Lavash Crackers

 Have you ever had the desire to make your own crackers? It’s a great complement to any dips and crackers are great all year round. Since we've decided to no longer purchase crackers from the store and make our own at home, we didn't have to search far for a good recipe.  This recipe I’m sharing is very simple to make and won’t take much of your time or effort. I’ve owned the Peter Reinhart’s Bread Baker’s Apprentice cookbook for quite some time now and have had much fun trying out his bread recipes. We really enjoy making his Lavash Crackers. The recipe which I would like to share has been altered to fit our family’s to our own taste.

Lavash crakckers also known as Armenian flatbread also has Iranian roots and is now eaten through the Middle East and around the world It is similar to the many other Middle Eastern and North African flatbreads known by different names, such as mankoush or mannaesh (Lebanese) barbari (Iranian), khoubiz or khobz (Arabian), aiysh (Egyptian), kesret and mella (Tunisian), pide or pita (Turkish), and pideh (Armenian).  The main difference between these brads is either how thick or thin the dough is rolled out or the type of oven in which they are baked (or on which they are baked, as many many of these breads are cooked on stones or red hot pans with convex surface). quoted from Lavash Crackers of The Bread Baker's Apprentice Cookbook.

Lavash Crackers ~ Armenian Style

1 ½ cups fresh milled soft wheat berry flour

½ tsp salt

½ instant yeast (I used 1 tsp regular yeast)

1 tbsp honey

1 tbsp oil

1/3 – ½ cup water at room temperature

Some sesame seeds (We added)

Some flax seeds (We added)

Sprinkled cayenne pepper once dough was rolled out (We added)

(We normally double the recipe.)

Directions:

1. If you are using the instant yeast, stir flour, salt, yeast, honey, oil and just enough water to bring everything together into a ball. You may not need not need the full ½ cup water. (skip to No. 2. For further directions)

Directions for Regular yeast

If regular yeast, proof yeast by adding ½ tsp honey and mix in room temperature water. Make sure to dilute honey before sprinkling yeast in water. You can mix the yeast in the water if you wish or just let it sit on top of water. Let the water and yeast sit for at least 5 minutes.

Once the yeast has been activated, poor yeast mixture in mixing bowl along with salt, honey, oil and start mixing. Slowly add flour and let the mixer do its job. Today we added sesame seeds and flax seeds. If you find your mixer is straining, please remove dough and knead the dough on a floured surface.

2. Transfer the dough in an oiled bowl and let ferment at room temperature for 90 minutes or until the dough doubles in size. (oops, I forgot to do that and they still turned out great).

3. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

4. Oil the surface where you’ll be rolling out the dough. I usually try to shape the dough into a rectangular shape to fit my cookie sheet before rolling it out. Directions say you can roll it out into paper-thin sheets which we don’t do. Today, we actually rolled out the dough directly onto a parchment paper sized to the cookie sheet.

We then sprinkled cayenne pepper on the top of the dough and then Leah precut the crackers using a pie pastry wheel Directions say you can mist the top of the dough with water and add a covering of seeds or spices on the dough.

Suggestions for seeds or spices:

• Poppy seeds
• Sesame seeds
• Paprika
• Cumin seeds
• Caraway seeds
• Kosher or pretzel salt

5. Place the cookie sheet on the middle tray and Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the crackers begin to brown evenly on the top. I have to let my crackers make longer since mine are not very thin.

6. Remove the pan from the oven and let cool, about 10 minutes. Once cooled, you can snap the crackers apart or break pieces off if you did not precut the crackers.


Have you tried making your own crackers before?  If so what is your favorite recipe?  If you've posted it, please be sure to share your link and kindly link back to this post.  

Enjoy, Blessings!