Honey
Honey is a bee-made food from floral nectar or honeydew; breads use it in dough or as a syrup served with cooked griddle breads.
Honey dabo
Dabo · Honey bread
Ethiopian breakfast honey bread: two rosemary-scented yeast loaves shaped in pans and baked at 400°F.
Honey bread for the Ethiopian breakfast table
Dabo is a family of Ethiopian breads. This specific version is a honey-sweetened wheat loaf with rosemary, yeast and oil; it is not a formula for every dabo. Epicurious describes it as breakfast bread, often eaten with shiro, and distinguishes it from injera's pancake-like form.
This two-loaf batch uses seven cups of all-purpose flour with warm water, active dry yeast, honey, salt, canola oil and rosemary. The rosemary is toasted briefly before it is worked into the dough. After a first rise to about one and a half times its starting size, the dough is kneaded again, divided between two 9-by-4-inch loaf pans and given a shorter second rise.
Bake at 400°F for about 25–30 minutes, until the tops are golden, then leave the inverted pans on a cooling rack for five minutes before removing them. Honey promotes browning, so use the source's bake time and check the loaf itself as well as its top. Flour is raw and can carry harmful bacteria: keep it away from ready-to-eat food, wash tools and surfaces, and do not taste uncooked dough. Because the recipe contains honey, do not give this bread to children under 12 months.
Sources for this section
History
Epicurious presents this honey bread as Ethiopian breakfast dabo and notes shiro as a common accompaniment. The recipe is reprinted from Marcus Samuelsson's 2006 cookbook and was published online in 2009. These dates document the modern printed version, not the earliest history of dabo or all dabo traditions.
Ingredients
Yield 2 loaves · Scaling: source batch only
RosemaryChop
15 mL1 tbsp as recorded
Canola oil
59 mL¼ cup as recorded
Active dry yeastThe source equates this with 1½ tablespoons
2 packets
WaterWarm; no exact temperature stated
591 mL2½ cup as recorded
1.66 L7 cup as recorded
15 mL1 tbsp as recorded
177 mL¾ cup as recorded
Method
Risks and precautions · Standard risk
Raw wheat flour and dough
Flour may carry harmful bacteria; dough is uncooked until baked.
Hazard sourceHoney in food for infants
Honey can contain bacteria that cause infant botulism; CDC advises against honey and products made with honey for children younger than one year.
Hazard sourceHot oven and loaf pans
The recipe uses a 400°F oven and directs inverting hot pans onto a cooling rack.
Hazard sourceKeep raw flour separate from ready-to-eat food, wash hands, bowls, utensils and work surfaces after handling dough, and do not taste raw flour or dough.
Control sourceDo not serve this honey-containing bread to a child younger than 12 months.
Control sourceUse oven mitts when handling the hot pans and cooling rack.
Control sourceContains wheat (gluten).
Contains honey: do not feed this bread to children younger than 12 months.
The source gives no validated storage duration.
- Toast the chopped rosemary in a small sauté pan over medium-high heat for about 30 seconds, until fragrant. Remove it from the heat.
- In a small bowl, stir the canola oil, active dry yeast and warm water together. Let stand for 5 minutes, until foamy.
- Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl and make a well in the center. Slowly add the yeast mixture, drawing in flour as you mix, then knead until a dough ball forms. Knead in the honey and toasted rosemary.
- Place the dough in a large oiled bowl and turn it to coat. Cover and let rise until it reaches about one and a half times its original size, approximately 1 hour.
- Grease two 9-by-4-inch loaf pans. Punch down the dough, turn it onto a floured surface and knead for 5 minutes. Divide it in half, shape two loaves and place them in the pans. Cover and let rise for 20 minutes.
- Heat the oven to 400°F. Bake the loaves for about 25–30 minutes, until their tops are golden. Invert the pans onto a cooling rack and leave them for 5 minutes, then remove the pans and cool the bread on the rack.
Conditions
Yield2 loaves
Fermentation1.33–1.5 h
Places
Ethiopia
Documented use · Country evidenceThe article describes dabo as honey bread served at the Ethiopian breakfast table. This is a broad food-context association, not a claim that this author's formula represents all dabo or a precise birthplace.
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Sources
EpicuriousMethod · Geography
Honey BreadThe article identifies the bread as Ethiopian breakfast dabo, distinct from injera, and describes shiro as a common accompaniment; it notes the recipe was reprinted from The Soul of a New Cuisine (2006).
The two-loaf formula uses 1 tablespoon chopped rosemary, ¼ cup canola oil, 2 packets active dry yeast, 2½ cups warm water, 7 cups all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon salt and ¾ cup honey.
Method: toast rosemary about 30 seconds, proof yeast mixture 5 minutes, first rise to 1½ times size about 1 hour, second rise 20 minutes in loaf pans, and bake at 400°F for about 25–30 minutes.
Cited in: Honey bread for the Ethiopian breakfast table
U.S. Food and Drug AdministrationSafety
Handling Flour Safely: What You Need to KnowRaw flour may contain harmful bacteria; never taste raw flour, dough or batter.
Keep raw flour separate from ready-to-eat food and wash hands, utensils, pans and work surfaces after handling it.
Centers for Disease Control and PreventionSafety
Botulism PreventionHoney can contain bacteria that cause infant botulism; do not give honey or products made with it to infants younger than one year.
UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage document repositoryCultural context · Distinct bread use
Timket documentation: Associated intangible aspects, section 3.2Repository-indexed page 6 describes preparing bread named defo dabo, along with other foods, before Timket/Epiphany celebrations.
This supports a documented ceremonial use of a separately named dabo form; it does not identify Samuelsson's rosemary-honey pan loaf as that festival bread or supply its recipe, origin or safety controls.
Access limitation: direct document retrieval returned a JavaScript/human-verification challenge. The narrow indexed passage was inspected; no full-document or author metadata verification claimed.