Bazlama Bread Marzieh Lali

Ingredients:

2 1/4 teaspoons dried active baking yeast

1 tablespoon caster sugar

1 tablespoon salt

350ml warm water (45 degrees C)

110g Greek yoghurt

500g plain flour

Method:

Dissolve the yeast, sugar and salt in the warm water. Add the water and yoghurt to the flour and mix well. The dough will be soft but not sticky. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and shape it into a ball. Cover the dough with a damp cloth and allow it to rise at room temperature for 3 hours.

Cut the dough into four portions. Shape the dough into rounds and flatten each round as though you're making pizza dough. Cover the rounds with a damp cloth and let the dough rest for 15 minutes.

Heat a cast-iron frying pan or griddle over medium-high heat. Place one dough round in the frying pan and cook until brown spots appear on the bottom, about 1 minute. Flip the bread and cook for an additional minute. Remove the bread and wrap it in a clean tea towel to keep warm.

Repeat with the remaining dough rounds. Store any leftover flatbreads in an airtight container.

Cook's tip

If you can't find Greek-style yoghurt, use regular natural yoghurt and reduce the water in the recipe to 300ml.

Uzbek bread Farideh Azadkhah

Ingredients

Flour

Dry yeast

Salt

Sugar

Milk – optional, use instead of water to make the bread softer. I like using a mix of milk and warm water.

Egg (optional) – to glaze the bread

Toppings for the bread – sesame seeds, nigella seeds, finely minced onion, garlic

Directions

Make a pile of flour with an indentation in the middle. Don’t worry about how much or how little flour to put; you will either end up with a bigger or smaller bread and after a few tries, you will know roughly how much flour makes how big a bread. In the middle, pour some warm water. Put in half a packet of dry yeast, a teaspoon of sugar, a teaspoon of salt, and a pinch of flour. Then stir up the middle and wait for a few minutes until it bubbles up and turns into a foam.

Begin mixing the water into the flour. Mix until everything is dry and slowly add more water until you have a semi-solid dough, scraping the excess flour off the walls of the bowl. Don’t worry about exactly how much water to put; if you put too much water then put in more flour until it’s solid. I generally err on the side of too little water, because the dough will end up getting very sticky once you start kneading it. You can always add more water.

When it is solid enough to work with your hands, flour a clean surface and start kneading the dough, adding more flour as required if it gets sticky. Knead this for 10 minutes until it no longer sticks to your hands and is relatively firm and pliable.

kneading

Put this in a bowl and let it rest for 40 minutes in a warm place, covered with a clean cloth.

raised dough

After the 40 minutes are up, the dough should have risen (but don’t worry if it appears not to have risen that much). Take out the dough and knead it again for a few minutes, then shape it into a flat disc and let it rest for another 15 minutes, covered. Why do we rest the dough so much? So that we can form it into a big doughnut later. If we don’t rest it enough, we’ll find the dough is resistant to shaping.

After the 15 minutes are up, take the dough and roll it out into a big circle, not too thin. Then use your fingers to press down the middle of the dough, pushing the air outwards. Don’t make the middle too thin. Use your fingertips to press a circular ring into the middle of the dough. You really want to define a nice circular edge, it’s not so important to press the middle down. Let this rest for another 5 minutes.

Press all the way around your circular indent again. Now use a bread stamp to press down the middle and make nice patterns. The patterns aren’t just to be pretty, the holes help prevent the middle from rising, giving us that nice giant doughnut shape we want. If you don’t have a stamp, you can just use a fork to make holes all around the centre. Whether you use a stamp or fork, make sure to press down hard so the holes go all the way through the dough.

Use a brush to cover the bread with a mixture of beaten egg and milk. This will give the bread a nice shiny golden brown crust when it’s done, and also make it sticky so our toppings won’t fall off. If you don’t have egg, you can use just milk to glaze the bread, or failing that, water. The point is to wet the bread – the choice of egg or milk or water just has different effects on the finished appearance. Whatever you do, just glazing the top and sides is fine – don’t glaze the very bottom because it can end up getting stuck to the peel. Then add your toppings – I usually just put sesame seed, but nigella seed works nicely too, as does finely minced onion or garlic. Imagine it’s a giant bagel, just add whatever you would like on a bagel.

Rub flour into your baking peel to create a rough surface. Now you need to be fast so the dough does not stick to the peel. Put your dough onto the baking peel. Then quickly slide the dough onto the baking stone in an oven preheated to 400F. You just put the tip of the peel on the far end of the stone and wiggle it back and forth until your dough slides off – that’s why it’s crucial to flour the peel first, otherwise, the dough might stick. If your dough ends up sticking to the peel and won’t come off, it’s no big deal, just take the dough with your hands and put it onto the stone (be careful not to burn yourself).

Bake this for about 15 minutes until the bread has a nice golden-brown crust. Enjoy!

Italian bread Ashpazi Mahfa

 Ingredients

 • 5-5 1/2 cups bread flour All-purpose flour may be substituted, however, bread flour has a higher content of gluten which will give this bread its amazing chewy texture. Do yourself a favour and use bread flour!

 • 1 tsp sugar

 • 2 1/4 tsp regular or quick active dry yeast I always use SAF-instant

 • 2 cups very warm water If water is hot it will kill your yeast. I like to think of the temperature I would bathe a baby in. Very warm but not hot!

 • 2 tablespoons olive oil or vegetable oil

 • 2 tsp salt

Instructions

 • 1. Mix two cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of sugar, and 2 1/4 teaspoons yeast in a mixing bowl. I like to use my KitchenAid for this recipe. Now add 2 cups of warm water. Beat the mixture for 1 minute until smooth. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow to stand 1 hour until bubbly.

2. Now add oil and salt. Mix in enough remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time until a smooth dough forms. I use 5 cups because I live in a dry area. Swap to dough hook and allow the mixer to knead the dough for 5-8 minutes. Or do so by hand until the dough is smooth and springy.

3. Place dough into a large bowl greased with shortening. Cover with wrap and allow to rise 1 hour or until double. 

4. Once risen, dump the dough onto a lightly floured counter. I like to slice dough in half but this can be made into one giant loaf as well.

5. Take one part of the dough and gently shape into a ball by stretching the sides of the dough downward under the loaf to create a round, smooth ball. Repeat with the second loaf.  Place loaves smooth side up on a parchment-lined cookie sheet (Upside down if baking both on one and give them plenty of space) or a sheet greased with shortening. Or, a parchment-lined pizza stone. Allow rising 25-30 minutes.

6. Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly spray loaves with a cool water mist and sprinkle with flour. Use your hand to smooth flour evenly on the loaf. Use a bread lame to “score” bread with 1/4″ deep designs (have fun and get creative!). Place a metal pan 1/3 full of water on the bottom rack of your oven. This will steam while the bread is baking which helps create a delicious crispy crust! An alternative option would be to simply toss in 5-7 ice cubes in the bottom of the oven that will steam while baking. 

7. Place pan or stone in oven and bake for 30-35 minutes or until loaf is deep golden brown with a crisp crust and sounds hollow when you tap on it. Allow to cool for a few moments and slice with a serrated knife.