Barbari bread, chapati, marbled matcha shortbread & another coconut loaf

I would say I had fun eating them but it was over all too soon!

My benchmark with barbari bread - right or wrong - is to be able to tear off strips along one the grooves and, in that respect, this bake succeeded. I think I may do an experiment with roomāl consistencies, however, to see how that impacts the result, as the pictured bread was quite brown and crunchy on top after a shorter time than I expected. (But the interior was good and it wasn't burnt.)

Puffy can be good, though - I have a thing for flatbread and I constantly have to remind myself that these are, predominantly, breads of antiquity, predating modern methods and equipment and ingredients. Many have been dispersed and many pre-date the borders of specific countries as we know them today. As such, diversity of style, preference, practice and recipe are inevitable. Some, of course, have been codified by law or at least convention but most of these started as (and remain) simple breads, which took the forms they did based on the ingredients and aparatuses available and the lifestyles of the people.

The point that I reinforce to myself whenever I attempt some rendition of a flatbread at home or find some version offered that is not the way I think the bread should be is that these breads had their forms dictated by the neccessities of the time and situations of their creation. They weren't planned as a certain desired 'perfect' end result that diligent bakers then sought to create, preparing batch after batch  and trying flour after flour until their realised their vision. On the contrary, the finished product was an outcome of applying the resources available and the techniques known and not they other way around!

What we see as 'barbari' today is, to my way of thinking, a kind of idealisation of some 'correct' form of barbari that best expresses the properties that 'people' consider typifies this as a unique type of bread.

For all you or I know, those people who first developed what is now know as 'barbari' may well have preferred the 'puffiness' you achieved but perhaps the flour or cooking methods available to them was not ammenable to that. Who's to say?

I particularly like maneesh (substitute your own transliteration) and when I see a thick manoushe (again . . .) I catch myself exclaiming, internally: "that's not maneesh; maneesh is supposed to be thin!". At those times I have to check myself and remember that my preference does not dictate what a thing is or what it should be and a thicker manoushe is every bit as valid a preference for others and mine is for me.

All that said, my suggestion if you want a less 'puffy' result is to stretch the dough just before or as you put it in the oven. The steps for my method are:

1. Make dough (however you do it).
2. Ferment
3. Divide and round.
4. Proof
5. Form into smallish rectangles/oblongs/ovals by stretching a little.
6. Create the indent lines - pressing quite firmly.
7. Rest for a little while (this would normally happen as they are waiting to go in the oven).
8. Re-groove, if needed (depending on progress of the dough, amount of yeast, temperature and time, they may puff up a bit while waiting).
9. Transfer the dough to the baking vessel/stone or to the peel and, in doing so, stretch it out.

The important part for me is that it only goes onto the baking surface right at the end. If you are using a cookie sheet or pan, don't form the barbari on it. Instead, form it (steps 5-8) on the bench/board and only when ready to go into the oven would you then pick it up and, stretching as you do so, place it onto the sheet/pan, again, stretching as you lay it down.

This final stretching is a two-part process as you are first stretching it simply as a by-product of picking it up off the bench. The second stretch, occuring just seconds later, is as you place it onto the sheet or peel or (in my case) directly onto the hot pizza stone in the oven. That second part is when you bring it to it's desired length.

As above, your preference is as valid as mine or any on else's but, with the two barbari bakers that (pre-lockdown!) I visit, and having seen videos of several bakeries, the grooves and stretching combined can sometimes result in little tears in the dough. I have no idea whether this in something to be avoided but it does indicate just how forcefully those grooves are applied and how much it is stretched out.

Personally, I prefer when that doesn't happen as those bits are a little too cripy for me but I think that's just a natural side side-effect of the level of dimpling and stretching and so part and parcel of the form, when it happens.

More barbari tomorrow, probably!

Thanks for giving me the kick.

d.

Because why not bake another 3 loaves?

This time I tried three different consistencies of roomāl glaze, roughly corresponding with 1, 2 and 3 teapsoons of flour per cup (250ml) of water. I think I liked the 3 tsp per cup best but perhaps a little lower would be good so, as that is 1 tsp per 83ml, I might do 1 tsp in 100ml and that's more than sufficient for my 3 small loaves, which were all the same size this time at ~285gm. That's a good size as it allow for further experimentation as I can stretch them relatively thin and still fit on my pizza stone, if I want.

I also mixed up the flour a little but, honestly, the flavour was a bit naff, despite it being a relatively long overnight room temp ferment.

My understanding is the barbari dough should always be fermented at room temp but I am wondering whether I might follow a similar process as I do for my baguettes, with a decent fridge retard or perhaps I will just go for a much longer room temp ferment. I'll see how I feel, I suppose.

Anyway: today's offering:

Barbari_02_01.JPG

Barbari_02_02.JPG

Or not - I really don't know but those are the paths it seems my mind insists on exploring.

d.