Malawach

The dough traditionally takes three days to make, since it is a multi-stage process, and the dough must rest in between each phase.

According to Rabbi Gil Marks, a Jewish food historian,^[1][6] malawach is made from the same dough as jachnun, and both originated as a variation of puff pastry, brought to Yemen by Jews expelled from Spain.^{[citation needed]} It later became "ajin"^{[clarification needed]}, an enriched dough made by the Yemenite Jews.

Malawach was traditionally prepared at home by the women in the Yemenite Jewish community, and is made out of a laminated dough similar to puff pastry that has been enriched with either butter, Clarified butter, or margarine if pareve; creating a very flaky consistency with many layers, similar to a croissant. The dough is divided into balls, and is rolled out, and then commonly placed between wax paper and placed in the freezer. It is then fried in a small amount of oil from a frozen state, as if it is fried fresh, the butter or other fat will seep out of the dough, making it harder to work with and not flaky. Freezing the dough helps the butter or other fat remain in solid form once the malawach comes into contact with the hot oil, causing the creation of its signature flaky layers, and causing the bread to rise somewhat. Malawach is typically fried as one large flatbread, though sometimes it is fried in smaller pieces. It is served hot, traditionally with zhoug, resek, and hardboiled egg, although a variety of other pairings and dips are now popular as well such as honey, jam, labneh, shakshouka, baba ghanoush, matbucha, and muhammara, among others.^{[4][2][1][7][8]}