Lagana (Greek Flat Bread)

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Lagana (Greek Flat Bread)

16/03/201105/04/20190
Just before I start talking about my yet another bread adventure, I can’t help but sharing some thoughts regarding this catastrophe in Japan. I saw on TV how in a matter of minutes the wreath of nature has made disappear what humans have created in so many years of struggle and effort. Also, all these explosions in the nuclear industries showed me the vanity and arrogance we as humans have, thinking that we can have control over nature. Only an earth’s hiccup was enough to show us that all our masterpieces fell like the castles made on the sand.
I took a lesson from this and a loud one I can say! Anyway, I apologize for this, but I can’t help thinking that the decisions of some people affect the lives of several other thousands if not million! My thoughts and prays are with those people who suffer the consequences!
Clean Monday is the first day of the 40 days of lent until the Christian Orthodox Easter and it was last week. On that day people eat fruits of the sea and octopus and squid and shrimps. Also they make elephant beans casserole, eat olives and a salad made of fish eggs (taramosalata). Customarily, we do not eat the common bread, but a flat bread with a lot of sesame on it that is called Lagana.

 

This year was the first time I made this type of bread and I can tell you that I was pretty anxious about it, since I was expecting the in-laws as well. I am sure you get the picture, no failures accepted here.
I decided to go with Argiro Barbarigou’s recipe that sounded easy and straight forward. Argiro Barbarigou belongs to the new generation of Greek chefs and having made her vasilopita which was a success, I decided to trust her on this venture too.
The dosage makes three medium sized laganas and they were excellent. I did add more sugar and salt since I like to hear these flavors to my bread. Other than that I followed the recipe as it was and we all enjoyed these laganas with our meal. I know the pictures are not as good I would want but with 6 mouths open and ready to devour them, as you can understand my photo time was extremely limited.
So, let’s not waste more time and proceed with the recipe!

Lagana (Greek Flat Bread)

Ingredients
600 gr. peasant’s flour (it is more yellow than the ordinary, I don’t know if you have it where you live, I guess you can go ahead and substitute with bread flour)
500 gr. bread flour
1 tsp sugar
42 gr. fresh yeast
¼ cup water
4 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp ouzo (you can omit this and add anise seeds instead)

520 gr. water (because flour differs so much from country to country and even from brand to brand I am giving you only how much I used. You can start by adding 450 gr. and throw small portions until the dough becomes soft and non-sticky)

Sesame

Lagana-tile1.jpg

Instructions

We crumble the yeast in a bowl, put the sugar and add about ¼ cup water and dissolve it.
We let it rest for about 10 to 15 minutes until it starts to bubble.
In a big bowl we put the salt and the flour and we whisk.
We pour the bubbling yeast the ouzo, the olive oil and slowly the water. With a fork we mix until all the ingredients start to form crumbles.
We transfer to the mixer and put the hook. In low to medium speed let the mixer knead the dough.
We let the mixer knead for about 10 to 15 minutes. If the dough is sticky you can add tsp by tsp flour. If the dough is hard you can add water again tsp by tsp.
When the dough is ready we oil a bowl, place the dough in it, cover it with a towel and place it in the oven for about one hour.

 

After one hour take it out of the oven, deflate it and divide it into three balls.
We cover a pan with parchment paper and we form these three balls into three flat breads with our fingertips.
We brush them with a little water and throw the sesame.
We let them rise for half hour and then we bake them in a preheated oven to 200° C if we speak for conventional or to 175° C if we use air.
We bake for about 50 minutes to one hour until they take a golden color.
I would like to thank Stephanie and her beautiful and artful blog  The Starving Artist for giving me a Lovely Award and Karishma my dear friend from India and her mouthwatering blog Effortless Cooking. Easy Baking for giving me another beautiful Bird Award.

Please go and check their blogs I am sure you will see many beautiful recipes to try! Thank you again!

I am linking this to
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by in Bread, Greek