Sheermal

Warm sweetened milk replaces the water in the dough entirely, with saffron and cardamom in it.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (butter), dairy (milk), dairy (whole milk).

Ingredients

• 600 g plain white flour
• 350 ml whole milk, warmed
• 80 g sugar
• 1 teaspoon saffron threads, ground and steeped in 4 tablespoons warm milk
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 7 g fast-action yeast
• 8 g salt
• 80 g butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons milk, to glaze
• slivered pistachios, to decorate

Method

1. WARM SWEETENED MILK REPLACES THE WATER IN THE DOUGH ENTIRELY, WITH SAFFRON AND CARDAMOM IN IT. Its article describes this as the change that makes the bread: the warm water in a plain leavened flatbread recipe is replaced by warm milk sweetened with sugar and flavoured with saffron and cardamom. Not milk added to the water -- milk instead of it, three hundred and fifty millilitres of it, which is why this is a mildly sweet bread rather than a savoury one. The enriched bread on this site has milk, yoghurt and egg alongside its water; this one has no water at all.
2. THE SAFFRON IS STEEPED IN SOME OF THE MILK, NOT IN WATER. A teaspoon of ground threads in four tablespoons of warm milk for twenty minutes until it is deep orange, then into the dough with the rest. It is the flavour the bread is identified by and a full teaspoon is right.
3. THE SUGAR IS IN THE DOUGH, NOT A SYRUP ON TOP. Eighty grams. Its article calls the result a mildly sweet bread, and mildly is the word -- this is eaten with savoury food.
4. THE BUTTER GOES IN AFTER THE DOUGH HAS COME TOGETHER. Mix flour, milk, sugar, yeast and salt to a rough dough first, then work the softened butter in a piece at a time. Added at the start it coats the flour and the gluten never develops.
5. IT IS A SLOW DOUGH AND IT WANTS TWO HOURS. Sugar and fat both slow fermentation. Two hours for the first rise, then shaped and rested forty-five minutes.
6. IT IS ROLLED TO ABOUT A CENTIMETRE AND PRICKED. Discs of roughly twenty centimetres, docked all over with a fork so they do not dome.
7. IT IS BAKED HOT AND BRIEFLY AND WATCHED CLOSELY. 220C for ten to twelve minutes. There is milk sugar throughout and it goes from gold to burnt quickly.
8. IT IS BRUSHED WITH MILK AND FINISHED WITH PISTACHIO. Milk as it comes out, for shine, then slivered pistachios pressed on. Its article has it eaten with kebabs and alongside slow-cooked meat, and notes that the preparation varies a little from one part of the country to another, and that it is sometimes bought as a souvenir when travelling between them.

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