Monday, February 15, 2010

BBA - Lavash Crackers


My first foray into making flatbread or crackers was making this delightful crisp rosemary flatbread that I saw on Tracey's Culinary Adventures. It was so easy and delicious and played to my laziness.

But I was still eager to try Peter Reinhart's lavash, given the photos in the book, The Bread Baker's Apprentice. It's a tiny amount of dough, and the recipe calls for rolling it out paper thin. To accomplish that, I borrowed a trick from Ad Hoc At Home and used my pasta roller to get it paper thin. I could have read the newspaper through it had I been required to do so.

But that was truly too thin, and it made the lavash difficult to work with and made twice what the recipe was supposed to yield. It also went from raw to deep brown in about a minute.

I topped mine with a variety of twigs and seeds (zaatar, ras el hanout, sesame, kosher salt and dehydrated onion). All of the flavors were good in their own way, and the lavash was so fragile that it shattered when you bit into it. But it was good nonetheless, and it disappeared quickly.

Although it was good, I doubt I will make this one again. I've made Tracey's flatbread repeatedly, but this one is just too high maintenance.

Make sure you check out the other members of the Slow & Steady subgroup of the Bread Baker's Apprentice event (and they are Nancy (of Corner Loaf), Cathy (of The Tortefeasor), Jessica (A Singleton in the Kitchen), Melissa (of From Laptop to Stovetop), Kayte (of Grandma's Kitchen Table), Sarah (of Blue Ridge Baker), Di (of Di's Kitchen Notebook), Margaret (of Tea and Scones) and Natalia (of Gatti Fili e Farina). 

7 comments:

Kayte said...

I love it when you bake before me so that I can benefit from all the little bits and pieces you work out while making/eating these breads! Wow, that photo of that very long dough is amazing! The photo of your crackers looks so good, I would love to try them all right now! Great job!

Megan said...

I would love to make soft lavash - and I can't remember if there is a recipe for one in the BBA.

I never would have thought to use my pasta machine for cracker dough!

Unknown said...

Love that photo of the dough all rolled our Leslie! It's a good thing you have such a long counter. That wouldn't have been possible in my kitchen :)

Mimi said...

Looks delicious. I love home made crackers and flat breads, they have such incredbile flavor.
Mimi

Michele said...

Crackers can be tricky, but I think these look delicious.

TeaLady said...

Made mine earlier this week. And they puffed. Not good. Won't make again, but was interesting.

Yours look like they came out tons better than mine.

Di said...

Nice job on the lavash! I made this quite a while back with Daring Bakers, and I have to agree with you. It was pretty good, but I've made other flatbreads that I like better. I'm thinking of trying the pita variation, though.