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Rooti Farmaajo (Honeycomb Cheese Bread)
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- Total Time
- 2 hours
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- ⅔cup/160 milliliters warm whole milk, plus more for egg wash
- 2teaspoons/6 grams active dry yeast
- 1teaspoon plus 2 tablespoons cane sugar
- 2¼cups/298 grams all-purpose flour, plus more if needed
- ¼teaspoon fine sea salt
- ¼teaspoon baking powder
- ¼teaspoon ground cardamom (optional)
- 2large eggs, each cracked into a separate bowl and beaten
- 4tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon/62 grams melted salted butter
- 1(5.4- or 6-ounce) package of The Laughing Cow Original spreadable cheese wedges, chilled
- ¼cup/60 milliliters sweetened condensed milk, plus more to taste
- ¼cup/20 grams unsweetened finely shredded coconut flakes
Preparation
- Step 1
In a small bowl, combine milk, yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar. Stir together and set aside for 10 minutes to allow yeast to activate. In a bigger bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder, cardamom (if using) and remaining 2 tablespoons sugar. Once the yeast mixture is foamy, add to the flour mixture, along with 1 beaten egg and 3 tablespoons of the melted butter. Knead in the bowl until a sticky dough forms, about 5 minutes, adding more flour as needed if the dough is too sticky. Lightly grease dough with 1 teaspoon melted butter. Cover with a clean dish towel and let it rise at room temperature for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
- Step 2
Grease a round 9-inch springform pan using the remaining 1 tablespoon butter; heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grab chilled cheese wedges and cut 30 pieces of cheese (about ½ teaspoon each). Once the dough has doubled in size, cut the dough into two equal portions. Take one half of the dough and roll it out into a thick rope. Cut the rope crosswise into 15 equal sections. Take one of the cut pieces of dough, roll it into a ball then flatten it into a disk and place 1 piece of cream cheese in the middle. Pinch the dough closed at the top and roll it into a ball using the palms of your hands. Once it’s round, place it into the greased pan, arranging it with its smoothest side up, and repeat the process with the remaining dough. Make sure the balls of dough are equally spaced out, and allow the dough to rise, covered, for 15 minutes.
- Step 3
After the second rise, brush the dough with an egg wash of the remaining egg beaten with a splash of whole milk, then bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown.
- Step 4
When the rolls have finished baking, take them out of the oven and drizzle condensed milk on top. Finish off with a sprinkle of coconut flakes. Enjoy warm. Rooti farmaajo can last 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Thank you, Amanda S, for making the recipe and commenting on your results. I wanted to make this recipe VERY much, but found only your notes amongst the cheese-hysteria. I made the coconut version, and it was really delicious. No idea why everyone is so afraid of Laughing Cow cheese, it is sold everywhere in Europe as well as in the US. The rolls came out with a soft mild center with no separation of oil from the cheese. C'mon everyone, relax, Laughing Cow is not poison.
Wow, this is really good! I wanted to try both the condensed milk coconut version and the honey sesame version, so I did half and half and both were wonderful (I think the honey sesame was a little better). A real treat!
Is "farmaajo" from the Italian "formaggio"? I know there is a history of Italian colonialism in Somalia.
Hi there! Italian here. Yes there is, italian was even taught (i am not sure of today) in Somalia. Not a happy story, of course, and it left its mark.
For those asking about a cheese alternative, Lebneh would be pretty close texturally speaking. It is simply greek yogurt that has been strained in a cheese cloth. I think mixing with a small amount of cream cheese would dupe the texture and flavor of an original laughing cow cheese.
If I couldn’t use Laughing cow and wanted to make something my fridge hasn’t got as I also live 130K round trip from a supermarket I’d make my own ricotta and whip it maybe with a bit of feta? I mean the filling really is a license to create I think.
I don't see a honey sesame version with this recipe. Where would I find that?
Oh, wow, I thought this was amazing. So delicious and so easy. Dough came together with no trouble. I did use a scale to make the little balls (18g each) because I'm terrible at eyeballing things. I also cut each Laughing Cow wedge into five pieces which meant there was some cheese leftover, but I think more would have been too much. This also heats up well-- 20 seconds in the microwave the second day and it was lovely. Don't skip the topping! Oh, and it took 16 min at 350.
I had to look up the ingredients to Laughing Cow cheese. Among other things, it's made of emulsified cheddar, semisoft, and Swiss cheeses. I haven't made this recipe, and I'm spit-balling here, but an alternative could be cream cheese, cheddar, and Swiss cheeses mixed together and spooned into the dough. Or, like one commenter suggested, use creative license and fill with whatever you have in your pantry.
I suspect the intention is to repeat the process with the remaining dough. The recipe is unclear, though. Divide in half, roll it, cut pieces, make one ball - and then repeat with remaining dough. Syntax suggests that applies only the that first half. Poor editing.
Suzanne, once the ball of dough is flattened into a disk, put a dollop of filling in the center. Then gather the edges of the disk and pinch the top to seal the filling. It's similar to making wontons and other filled dumplings. Once sealed, rolled the ball in your hands until the pinched part is no longer visible. Use as much filling as you want, but make sure you are able to pinch the disk of dough close.
Use any filling you like since the filling really isn't cooked, only melted. You can use peanut butter, jam, Nutella™, etc. You can even make savory pastries with a meat or seafood filling, e.g. shrimp paste. For safety reasons, it's probably best to precook the meat before filling.
Laughing Cow is quite like spreadable cream cheese, but with a tad less proportion of fats. I suspect it would work fine, as would regular bricks of cream cheese, although that does have a considerably higher fat proportion
Recipe says to repeat with remaining dough.
In Europe: any Swiss spreadable creamy cheese will do. Choose one that will melt nicely. In the DACH countries, “Streichkäse”, the Gerber brand has a lactose-free version if required.
I made this twice. I bake yeast breads often, going mostly by memory, but I followed this recipe to the letter. Proofing the yeast in milk was a bit different, and my conclusion is that this made the resulting rolls too "cake-y." The second time I tried it, I decided to make them savory instead of sweet. Same little nugget of "La Vache qui Rit" cheese in the center, but I topped the rolls with a sprinkling of herbes de Provence and grated Parmesan after applying the egg wash. Very tasty!
This was excellent, will hunt down the sesame honey version next.
I made this both the Yemeni and Somali way within the same bake ( nigella/ sesame seed and honey syrup on the outer coil; condensed milk drizzle in the middle ). Both were delectable but I might slightly favor the honey version. Beyond the combining of styles , I made the following personalizations : bloomed saffron in the melted butter for the dough and added a dash of orange blossom water to the honey syrup . The dough is so tender and the recipe is beautifully simple . Highly recommend !
I made this last year with laughing cow cheese. It was delicious. I was reminded of the recipe when New York Times ran it again at the start of Ramadan. This year I decided to skip all the sticky cheese unwrapping that goes along with the laughing cow cheese. I used a local creamy goat cheese in half tsp amounts. It was again delicious!
Love this! Have made it twice already because it's easy and everyone in the house gobbles it up. I skip the sweetened condensed milk because I prefer the savory flavors.
Some mentioned Nutella, l make a prune/ chocolate loaf. I think bits of that combo the same size and weight as the cheese would be fantastic.
I'm making this tomorrow. I plan to use brie cheese because it has the texture of Laughing Cow, but easier to find (and I like it). For those of you questioning where to find the "honey-sesame seed variation", I think it's simply substituting a few drizzles of honey (or even maple syrup) over the baked rolls and sprinkling on lightly toasted sesame seeds. I plan to do this instead of the sweetened condensed milk and coconut.
Re: cheese quantity - 6 oz. = 36 teaspoons, so using a half tsp. per roll will leave a considerable amount leftover. In any event, I will substitute with raclette.
I intend to make this with farmers cheese, a reasonable in between cream cheese and laughing cow, in my opinion. Will report back!
I divided the dough for 32pc instead 30pc in total. It's a lot easier to make 16pc from half of the dough than 15pc and 8pc cheese x4=32!
This is a lovely, shareable treat to pull out of the oven for guests. I loved the subtle cardamom flavor. I did 50/50 of condensed milk/coconut and honey/sesame seeds. I loved them both. I was unaware of the cheese scandal and used the laughing cow cheese. I'd actually prefer the bread without it, especially as the bread cools. It's such a mild cheese it didn't add much to the dish but it was a fun surprise when the bread was hot. The cardamom bread and toppings are the real star of this recipe!
Wonderful! Made twice with instant yeast and cream cheese, and had to bake 25 minutes for golden brown. Also tried honey and sesame, but need a lot more honey than the condensed milk called for and thus that was not as good. Some say to soak in honey!
I think the 2 teaspoon (6 gm) yeast is a type. 2 tsp would be about 16 gram, which makes much more sense.
I made this with small pieces of fresh mozzarella which melded with the bread. Delicious!
Recipe works perfectly! Delicious.
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