Lavash

It is rolled paper-thin and slapped onto the inside wall of the oven, where it cooks in under a minute.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 600 g strong white bread flour
• 300 ml water
• 12 g salt
• 6 g fast-action yeast

Method

1. IT IS ROLLED PAPER-THIN AND SLAPPED ONTO THE INSIDE WALL OF THE OVEN, WHERE IT COOKS IN UNDER A MINUTE. Its article describes the dough being slapped against the hot walls of a clay oven, placed on the sides using a cushion, and cooking very quickly. That is the whole character of the bread: thin enough to go translucent, cooked so fast that it blisters and chars in spots before it has time to dry out, and soft when it comes off. Baked flat on a tray in a domestic oven instead, it dries to a cracker -- which is a real form of lavash, since its article notes the bread is often dried deliberately, but it is not the soft bread you wrap things in.
2. AT HOME THE SUBSTITUTE IS A DRY CAST-IRON PAN, NOT AN OVEN. Get a heavy pan as hot as it goes with nothing in it, lay the rolled sheet on, and it will balloon and blister in thirty to forty seconds; turn it for fifteen more. This gets you much closer than a baking tray because the heat comes from one fierce surface, which is what the oven wall is.
3. THE DOUGH IS STIFF, NOT SLACK, AND THE NUMBERS ARE IN ITS ARTICLE. Per hundred grams of flour: 45 to 55 grams of water, 2 grams of salt, 1 gram of yeast. That is a firm dough you can roll out thin without it springing back, which is the opposite of the pebble bread on this site.
4. IT IS FERMENTED BRIEEFLY, SHAPED, AND RESTED AGAIN. Its article gives 30 to 60 minutes at about 30C, then shaping into balls of 100 to 300 grams, then a second rise of only 5 to 20 minutes. The short second rest is what lets it be rolled thin: a fully proved ball is springy and fights the pin.
5. IT IS ROLLED WITH A THIN ROD, NOT A THICK PIN. Its article names the implement -- a thin rod. A dowel or a length of broom handle works and a fat rolling pin does not: you need to push the dough out to the edges without the pin bridging over the middle.
6. A SPIKED PIN FOR THE INDENTATIONS IS AN OPTIONAL SECOND ROLLING. Its article mentions it. The dimples stop the sheet ballooning into one enormous bubble.
7. LEAVENED OR UNLEAVENED, AND SOURDOUGH IS THE THIRD OPTION. Its article allows all three, and describes the starter as dough kept back from the previous batch. It also records that some producers use baking soda, and that this is prohibited by the Ministry of Health -- noted rather than recommended.
8. SOFT IT IS A WRAP, DRIED IT IS STORAGE. Its article has soft lavash used for wraps with kebab, barbecued meat or cheese, and served with dips and stews. Dried sheets stack and keep for months and are brought back by sprinkling with water.

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 Iran · All recipes