Lavash Recipe
This is another very simple dough that you can have ready in less than two hours. It contains:
2 teaspoons instant yeast
16 ounces (about 3 1/4 cups) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
12 ounces (1 1/2 cups) water
3 tablespoons olive oil
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, stir together the dry ingredients. Combine the water and oil and add it to the mixer. Keep stirring until the dough comes together, then turn up the mixer to medium high and beat for about 5 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. It will be quite wet…that’s a good thing.
Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover it with plastic and let it rise until it’s doubled, about 1 1/2 hours. Meanwhile, preheat your oven oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit (or 550, as high as the oven will go), setting a pizza stone on a middle rack. Pull off a piece of the dough and apply it to a well-floured piece of parchment paper. Keeping the rest of the dough covered. Flour the dough and the pin and roll it out as thin as possible.
Slide the parchment sheet with the dough off the kitchen counter onto the back of a sheet pan, then slide the parchment sheet onto the pizza stone. Bake the bread about 90 seconds until the bread is puffed with a few light brown spots on the bottom. Remove it from the oven and it eat.
Do you know, Joe? In the traditional cultures that these flat breads came from, did they have yeast? Or were these breads more often made with sourdoughs or old doughs?
How long has dried yeast been available in the wider world?
Interesting question…I’ll answer it on the blog!
– Joe
I believe lavash belongs to unleavened breads.
Nice recipe, Joe, have to try it one of these days. Just a couple of weeks ago I made a big noise about lavash to my wife as it was eaten in a tv-travel show filmed somewhere in the Caucasus, maybe Georgia.
Occasionanally I make chapatis for Indian dinners, so this should not be too hard, although the logistics with an oven are harder than with a tava. (Actually I use a cast iron crepe pan by Le Creuset, not a real tava.)
Hey Petri!
Let me know how it works out. I think you’ll like the process. I’ll be curious to know what you think.
Cheers,
– Joe
Upadate on a site for the lepinja or lepina bread.
http://easteuropeanfood.about.com/od/croatianserbbreads/r/lepinje.htm
on this site there is a recipe for the Cevapcici.
🙂 🙂 🙂
Cool! Thanks Barbara!
– Joe
You are doing terrible things to my waistline Joe.
These have hardly any calories.
– J
Pfft. Even a batch made with a cup of flour is a large proportion of my daily calories. Then I have to put stuff in it.
I made these for my Palestinian Chicken Wraps. They were perfect! Hard to save them for the wraps and not eat them right out of the oven!
Ain’t it the truth! 😉
Thanks so much for the note, Tara!
– Joe
These turned out absolutely amazing. This will be a staple in our kitchen from now on. Thank you for sharing this gem of a recipe.