Yemenite Shabbat Classic · Overnight Pastry

Jachnun

Photo: Maor X / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

It's baked at a bare simmer all night long — a workaround Yemenite Jews developed so a hot meal would be ready Saturday morning without anyone technically cooking on the Sabbath.

Thin sheets of dough are rolled with a little oil, coiled into a spiral, and baked low and slow overnight, emerging deep golden and dense. Kerem HaTeimanim's Yemenite restaurants serve it warm with grated tomato, a hard-boiled egg, and fiery skhug.

Why it's made this way: Yemenite Jewish immigrants settled Tel Aviv's Kerem HaTeimanim neighborhood in the early 1900s and kept the overnight Shabbat-baking tradition alive in its restaurants long after outdoor taboon ovens gave way to hotplates.