lavash flatbread

It all started with wanting something thinner than a naan to wrap paneer tikkas in.  More along the lines of a roti but a bit more complex….say like a Lavash, that wonderfully thin flatbread.  I had just finished watching a lovely video about the baking of the bread in a traditional Tonir and set about trying to find some in the local stores here. Having no luck, I decided to attempt making it at home knowing that it would be impossible to duplicate a bread made in the traditional oven.

But that didn’t stop me from trying 🙂  I was completely in love with the whole process I saw on the video.  The traditions surrounding the bread, the skill required in making it and the sisterhood among the women making the bread.  The tonir familiar to me as the tandoor, against the walls of which fabric-thin sheets of dough were slapped to form a wonderfully pliable bread less than a minute later.  Utterly fascinating!

So I went about trying to get my oven to reach as high a temperature as possible and added the baking stone to get somewhat closer to the tandoor.  The first time I made the bread, it was an epic fail.  The thin sheet I had stretched by hand simply creased and crumpled in my hands and ended up as a lump on the stone.  To mimic the pillow used for the tandoor, I made a makeshift pad with a recycled burlap bag that once held peanuts and stuffed a few kitchen towels in it, then covered it with thin muslin.  And it worked fairly well…much to my surprise!

I used a mix of white whole-wheat and all-purpose flours and I think that combination, plus using a baking stone made the bread a bit crisp.  Something one can easily get around by lightly misting with cold water or running wet hands over the surface of the finished bread.  A few hours under a damp kitchen towel made them wonderfully pliable.

These are also very verstaile.  I made a big batch the last time which became a wonderful base for pizzas, crisp crackers when baked again at a low temperature and fabulous as a sandwich wrap.  Great to have on hand and I have even frozen some for a rainy day.  So even though a tonir or a tandoor is nowhere in my future, I am glad I have this recipe to fall back on everytime a lavash craving hits!!

Lavash

 Makes 6 flatbreads

Print Recipe

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white whole-wheat flour (or aata)
1/4 tsp instant yeast
2 tsp olive oil
salt to taste
1/2 tsp nigella seeds (optional)
water

Mix the all-purpose and whole-wheat flours in a bowl.  Add the oil, salt, yeast and nigella seeds (if using) and mix well.

Add enough water to make a soft and slightly tacky dough (I needed about 1 1/4 cups of water).  Knead well for about 5 mins by hand or in a stand mixeer with the dough hook until the dough gets soft and elastic.

Cover with a kitchen towel and keep aside in a warm spot for an hour.

Punch the dough down and divide into 6 equal portions.  Lightly flour a surface and roll each portion into a smooth ball.  Cover and let rise again for about 20 mins.

Preheat the oven along with the baking stone in the center rack to the highest setting (mine goes upto 525 F).  Make a kitchen towel fairly damp and keep aside to store the breads when they come out of the oven.

Roll each ball of dough to about an 8-inch circle.  Stretch it slightly with the hands until fairly thin to form about a 13×9 rectangle.  The pillow contraption made it easy to transfer onto the baking stone but an alternative could be to put it on a sheet of foil and put that on the pizza stone.  Parchment paper tends to scorch at such high temperatures.

Turn the oven onto the broil setting.  Put the lavash in and watch carefully.  It takes less than a minute for the bread to get bubbly and then get brown spots.

Remove immediately with a pair of tongs and transfer to the damp kitchen towel.  Cover.  Repeat with the rest of the dough.