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 think it is possible to make injera from 100% whole grain tef without adding anything to it like yeast, kefir, or brown rice etc. my guess, its the water. try not to use water with chlorine in it which tap water tends to have. usually fermentation was done in clay pots and cooking done on clay pans. clay is breathable.
I get teff from azurestandard.com and I make it completely yeast free by adding kefir to teff and letting it ferment for a while. I usually add brown rice so that it feeds and grows better.
can you teach us how to make this without the flour but with whole grain tef and without added yeast?
whole grain teff is available in the usa. i think that would ferment better without the use of yeast, i think yeast is not needed and can be captured from the air itself. i have purchased whole grain myself but i have no idea how to cook with it properly. i use to make cereal with it, but an ethiopian woman told me it was always fermented into injera never eaten like cereal.
The bread chick was looking for a source of teff flour. I can get it thru AzureStandard.com in 25 lbs bags for around $50. You would have to join (free) and have it shipped if you don’t live on their routes….lots of those…but would be a good source for the flour. They are out of Oregon.
sorry she said the teff in usa doesn’t make good injera, i wonder why…actually the way their injera is suppose to be with holes and a sponginess is how our dosa is, the dosa we get in restaurants is purposely made crispy because people like that taste, esp north indians, but my dad said there is kal dosa which is more like this inerja which is what he is use to. here’s more on kal dosa as she says it will be softer plumper.
you’re not crazy, i too felt exactly the way you did!!! when i read about injera there were so many conflicting recipes, none close to the authentic dish. all were using white teff not the brown teff or some other additives, short cuts etc. i was getting frustrated as well. i wonder why teff in the usa doesn’t grow well like in ethiopia. she said there was some scientific reason for it. i feel so much better after reading this. i too read it took days to make and you emphasized that point.
Just back from Bahar Dar, Gondar, Lalibela and Axum ! Have made semi successful injera with Saracen wheat, a touch of chickpea flour, rye and tsp cocoa powder. Allow to ferment like crazy 3 days. Lovely bubbles in a warm kitchen in uncovered measuring jug. Then, last day pour into lightly oiled pan and cook over medium gas flame under lid. Yum! Also great quartered the day after for breakfast. Bung in toaster to warm and add honey and melted butter. Not authentic but not bad!
I am Ethiopian and love cooking my traditional food and consider myself a good cook. I am amazed and impressed by your commitment and hard work to come up with this excellent recipe which is close to the authentic one. The traditional Ethiopian Enjera is based on pure teff, and no salt should be added. Due to some scientific fact, teff which grow in the USA does not work to produce a good enjera unless other type of flower are added. My recommendation to those who would like to have a glutine free enjera, they should work with corn or rice flower. If you have a chance to use teff from Ethiopia, then you do not need to add anything in order to produces a very spongy enjera with the same process without any baking soda and salt. I have tried it the same way and it has worked with a little different than your methods. I usually work with warm water which help me accelerate the fermentation process and as a result I can produce enjera within two days not 5-7 days. In addition I use yeast to prepare the starter and after baking the enjera, I usually keep half a cup of batter in a container in the refrigerator for next time.
Thank you again for your good work and also for sharing. All the best
I was looking for the gluten free version which contains teff only which is how the recipe should be in the first place!!! Amazing how many people think wheat flour belongs everywhere. Thank you for the clear directions and for sticking to your guns and using teff only. BTW for anyone that thinks it smells badly – any sourdough starter smells! They are supposed to!!!
I was researching injera bread and came across your recipe. I ate at an Ethiopian restaurant last night and inquired about the injera. It is made fresh daily and they use a 60-40% teff-barley flour mixture, saying that 100% teff is too filling (maybe for Americans
). I am going to try your process with that ratio of flours. I have made it before with teff and whole wheat flour, using Jeff Smith’s (Frugal Gourmet) recipe as a guideline. He, however, uses self-rising flour.
If the starter makes 2 cups why do i need to go to day 7 if i only use 1 cup i should have 1 cup left. do i put the left over starter in the fridge or leave it on the counter? do i continue to feed my left over starter? in the instructions for making the bread you tell to save some starter for future starter. do i start at this point at the beginning of the starter instructions again? Thank you so very much for this recipe my husband has celiacs and we are always looking for a good bread.
It is day number five for the starter. I put a little extra water in the starter and did not have the active yeast. It has mold on it and I was wondering if this is normal or should I start another batch.
What do you do with the leftover starter?
1. I need to make injeras for 8-10 people, how much starter is needed.
2. Have you tried making the starter with smashed cooked rice? You think that would work? It works for the Indian Dosa.
BTW, injera IS often made with only teff in Ethiopia, but multiple Ethiopians and Eritreans have told me due to low elevation in most of the U.S. you simply cannot make it without adding wheat flour or some other kind of flour. They have all tried and found it doesn’t turn out like it does in Ethiopia. They told me to try with partially rice flour but it didn’t work.
You may turn out to be my hero, if I can get this to work. Even after speaking with multiple Ethiopian restaurant owners I could not get a gluten-free injera recipe to become anything but a sourdough-flavored flatbread with the consistency of an American pancake. If this recipe comes close to the sponginess I recall from (gluteny) injera, I will be on cloud nine. I love cooking Ethiopian but I can’t bring myself to serve it on bread that doesn’t taste like injera, and I have made no less than 5 different starters and had none of them result in a realistic-textured injera. Thanks so much for posting this!
Saw a person making this in a refugee camp in Eritrea a couple of years ago. I agree with the staffordshire oatcake comparison. The local health shop stopped selling teff flour, so that’s my chance gone of making any. There is an Ethiopian restaurant in Amsterdam which does good injera. However, the average room temperature in the UK is very much lower than 70 degrees F!
I have the same question as cheftimmi – March 30. In addition, if you do the seven-day starter, do you feed the mixture on day 5, day 7, or not at all? Thanks for the recipe.
haven’t made it yet, but very excited to try. one question, though: you say to keep the starter going for 7 days if you want to have leftover to do it again, but the starter recipe makes 2 cups, and the recipe only calls for 1/4 cup of the starter. does this mean if i let it go for 5 days i will have 1 3/4 cups of starter left, or am i missing something?
thanks so much!
To no avail, I have been searching for an authentic injera recipe for years now, and looky here ~ you’ve posted one! I am beyond appreciative. I only have whole teff grain and am going to attempt to grind it in my mortar and pestle, but if that doesn’t work, I’m off to the health food store to pick up some teff flour. Again, THANK YOU for sharing!
I made this and my family loved it! Do I refrigerate the leftover starter or leave it at room temp? How long will it last? Do I need to keep feeding it?
I started making the injera with a recipe from my gluten free cookbook. Then I found your website. Your photos and process information were a big help. I shared some injera with my celiac support group, and they were a big hit. Mine look like your photos. Thanks so much.
It’s working!!!! Thanks.
Yikes. Someone closed the top tightly for part of day 2 and day 3. I just added the day 3 stuff. It smells as much like beer as “stinky” Is it ruined and I should start over, or should I keep going?
I didnt exaggerate when I say it makes a stinker
. Stick to your guns and carry on! It will be worth it in the end…:)
hey i stumbled across this by accident so i had to write you!
common thing about injera or ethiopians is, most people have house maid or mothers who made injera, so they are not as knowledgable as they claim. I myself thought injera is made of teff only. It turns out to be when food prices go up people use sorghum or they mix it(possible version sorghum-wheat / wheat-corn /sorghum teff/ et.c ) as for the starter start by put some flour in a bowl with water and let it stay for 1 or two days. then you start as if you would do it regularily… have fun!
Thia ia delicious – but just in case you don’t know injeera are exactly the same as Staffordshire oatcakes (not Derbyshire ones as they are too heavy)….you can buy them in any supermarket there, and sometimes people still sell them outside their kitchen windows. Natives always eat them savoury (rolled around metled cheddar and crispy bacon) – visitors may insist on jam (shudder).
Thank you so much!! This is fantastic! I’m not bothered by the smell at all–we’ve been making sourdough bread for a few years.