Armenian Cracker Bread Recipes

LAVASH ARMENIAN THIN BREAD

Steps:

• Place the tepid water in your electric mixing bowl and add the olive oil, sugar, and yeast. Using the batter blade let the electric mixer blend these very well.
• It will take about 5 minutes on low speed.
• Stir in the salt. Gradually add 2 cups of the flour and beat on low speed until a thick and smooth batter forms.
• Change the blade to a bread dough hook and knead in the additional 2 cups of flour.
• If you do not have a heavy mixer such as a KitchenAid, incorporate the flour with a wooden spoon and finish the kneading by hand.
• Kneading should take about 10 minutes in the machine, 20 minutes by hand.
• Place the dough on a plastic countertop and cover with a large stainless-steel bowl.
• Allow the dough to rise until double in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours.
• Punch the dough down and divide into 8 pieces.
• Let stand, covered, 15 minutes.
• Roll out each piece of dough into a 12-inch-diameter circle. Working with 2 pieces of dough at a time, arrange breads on ungreased baking sheets.
• Brush with milk and sprinkle sesame seeds over tops.
• Pierce with a fork many times, all over.
• Bake on the lowest racks in the oven, at 375F, for 8-10 minutes, or until light brown.
• Rotate the pans in the oven from top to bottom, to insure even browning.
• Serve dry or wet. (To wet, hold the cracker under running water until lightly moistened all over, and then wrap in a moist towel for 10-15 minutes.) If the cracker is too dry to roll, it will crack.
• Sprinkle with a little more water and let stand a few minutes.
• If it is too wet, cover with a dry towel and let it stand.

ARMENIAN CRACKER BREAD

Steps:

• Sprinkle yeast into warm water in large bowl and stir until dissolved.
• Add salt.
• Combine all-purpose and whole wheat flours and add enough to yeast mixture to make stiff dough.
• Turn out on floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, 8 to 10 minutes.
• Shape into ball.
• Place in greased bowl and turn to grease top. Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 1-1/2 hours.
• Punch down and let rise again until doubled, about 30 minutes. Divide dough into 8 pieces and roll each out on lightly floured surface to very thin circle about 9 inches in diameter.
• Place, one at a time, on baking sheet and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
• Bake at 400F 5 to 6 minutes, or until bread appears dry, lightly browned and blistered.
• Run palest side under hot broiler until lightly browned. Cool and.
• store in dry place.

LAVASH CRACKER - BREAD

Steps:

• Add all ingredients to a medium bowl and mix one minute until ingredients are uniformly distributed.
• Place in an oiled 2 cup measuring cup and cover. Let rest for 10 minutes and begin kneading on a lightly floured surface.
• Knead for 5 minutes (it's a stiff dough) and place back into the cup and cover.
• in 20 minutes, remove the dough, stretch into a rectangle as large as possible without tearing and fold letter-style, top to bottom third and bottom to top third. Do this from sides as well. Replace into measuring cup and cover.
• In 20 minutes, do another stretch and fold and replace into cup. Let rest in a warm place until doubled in volume. This make take another hour to hour and 20 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 350°F A baking stone can be used if desired.
• Divide the dough into 2 equal halves and roll one half out on a lightly floured surface until it resists rolling. Do the same with the other half. Return to the first dough piece and continue to roll out until each piece is a 12" x 15" rectangle or a 15" diameter circle. Lift the doughs occasionally and return to the surface and re-flour lightly as needed.
• Cover each dough with a thin towel or plastic wrap lightly to prevent sticking (can use flour or oil to prevent sticking but not usually necessary). Let rest for 5 minutes.
• Lift the dough and place onto a half size baking sheet (12" x 16" or so) that has been fitted with parchment paper or silpat pad.
• Spray the doughs with water lightly and sprinkle toppings (sesame seeds, poppy seeds, sea salt, Italian seasonings and/or paprika). Lightly press or roll the toppings into the dough. Instead of water, an egg wash or milk wash can be applied.
• Using a fork, press holes into the dough to reduce the bubbling that flatbreads all do.
• Bake for 4 minutes and rotate pan or pans and bake for an additional 5 minutes or until the crackers are uniformly browned lightly and crispy. Remove and cool on the pan, counter or rack.

LAVASH CRACKERS

Steps:

• In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, salt, yeast, honey, oil, and just enough water to bring everything together into a ball. You may not need the full 1/2 cup water, but be prepared to use it all if needed.
• Sprinkle some flour on the counter and transfer the dough to the counter. Knead for about 10 minutes, or until the ingredients are evenly distributed. The dough should pass the windowpane test (page 58)and register 77° to 81°F. The dough should be firmer than French bread dough, but not quite as firm as bagel dough (what I call a medium-firm dough), satiny to the touch, not tacky, and supple enough to stretch when pulled. Lightly oil a bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
• Ferment at room temperature for 90 minutes, or until the dough doubles in size. (You can also instead retard the dough overnight in the refrigerator immediately after kneading.)
• Mist the counter lightly with spray oil and transfer the dough to the counter. Press the dough into a square with your hand and dust the top of the dough lightly with flour. Roll it out with a rolling pin into a paper-thin sheet about 15 inches by 12 inches. You may have to stop from time to time so that the gluten can relax. At these times, lift the dough from the counter and wave it a little, and then lay it back down. Cover it with a towel or plastic wrap while it relaxes. When it is the desired thinness, let the dough relax for 5 minutes. Line a sheet pan with baking parchment. Carefully lift the sheet of dough and lay it on the parchment. If it overlaps the edge of the pan, snip off the excess with scissors.
• Preheat the oven to 350°F with the oven rack on the middle shelf. Mist the top of the dough with water and sprinkle a covering of seeds or spices on the dough (such as alternating rows of poppy seeds, sesame seeds, paprika, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, kosher or pretzel salt, etc.). Be careful with spices; a little goes a long way. If you want precut crackers, use a pizza cutter (rolling blade) and cut diamonds or rectangles in the dough. You do not need to separate the pieces, as they will snap apart after baking. If you want to make shards, bake the sheet of dough without cutting it first.
• Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the crackers begin to brown evenly across the top (the time will depend on how thinly and evenly you rolled the dough).
• When the crackers are baked, remove the pan from the oven and let them cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. You can then snap them apart or snap off shards and serve.
• Enriched, stiff dough; flat; direct method; commercial yeast
• 10 to 15 minutes mixing; 2 hours fermentation, shaping, and panning; 15 to 20 minutes baking
• This dough, almost as stiff as bagel dough, is easier to knead by hand than in a machine.
• You can make a softer variation, used for making roll-up pinwheel sandwiches, by rolling the dough a little thicker than described and slightly underbaking the uncut sheet, so that the cracker is stiff but not crackly crisp. When ready to make the roll-up, mist the cracker with water and it will magically soften within 3 to 5 minutes and be as workable as a flour tortilla.
• This same dough makes a nice pita bread: Simply roll out 6-ounce pieces of the finished dough into 8-inch-diameter circles (slightly less than 1/4 inch thick), and bake them in a 500°F oven on a baking stone or on a sheet pan. Bake just until they inflate and form a pocket. Count to 10, then remove the breads from the oven with a peel or a spatula before they brown and crisp. When they cool (and slowly deflate), they can be cut in half and used for pocket sandwiches.
• Lavash Crackers %
• Bread flour: 100%
• Salt: 1.9%
• Instant yeast: .81%
• Honey: 11.1%
• Oil: 7.4%
• Water (approx.): 51.9%
• Total: 173.1%

LAVASH ARMENIAN CRACKER BREAD

Steps:

• In a large bowl, combine 1/4 cup of flour(s) with water, yeast and salt and mix until well combined.
• Gradually add the remaining flour, mixing well.
• Add in the oil and honey, adding more water at this time if the dough is too dry, or more flour if the dough is too sticky. The dough is supposed to be very stiff.
• Knead the dough for approximately 10 minutes (see below), until a stiff, firm ball has formed.
• Allow the dough to rise until doubled in a covered bowl. Time will vary depending on room temperature, but should take approximately 2 hours.
• Knead the dough a second time and roll out until extremely thin.
• Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
• Spread the dough over a baking sheet and bake at 500 degrees for 3 minutes until the dough is brown.
• NOTE: You can mix knead the bread or use your food processor to knead dough for both kneading stages.

LAHVOSH/LAVOSH ARMENIAN CRACKER BREAD

Steps:

• In a large bowl dissolve yeast in the warm water and then add sugar.
• Next add the flour, the butter and salt. Knead the dough until it is very smooth. Cover and let stand in a warm place for 4 hours. Divide the dough into balls the size of two hands cupped together.
• On a floured board, roll out the balls until they are the size of a 14" pizza pan. Place the dough in the pan and poke the dough in several places with a fork.
• Sprinkle the tops with sesame seeds, pressing them in so that they don't fall off and bake on the bottom shelf of a 400 degree oven for 5 - 6.minutes. After the 5-6 minutes are up move the pan up to the middle shelf of the oven until lightly browned. Enjoy!