesame seeds. It might look like there’s a lot of empty space, but they will fill out when baking.
• Combine egg and water for egg wash and brush rolls lightly. Let rest for 10 minutes. While dough is resting, prepare filling.

Hummus Basar

• Heat up oil in a pan, add chopped onions and garlic, and fry until the onions turn translucent.
• Add the ground meat and spices, and cook until the meat is fully cooked through.
• Preheat oven to 392f/200c. Bake the challah rounds for 15-20 minutes(depending on your oven). Remove from the oven and mix together the rosemary and olive oil. Brush onto the rolls without the sesame seeds.

To Assemble:

• Remove the challah from the springform pan onto a serving plate.
• Find a bowl to fit the center of the challah(if you don’t have a bowl that fits, simply spread the hummus directly onto the serving plate and up the sides of the challah in the center). Fill the bowl about ⅓ way up with hummus, spreading it to reach the edges of the bowl. Fill the center with ground meat. Top with chopped fresh parsley.
• Serve hot and enjoy!

Keyword bread, challah, half hour challah