For last few months I am in pursuit of happyness (guess I am watching too many movies) this Ethiopian delicacy called Injera. HOW MANY BOOKS have I researched, how many online resources have I waded through, is too brobdingnagian to elaborate here! Most of the resources contradicted each other. Many were more adept at giving shortcuts for a better taste than the real one. I mean no one would make such a dish classic if it tasted THAT bad right!? Or would they? That's where so many questions arose. More than 6-7 sources claimed that Injera was made purely only with Teff flour. Made sense. So I eliminated many of my notes which carried recipes made with "self rising flour","wheat flour","rye flour??!","all purpose flour" etc.
Few other resources assured me that the highlight was the lengthy yeasty starter which made the spongy bread. Thus I eliminated few other notes which carried words "Baking powder" and "baking soda"! And now comes the problem! I did not have any recipe to work with! Either the starter had "other flours" in it or the starter was Teff but it had other flours in the main recipe!!! (May be they were talking about other Injera! I wudnt know!) It was confusing indeed! I even tried searching for someone from Ethiopia, without success! My husband actually even started doubting if he married a sane wife! Who gets fanatic about a silly flatbread and that too from somewhere called Ethiopia which in his mind is synonymous with Masai Mara? (Husbands - Go figure!) I am not even going to elaborate how much he probably freaked out when I made a stinker in the kitchen (not me - the starter did it!) ;)
I finally zeroed on to two sites -
The Bread Chick and
Apple Pie, Patis and Pate (Thank YOU!!!!) whose recipes made sense and looked totally logical from what I had read. According to the former link - I had to prepare a
stinker Starter which was a 5 day long process! But I was determined. Once the starter is done, the rest of the process is a cinch! Yes, you can finally remove that cloth from your nose ;) And the bread - it was everything I was promised - Soft and Spongy! Only such a treatment could have made Teff flour taste this good
References
recipe courtesy for the starter from bread chick and the making of the bread from apple pie, patis and pate
Basic Information
Prep Time: 2+ days
Cook Time: Under 15 min
Serves: 2 people
Yield: Makes 2 cups Starter and the batter (uses only 1/4 cup of starter) makes about 4-6 injera. Using all the starter will make around 30 Injera
Ingredients
- For the starter - Takes five days. If you want to have some starter left over to make injera again, wait seven days.
- 3/4 cup water, room temp. (70 degrees)
- 1/2 cup teff flour
- A pinch active yeast (about 1/8 tsp)
- For the Injera
- 1/4 cup teff starter
- 1-3/4 cups water, at room temperature
- 1-3/4 cups teff flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
Tips
* although
Apple pie, Patis and Pate mentions using wheat/white flour starter if making Injera for the first time, I went ahead with teff and I am not dissapointed.
Method
1
Lets start with the starter first! (Duh!) I followed Bread chick's instruction to the tee
Day 1:
Combine ingredients for the starter in a bowl.
2
Loosely cover the starter with the lid/cloth and ferment for two days on the counter or someplace that is about 70 degrees. You should see some rising in about four hours. Let alone for 2 days.
3
Day 3:
Stir the starter. This is when the stinker effect starts. The starter has a very yeasty and grassy smell. You will also notice that small bubbles on the surface now.
4
Feed the starter 1/3 cup teff flour and 1/2 cup water and loosely cover with the lid. Let alone for 2 days.
Day 5:
Starter should have separated into distinct layers. You would think that something has gone wrong with it - what with watery layer on top and dense muddy flour at the bottom! But that's exactly what we are looking for :) Stir starter, it should be slightly fizzy and have a very strong grassy aroma. Feed with 1/3 cup teff flour and 1/2 cup water. Loosely cover and allow to sit alone for at least 4 hours before using to make Injera. You should have about 2 cups of starter by now.
Note:
If you go to Day 7, follow Day 3 instructions for Day 5. You will have left over starter to make Injera again in the future this way.
( I just realized that I have forgotten to take a picture of my day 5 starter! Guess that stink got to me! )
Now lets go to the Injera recipe (verbatim from this link) Uses only 1/4 cup of the starter. If you want to use all the 2 cups of the starter increase the flour, salt and water accordingly
Mix. Place the starter in a bowl. Pour the water over the starter and stir to dissolve.
5
Add the teff flour and mix until the batter is smooth. It will have the consistency of thin pancake batter.
6
Ferment. Cover and let stand for 5 to 6 hours at room temperature. Reserve 1/4 cup of the starter for the next batch.
7
Add the salt and stir to dissolve.
8
Heat a 10- or 12-inch skillet over medium heat (you’ll also need a tight-fitting lid). Using a paper towel, wipe the skillet with a thin layer of vegetable oil. Pour about 1/2 cup (for a 10-inch skillet) or 3/4 cup (for a 12-inch skillet) of batter in the center of the skillet.
9
Tilt and swirl the skillet immediately to coat evenly.
10
Let the bread cook for about 1 minute, just until holes start to form on the surface.
11
Cover the skillet with the lid to steam the injera.
12
Cook for about 3 minutes, just until the edges pull away from the sides and the top is set.
13
The first 1-2 Injera's might be a slight disaster - Don't worry. The rest of them will be pillows! See 1 and 2 of mine down here? Sad :(
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I tried this recipe and failed utterly. On day five I thought I might be on the right track: the starter smelled awful. It looked thick. It was clearly fermenting. The teff had even sprouted, sending up grassy shoots. (Is that normal?) However, by the time I tried to make the injera on day eight, though everything still stunk, the starter was watery. What happened? My theory is that the starter died sometime between day five and eight and that the water (and teff) I added on day five to feed the starter was left undigested. It certainly was not the consistency of pancake batter after adding more teff flour and water that the recipe directs. I tried cooking it in the state it was in and the result didn’t hold together. It was mush, cooking something too wet.
Have you or any other commenters had problems like this before? I’m hesitant to try this recipe again–going through the process of stinking up a room in the house–unless I’m pretty sure it’ll be edible.
Finally I found a recipe using only teff. Thank you for sharing in such easy terms to follow. I just started my starter and plan to wait the 7 days so some will be left over. Will let you know how it turns out.
My starter is now on day seven. It has not separated into layers. But smells so I know something is right. There are bubbles like said in step3. Do I need to wait longer?
How often should I feed the remaining starter? Weekly, daily, monthly?
Blessings to you all.
How do you store the starter? Other sites and my Ethiopian friend said it could be refrigerated, but after two days it was dead.
Can the strarter be made without adding yeast?
Hi I can’t wait to try this recipe , but am a little confused? If I choose not to use all the starter how should I keep it? Do I just keep it in a bowl that is covered with cloth at 70 degree’s until I need it?
I have a question. On day 5, you said to use only 1/4 cup of the starter to do the injera mix and keep the rest for future use. Then, after mixing the injera, why do do ask to keep the “starter” again?? Do you mix the original starter with the later ones? How do you combine the two batches?
oh, and a vitamixer will blend the grains into flour, if you do not have one, find a good friend with one
What a great observation Darcy! Cannot wait to try it that way, thanks!
I watched this being made on round stone slabs over open fires in Ethiopia. they don’t tilt the pans or spread it.The trick to making it thin and round is to pour it out in a spiral, starting in the center of the pan. I also bought the whole grain, so have to figure out how to grind it.
The starter recipe here makes 2 cups, and you only use 1/4 cup for the injera recipe … so you have plenty left over for next time without letting it sit for 7 days. Which begs the question, why do you need to reserve 1/4 cup of the starter in step 6 of the injera recipe when you already have 1-3/4 cups of starter that hasn’t been used? How long does the starter last?
I have made only about 4 Injera here, hence used only 1/4 cup of the starter. Only if you were going to make the entire batch then you would need to reserve the starter. I just included it in the recipe if you were going to be using it all up right away. Will add a more clear note in there. –DK
Thank you for providing this information. I work with an immune compromised man who has learned that the only grains he can use are tef and buckwheat. I’m pretty skilled at making lots of interesting healthy things with buckwheat but tef is more new to me. Have eaten Injera at Zeni’s in San Jose and love it. The girls there gave me their recipe and so far I haven’t made it but now I MUST! I hope he can tolerate yeast. Am also looking for an unleavened tef bread recipe in case he feels he’s better off leaving yeast alone. Thanks for posting all this info!
Have not actually tried your recipe, however I am having pretty good results with a simple teff starter. I accidentally ordered whole grain teff when I started this project; thought ‘well, that was dumb’, but realized that gave me the opportunity to grind it fresh each time. So I just put it in my magic bullet with the nut grinding blade and keep shaking the container until it looks like flour. Presto.
One issue: in my quest to find something to bake them–I want electric, not gas, since I have solar–I have settled on a Zojirushi griddle which comes with a glass lid. This pan *absolutely* does not stick, at all! The thing I’m playing with at the moment is ‘how hot?’ It seems like I’m getting my product out in record time: no more than a minute and a half or so. And this is with a fairly thin batter. So, I’m not sure whether turning the heat down would help. I started with pre-heated up to 480 degrees, then adjusted to 380.
They’re perfectly edible, nice and sour, but what I’d like to see is a bit more height. Thicker batter, maybe? And medium heat?
Found your site specifically looking for injera recipes. A while back I had some injera at an Ethiopian restaurant and loved it. I grind my own grain so I bought some whole teff. Now I hear it’s near impossible to grind in my home mill. Eventually I’ll try your recipe. Thanks for doing the research.
Good Morning DK ?? I’m about to create my starter for Injera. Will I be able to keep the starter ongoing? Would it be possible to get instructions for doing this? Thank you.
Once you have a starter it is easy to make injera with only teff. The first thing I noticed through experience is there is a big different between fresh teff flour and old. You will get good result with the fresh one. I use from meskel flour company of Idaho. You can google and get the right address. It will be cheap if you buy it from any Ethiopian stores. For the injera what I do is I will mix the teff flour with the starter and knead it very well with lukwarm water.(Better in filtered water) I use water from Britta. Keep it for 24hrs. in warm place and keep it in the fridge for another 24 hrs. Take it out from the fridge. Boil just 1/4 cup water and take a table spoon of the batter mix it with the boiling water. Let it cool down and mix with the remainder of the batter and blend it in a blender to the consistency of a pancake batter. Let it stand till it is bubbly. Pour it on ungreased nonstick pan. When it starts cooking cover it for a while and remove from the pan. Make sure to cool it before piling up.