Yemarina Yewotet Dabo (Ethiopian Honey Bread)

Culinary Cam
11 minutes ago
4 min read

We are coming to the end of the 2025 Alphabet Challenge, our second year of working our way through the alphabet with recipes. Only one more letter to go! We post every other week for the entire alphabet and this is year two. Thanks for starting this series, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm.

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Yemarina Yewotet Dabo

I was inspired by this recipe. It's a simple, delicious bread and I love that Ethiopia is the leading African country in the production of beeswax - and in the top 10 worldwide. This is a recipe a somewhat uncommon bread called Yemarina Yewotet Dabo. The three words mean: Yemar, honey; yewotet, milk; and dabo, bread in Amharic, one of the main languages of Ethiopia. As far as my honeys went, I used a local-to-me honey from Del Rey Oaks and, for serving, some honey that a friend gave me from her travels in Spain.

This is slightly adapted from the original recipes I found. I added more spices and reduced the butter. Also, just to clarify, the first rise was in a stainless bowl; the second rise - and the baking - was done in a stoneware bowl.

Ingredients

1 Tablespoon active, dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
2 Tablespoons honey + 1/2 cup (I used honey from a friend's hive)
1 egg, beaten
1 Tablespoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk, warmed
6 Tablespoons butter, softened
5-1/2 cups flour + more for kneading
oil (I used canola oil)
butter and honey for serving (I used a honey from Spain)

Procedure

Place warm water and 2 Tablespoons honey in a mixing bowl. Whisk to dissolve honey, then add the yeast and let bloom for 10 minutes. The mixture should be foamy.

Whisk the egg, 1/2 cup honey, spices, and salt together in a small bowl. Gently stir in the yeast mixture and then add the warm milk and butter.

Stir 2 cups flour into the mixture. Add flour 1/2 cup at a time while mixing with a wooden spoon. Adjust the flour: if you feel that the dough is wet and sticky, continue adding 1/2 cup flour until the dough is smooth. The dough will be scraggy.

Lightly flour the counter or work space and knead the dough until it is it is smooth and elastic, approximately 10 10 to 15 minutes.

Place in a lightly oiled stainless bowl and cover with a clean dish towel. Let it rise until doubled in size, approximately 60 to 90 minutes

Punch the dough down. Form the dough into a loaf or whatever shape you like. I simply place it in a stoneware baking bowl and covered it with a towel for a second rise, approximately 45 minutes

During the last 30 minutes of the rise, preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake at 325 for an hour until the bread is firm and nicely browned on the top.

Invert the bread onto wire rack or cutting board. Eat by itself or - as we chose to eat it - with butter and more honey.