Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Himbasha (Celebration Bread)
A mildly sweet cardamom bread scored in a sunburst pattern and studded with raisins, Eritrea's festive loaf.
Eritrean · medium · serves 8
prep 25 min · cook 35 min
~363 cal · 7g protein · 64g carbs · 9g fat · 3g fiber · 18g sugars · 1g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Himbasha is the round, mildly sweet celebration bread of the Eritrean highlands, brought out for Christmas, weddings, naming days and any occasion worth marking. Its shape is part of the point: the dough is scored before baking into a spoked wheel or sunburst, a pattern that stands for togetherness and hospitality and makes it easy to break into shares.
The Eritrean loaf leans sweeter and thicker than its Ethiopian cousin, perfumed with and dotted with raisins and black sesame seeds. It is a bread more than a cake, tender and just sweet enough, and families each keep their own small variations passed down the generations. Milk was once reserved for the grandest celebrations, so the everyday version stays simple and oil-based.
Served warm, torn rather than sliced, himbasha goes with coffee or tea and often a little butter or honey. It carries the warmth of a gathering in its very design.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and dairy-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 8
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp active dry yeast
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup
1 1/2 tsp ground
1/2 cup raisins
2 tbsp black sesame seeds
1 1/4 cups warm water
1 tsp salt
Instructions
1
Stir the yeast into the warm water with a spoonful of the sugar and leave 10 minutes until frothy.
2
Mix the flour, remaining sugar, cardamom, salt and half the sesame seeds, then work in the oil, raisins and frothy yeast to a soft dough. Knead until smooth and let it rise for about an hour until doubled.
3
Knock the dough back and press it into a greased round pan into a flat disc, then prove for another 30 minutes.
4
Score the top firmly with a knife into a spoked wheel radiating from the centre and scatter over the remaining black sesame seeds.
✎ Chef’s note
Cut the pattern deep and confidently before baking. Shallow scores close up as the bread rises and the sunburst disappears.
5
Bake at 350F (175C) for about 35 minutes until deep golden and hollow-sounding underneath. Cool a little, then tear into wedges to serve.
Eritrean highland celebration baking.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Asmara. Asmara sits high on the Eritrean plateau, eating berbere-red stews scooped with injera in the shared style of the Horn. Italian colonial rule left pasta and espresso alongside zigni beef stew and spiced clarified butter.
🗺️
Eritrea. Eritrean injera is often called taita and is frequently made with sorghum or barley as well as teff, which shifts both colour and flavour. Zigni is the beef stew that anchors a platter, and berbere does the same work here as across the border. The two cuisines really do mirror each other, which is a shared history rather than a borrowing.
🌍
Africa. Africa's fifty-four nations hold cuisines as different as Morocco's slow-cooked tagines and South Africa's open-fire braai, yet shared threads run through them: ancient grains like millet, sorghum, and teff; stews thickened with groundnut, okra, or palm; and fiery condiments from Tunisian harissa to Ethiopian berbere. Staple starches, fufu, injera, ugali, couscous, anchor communal meals often eaten by hand from a shared dish, where hospitality is a point of honor.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Eritrea
ZigniA fiery Eritrean beef stew built on berbere spice and long-cooked onions, eaten with injera.
Pasta al Sugo e BerbereSpaghetti tossed in silsi, the Eritrean tomato sauce spiked with berbere, the everyday pasta of Asmara.
TibsiCubes of beef seared hard with onion, green chili and berbere until the edges brown, an Eritrean celebration dish eaten with injera.
Browse all Eritrea recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven.
Storing it: Best the day it is made. Wrap well and refresh in a warm oven, or freeze and reheat straight from frozen.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Himbasha (Celebration Bread)?
A mildly sweet cardamom bread scored in a sunburst pattern and studded with raisins, Eritrea's festive loaf.
Where does Himbasha (Celebration Bread) come from?
Himbasha (Celebration Bread) is a Eritrean dish from Asmara, Eritrea.
Can Himbasha (Celebration Bread) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Himbasha (Celebration Bread) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Himbasha (Celebration Bread) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Himbasha (Celebration Bread) take to make?
About 60 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 35 minutes cooking), serving 8.
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