Saturday, April 10, 2010

Lavash {bba}


The next bread for me to bake from Peter Reinhart's book The Bread Baker's Apprentice as part of The BBA Challenge is Lavash, which Wikipedia explains is a cracker bread of Armenian origin, and very popular in surrounding countries as well. In his recipe, Peter Reinhart gives the option of baking the same dough into pita bread, that soft hollow flat bread that makes a great vehicle for sandwich fillings and salads.

n.o.e.'s notes:

- I substituted fresh yeast for the instant yeast in my dough.

- The recipe called for honey; I used honey crystals which I thought would be a good balance for the extra liquid in the fresh yeast.

- The type of vegetable oil in my lavash was olive oil.

- It turned out that I was low on bread flour, so I filled in with a bit of high-gluten flour.

- I rolled my dough so thin that it was almost transparent.

- In Peter Reinhart's hands Lavash is covered with a variety of seeds such as poppy seeds and sesame seeds. Most of the seed options are not favorites in this house, so I decided to go with coarse salt, for my own version of saltine crackers.

- After baking, the bread is broken into shards, which make quite appealing-looking crackers.


the verdict:

The lavash baked up to be crispy and delicate, and I was shocked at how good simple crackers could taste. They just about melted in my mouth! Around our house the favorite way to enjoy this flat bread was unaccompanied; in fact we loved it so much that we ate lavash for dessert for several days in a row until there was none left. Just the crackers, plain - absolutely perfect!

I'm sending this fabulous flat bread to Yeastspotting, the weekly roundup of all things yeast-y. Stop by on Friday to see what clever bakers worldwide have been baking this week.

8 comments:

TeaLady said...

I liked them best with the coarse salt as well even tho' I did make them with several types of seeds.

The light shining thru' your 'shards' shows how wonderfully thin you got them.

Di said...

Those look wonderful, Nancy! No wonder they were such a hit. It's been quite a while since I made this recipe, but salt was my favorite topping as well.

natalia said...

How beautiful Nancy !! I left these behind but you convinced me !!

Leslie said...

Wow, yours look better than the photo in the book! I got mine very thin but it baked in seconds so it was a little too brown.

Mimi said...

I have never made these because I made the pita breads in the sidebar of this recipe. (I think I have ADD).

You just reminded me I need to try these, yours look great!

I've never heard of honey crystals. How intriguing. Do they work like brown sugar?

Mary Bergfeld said...

These really do look nice. I found your blog by chance but will be back often. I had planned to read your post on lavash and then move out but I was lured by your other posts and read them as well. I especially like your 'notes'. I hope you are having a wonderful day. Blessings...Mary

Kayte said...

I am always forgetting to get over to this blog of yours and check things out...and my loss believe me. This lavash looks so perfect and delicious. I love how thin you got yours...will try to do thinner next time and see if I can do this, too. I was eating mine for lunch with a piece of cheese on it, so maybe I need mine thicker to hold up the cheese...we shall see. Beautiful job on this.

Anonymous said...

can you post this recipe? it looks devine!