HininyDate and bread crumble
When the first cold nights reach Najd and Qassim, Saudi families make hininy, a warm sweet of soft dates melted into crumbled brown bread with plenty of ghee and cardamom. It is eaten from a shared plate in the evening or at breakfast with tiny cups of saffron-tinted Arabic coffee, and it is said to keep you warm on desert nights. The texture is soft and fudgy with a little crumb, the flavour like sticky toffee and toasted bread. The mistake to avoid is using hard, dry dates, which never melt; choose soft, moist ones or soak them first. Serve it warm, pressed into a mound. Chef's tip: toast the bread crumbs in a dry pan for two minutes before mixing; it gives a nutty depth that plain crumbs lack.

































