Little Bit - PLEASE share your homemade Lavosh bread recipe!

[Peggy]

Little Bit,

On another thread you mentioned that you make homemade lavosh bread. Would you be willing to share your recipe??? Pretty please??!!:D Since I moved from the Bay Area, I have not been able to find it in the stores. Would love to be able to make it on my own.

TIA!

Peggy

[funnybone]

Just moving this one up.

[Little Bit]

Recipe coming up! (I've been trying to get this one typed in the computer for a while now, but kept putting it off, thanks for the inspiration!)

[Little Bit]

Here ya go! I've modified the recipe I found on the internet to accommodate my Kitchen Aid Mixer, my preference for letting the dough rest in the icebox overnight, and my use of a pasta roller to shape the dough.

Lavash

1 1/3 Cups warm water
1/4 Cup Olive oil
3 Tablespoons Sugar
1 packet active dry Yeast (2 teaspoons)
2 teaspoons Salt
4 Cups Flour (I use Gold Medal All Purpose)

Topping:
1/2 Cup Milk
Sesame Seeds

I make this in my Kitchen Aid Mixer, with the paddle blade, switching to the dough hook when it's time to knead the dough. I roll bits of dough through my pasta roller, instead of trying to use a rolling pin. This is the easiest way I've found to roll the dough to an even thickness.
I've learned that a one ounce piece of dough is a good size to work with, as you can fit a good many of the rolled out bits on your cookie sheet at one time. Smaller bits work well too, and look nice for a party-type platter presentation, if you're willing to spend the time. (Larger pieces of dough are fine to work with, and cook well too, but I find it easier to store the smaller ones.)

Blend the warm Water, Olive Oil, Sugar, and Yeast five minutes on low. Add Salt.
Add 2 Cups Flour, blending. Add the other two cups, and blend. Switch to the dough hook (spray it with Pam if you like) and knead on low for 20 minutes. The dough should be nice and soft, but not too soft to form a good dough ball. (If needed, add a bit more flour, but don't over do it.)

Put the dough in a Ziploc bag sprayed with Pam, and let the dough rest in the fridge overnight.
Bring the dough out and let it come to room temperature. Pinch off bits of dough (one ounce sized bits work well) and roll them into little balls. Flour the dough bits, and run each one through a pasta roller. Start at the widest setting, work your way down to the next to the smallest setting. The object is just to flatten the dough, and make it uniformly thin.( not to blend it further, as you might with a pasta dough.) If you like, you can fold the dough on itself to create straight edges, but oval shapes work fine too.
Put the pieces of dough on a cookie sheet lined with foil, pricking the dough with a fork to keep it from swelling too much during baking, brush with milk, sprinkle with sesame seeds, and bake in a 375 degree oven for eight to ten minutes. Rotate the pan once during cooking, for even browning. I like to put the cooked breads in a warm oven (very low temperature) to dry it out completely, so it doesn't get tough.

It isn't essential that you let the dough rest overnight. If you like, you can make the breads the same day you make the dough, letting the dough rise for about an hour and a half before shaping it, but I think the overnight rest improves the flavor of the lavash. (It also gives the cook a rest.) I tend to bake this dough over several days, just to keep from wearing myself out, and from eating it all at once. Whatever suits your schedule is fine. I've made this dough using olive oil, vegetable oil and extra virgin olive oil. They're all fine to use.

The original recipe calls for dividing the dough into eight pieces and rolling each one out to a 12 inch circle. I find this harder to do than it's worth, since it's so difficult to get the dough to an even thickness, (be careful not to break a tooth on the thicker edges if you roll it out yourself!) but if you want something spectacular to serve at a party, so your guests can have the fun of literally breaking bread together, it might be fun to try.

[Peggy]

Thank you so much!!!!! I can't wait to try it!

Peggy

[Little Bit]

Just bumping this one up to make note of a wonderful technique I discovered tonight. Part of the beauty of the way-too-expensive great big rounds of lavosh you can buy at fancy grocery stores, is the gorgeous way there are bubbles throughout the cracker, pretty evenly spaced. I hadn't managed to replicate this effect at home until tonight, when I got the idea to cut the dough into one inch strips with my ravioli cutter (like a little pizza cutter with a wavy edge).

Wow!!

It turned out beautifully bubbly! :)

Actually, what I did: I rolled out pieces of dough larger than the one ounce pieces referenced in the recipe above, and pricked these sheets of dough all over with a fork, then cut them into one inch strips with my ravioli cutter.

I also baked them in a 400 degree oven, instead of the 375 referenced above.

I'm off to eat more lavosh!