Persian Flatbread or Nan e Barberi

nice open crumb with delicious smelling and tasting crust

It’s avocado time and beside a lot of delicious recipes with avocado we can’t get enough of guacamole or just eating it out of the skin with some honey. And what goes well with guacamole? Yes, flatbread. So, you can imagine I loved the theme Elisabeth came up with for Bread Baking Babes of this month; Persian Flatbread also known as Nan e Barberi.

When I saw the photo of the Nan e Barberi the thought of garlic came to my mind. Wouldn’t it be even more delicious with bits of crunchy garlic and sesame seeds?

I had to add a bit more flour than the recipe calls for during mixing. I buy unbleached wheat flour from Germany and it’s known to use less water that American flour. I left the recipe as I found it at Elisabeth’s blog for other home bakers to follow.

It’s an easy recipe as long as you can accept the slack dough. I have to admit I had to control myself and added just a bit of extra flour during mixing to give it more strength. It worked well. The dough rose very well. When I poured it out of the mixing bowl I left it as it was. In fact I can say I have a non-shaped flatbread. The difficult part was when I poured the dough onto my floured work counter and had to transfer it to the floured parchment paper.

The monsoon pours heavily so I have to put Nan in the oven just before we eat it.The result is delicious. The crumb is full of air and the crust is deliciously topped with crunchy garlic and black and white sesame seeds. Even with the rain we’ll eat outdoors. The rain blocks the view, but there’s enough to see up close. Of course there’s the Nan e Barberi with avocado. And there the Koi’s and turtles eating together in the pond, the birds and butterflies in the garden are hiding from the rain and the snails and earth worms coming out of the rain onto the terrace. Then there’s the fresh smell of water in the air and the sound of all the frogs in the pond sounding almost as loud as the pouring rain. The sky looks grey, but there’s always a bit of blue in the far distant even if you can't see it. 

And the best part is Peter’s smile when he finishes the last piece of Nan and he says: ‘and again delicious bread on our table’.

Armenian bread not by Connie but this time by her husband Peter

Today is a very special day. I finally kept my promise to Connie to bake her a bread. As you all know, Connie is a great and skilled home baker and I am the lucky one to taste everything and having the most wonderful loafs for breakfast, lunch or with a soup for diner.

Because I am grateful for all she bakes for us I promised her to bake the bread I baked a very long time ago. It was the only bread I baked in my life, but it was delicious and I remember the taste of it even today.  At that time I baked it from a recipe I found in a book about herbs and spices. But the book is gone and I only knew the name of one special herb I needed; Common Rue. So first I searched on the WWW and found a very basic recipe. It was so very basic that Connie said you can’t bake bread with this recipe, there is so much missing and unclear. So she was so kind to change it into a good recipe.

But here in Thailand we can't find Common Rue. Two years ago we went to the Netherlands (it’s really on old promise) and I bought the Common Rue. But then it took me too long before I started. When I finally did, the Rue was all moist.

Last April we visited the Netherlands again, and again I bought Common Rue. And yesterday I started baking. The result matched my memory. It was delicious and beautiful and more important Connie was very happy. She was very surprised with the special taste of this bread. I won’t be baking much in the future, I like gardening more, but when I bake again it will be this Armenian Bread.

Connie asked me to send it to Zorra for Bread Baking Day#60. I'm very honored to do so and happy because it's the 6th anniversary. The theme is Glazed Bread. I think my bread is very glazed. Congratulations for all participants.

Sourdough Vermont with Figs and Walnuts

It’s a while since I posted about bread baking, that doesn’t mean I don’t bake bread. I bake a few loaves of bread each week. It’s because I like to post about bread I bake for the first time. But, I also like to eat bread I baked before and I don’t post about these.

Today I saw figs and walnuts in my pantry and thought about that delicious Vermont Sourdough of Jeffrey Hamelman.

The smell of figs and walnuts give this loaf a rich filling and it doesn’t need too much topping. Except for cheese of course or some butter. The next day we drove to Chiang Mai, a 3,5 hours ride, and a nice slice of Vermont with Figs and Walnuts makes the ride even better.  

This way we have another loaf of bread I’ll bake again.