Armenian Bread

Armenian bread, also known as Persian bread or Lavash, is a soft flat bread similar to an omelette. In general, there are two ways to prepare it, one that acquires a flexible texture, which we frequently use as a wrapping ingredient (for example in wraps), and the other that has a hard, dry and brittle texture.

In general,  flexible bread is used more, as it has a greater number of uses and better preserves flavors.  For its part, stale bread is used almost exclusively for those times when the occasion demands it, for example in the ritual uses of the Eucharists of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

On the other hand, it is very interesting to mention that its traditional preparation was declared by Unesco Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2016.

However, regardless of how you use it, we teach you how to prepare it so that you can start exploring new recipes:

Ingredients

• 25 grams of brewer’s yeast
• 600 cubic centimeters of warm water

• 1 kilogram of flour
• A tablespoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of sugar

Preparation

The preparation of this Armenian bread is really simple. Take into account the rest times of the dough, they are important for the recipe. The preparation time is long, so don’t consider it if you need a quick recipe.

1. First, start by putting the yeast in a large bowl and dissolving it in a little warm water. Once it has dissolved, add what is left of the water along with the salt and sugar. Mix until everything is well integrated.
2. Then, when you have everything well incorporated, start adding the flour, sifting it beforehand. Knead until you get a compact dough.
3. Next, make a ball with the dough, leave it resting in the bowl covered with a cloth to ferment. This will take about 1 hour.
4. After that time, knead to give it smoothness and let it ferment for another 2 hours.
5. Then, preheat the oven to 200ºC and divide the dough into tennis ball-sized portions, sprinkle a surface on which you can work the dough with flour, to prevent it from sticking, and begin to flatten each of the balls with a rolling pin. The idea is to achieve a flat dough, no more than 2 millimeters thick, each ball will give you a bread of about 20 centimeters in diameter.
6. Prick the dough with a fork to prevent it from puffing or bubbling and place the plates on a baking sheet and bake for 3 minutes, just until lightly browned.
7. As soon as they are baking, stack them on a tray to keep them warm.
8. Finally, you can serve them immediately or store them in the refrigerator in a plastic bag, it usually keeps well for weeks.

Additional tips

• In case you need it, you can add more water, but don’t add too much as it can damage the consistency of the bread- However, this can be solved with a little more flour.
• In some regions toasted sesame seeds are added after the dough has fermented.
• If you want your Armenian bread to be soft, wrap it in a damp cloth before putting it in the oven.