AI-generated image
Hininy
Hininy (حنيني): warm Najdi date and bread crumble kneaded with ghee and cardamom
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.
- Total time
- 25 min
- Difficulty
- easy
- Serves
- 6
Ingredients
- 7 oz wholemeal flatbread or brown breada day old
- 9 oz soft datespitted
- 2 ⅞ oz ghee
- 1 tsp ground cardamom
- 1 pinch saffron threads (optional)soaked in 1 tbsp hot water
Shop this recipe on Amazon
What you'll need
Links open Amazon in a new tab. As an Amazon Associate, WhatToEat.Today earns from qualifying purchases.
Method
0/5 doneStep 1: Tear 7 oz wholemeal flatbread or brown bread into pieces and blitz to fine crumbs in a food processor, or rub them through your fingers.
Step 2: Toast the crumbs in a dry frying pan over a medium heat, stirring, until lightly browned and fragrant, 2–3 minutes. Tip into a bowl.
3 minStep 3: Melt 2 ⅞ oz ghee in the same pan over a low heat. Add 9 oz soft dates and cook, pressing with the back of a spoon, until they collapse into a soft paste, 5–6 minutes.
6 minStep 4: Add the crumbs, 1 tsp ground cardamom and 1 pinch saffron threads and mix and press with the spoon until it all comes together into a soft, glossy dough, 2–3 minutes.
3 minStep 5: Pile onto a plate and shape into a mound or press into small balls. Serve warm.
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 330 kcal
- Protein
- 4 g
- Carbs
- 44 g
- Fat
- 16 g
- Fibre
- 5 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does hininy take?
- About 25 minutes in total: 10 minutes to prepare and 15 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 6 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- Is it vegetarian?
- Yes. It has no meat or fish.
- What can I use instead of ghee?
- Butter, same amount (keep the heat a little lower, butter burns sooner).
Reviews
No reviews yet. Be the first to cook it.
Rate this recipe
Sign in to rate and review this recipe.
You might also like
Kartoshka cake
Soviet cafés and school canteens sold these knobbly brown 'potatoes' for a few kopecks, and they began as a thrifty way to use up sponge and biscuit trimmings at the bakery. Crumbs are bound with butter and sweetened condensed milk, flavoured with cocoa and vanilla, shaped into little potatoes, rolled in cocoa and finished with two dabs of pale butter cream for the sprouts. They are fudgy and dense like a brownie truffle, need no oven, and children love making them. Traditional bakers added a spoonful of rum, an optional extra for adult batches only; this version is alcohol-free with vanilla. The usual slip is coarse crumbs, which make the potatoes crack, so blitz them as fine as sand. Chef's tip: chill the shaped potatoes for at least 20 minutes so they hold their shape and slice cleanly.
Russian
Undu walalu
Walalu means bangles, and these dark, sticky rings of fried urad dal soaked in kithul treacle are a sweet that Sinhala families bring out for Avurudu and for special almsgivings, often made in large batches by an aunt known for her steady hand. A thick, fluffy paste of ground black gram is piped into loops and fried until crisp, then plunged straight into warm treacle, so the rings stay crunchy on the outside while drinking up the syrup. They taste a little like a darker, smokier jalebi, with a toffee finish from the palm treacle. Watery batter is what ruins them; it spreads into flat blobs, so grind the soaked dal with as little water as possible and beat it until light. This recipe uses no asafoetida, so it is naturally gluten free. Chef's tip: pipe the rings onto small squares of baking paper and lower them into the oil paper and all; the paper peels away in seconds.
Sri Lankan
Marquesitas
Evening in Mérida's Plaza Grande means the smell of marquesitas: thin batter pressed in hot hinged irons until crisp, then rolled like a cigar around grated Edam cheese and a sweet filling such as cajeta, chocolate-hazelnut spread or jam. Edam came to the Yucatán through the port trade with the Netherlands and became part of the local cooking, and the salty-sweet combination is the whole point. At home you can cook them in a thin, wide frying pan. Edam is usually made with animal rennet, so check the label or use a vegetarian Gouda-style cheese. Chef's tip: roll while the crêpe is still in the pan and hot; within seconds it hardens and will crack.
Mexican