Eish Shamsi

The dough is left to rise in the sun, which is what the name means and what gives the sour, open crumb.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 700 g strong wholemeal flour
• 300 g active sourdough starter
• 480 ml warm water
• 16 g salt
• coarse bran, for the boards

Method

1. THE DOUGH IS LEFT TO RISE IN THE SUN, which is what the name means. Shaped rounds are set out on bran-dusted boards in direct sunlight, covered with a cloth, and left for two to four hours depending on how hot the day is. Sun on a dark cloth over a dough gets it to around 30 to 35°C -- warmer than a kitchen and warmer than most proving drawers -- and a sourdough at that temperature ferments fast and sours hard, which is exactly the point: this is a noticeably tangier, more open-crumbed bread than one proved cool. Proved indoors at room temperature it takes most of a day and comes out milder. Where there is no sun to be had, a turned-off oven with the light on gets close.
2. IT IS A SOURDOUGH AND THERE IS NO BAKER'S YEAST IN IT. Three hundred grams of active starter. The sourness is half the bread, and a yeasted dough given the same warm rise just over-proves and collapses.
3. IT IS WATCHED RATHER THAN TIMED. In strong sun it can be ready in two hours; on a cool bright day it may take five. The test is the dough, not the clock: puffed, domed and holding a fingerprint that springs back slowly.
4. THE LOAVES ARE THICK, NOT FLAT. Shaped to three or four centimetres and about twenty across. This is a thick bread with a substantial crumb -- not a pocket bread -- and shaping it thin gives something quite different.
5. IT IS BAKED IN A DOMED OVEN, OR AS HOT AS THE HOUSE WILL MANAGE. 230°C with a preheated stone and a tray of water for steam. Twenty-five to thirty minutes to a deep brown crust.
6. THE BOARDS ARE BRAN-DUSTED, NOT FLOURED. Same reason as every bread here: a wet proved round lifts off bran and sticks to flour.
7. The flour, starter, water and salt mixed to a soft dough.
8. Kneaded 12 MINUTES and rested, covered, 1 HOUR indoors.
9. Divided into 4 and shaped into thick rounds 3 to 4 cm deep and about 20 cm across.
10. Set on BRAN-DUSTED boards and put OUT IN DIRECT SUNLIGHT under a cloth.
11. LEFT 2 to 4 HOURS, WATCHED rather than timed, until puffed and domed and a fingerprint springs back SLOWLY.
12. The oven heated to 230°C with a stone and a tray of water inside.
13. Baked 25 to 30 MINUTES to a deep brown crust.
14. Cooled on a rack.
15. TESTED: the crumb should be open and taste distinctly sour. A tight mild crumb means it was proved too cool.
16. Keeps 3 days.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Egypt · All recipes