(For Tandoor Workshop @ 2013 Kneading Conference)
Recipe by Dawn Woodward of Evelyn’s Crackers (Toronto)
Yield: 4 breads
This mildly sweet honey-bread is great right out of the oven, or toasted and buttered
the next morning to eat with jam and yogurt. I first tried it traveling on the bus from
Turkey to Georgia, on the main highway through Georgia. The highway was lined with women working at their tandoor ovens. Trucks and cars were pulled over, and people were standing around eating fresh hot bread. Fabulous! I was thrilled to see it at the Tblisi market, where I would walk around dipping pieces of the bread into my pint of matsoni (sheep yogurt) and joking with the vendors. My idea of a perfect morning!
Since I don’t have a tandoor oven on hand, I prefer to bake directly on unglazed ceramic tiles (they can be found in most hardware stores). To use: lay them on the middle rack in your oven, side by side, as many as the oven will hold, leaving about a 2 inch gap between the tiles and the oven walls for even heat distribution. Tiles help breads cook quickly and retain their moisture. They come right off the tiles when ready. The tiles can be left in all the time, and will not affect other types of baking.
DOUGH:
2 cups milk
1/2 cup honey (I prefer a stronger darker honey, like buckwheat)
5 tablespoons (2 1/2 ounces) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon dried instant yeast
5 1/2-6 cups all-purpose flour
EGG WASH:
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon honey
In a small saucepot over high heat, heat the milk with the honey until small bubbles appear at the surface near the rim . Pour into a large mixing bowl, and add the butter, vanilla, spices and salt. Stir until the butter is melted and the mixture cools to lukewarm. Add the egg and the yeast and stir to dissolve.
Hand Kneading instructions: Gradually stir in the flour, one cup at a time. When it becomes too stiff to stir, turn out onto a floured surface and work in the rest of the flour, scraping the bottom of the table with a dough scraper or the back edge of a knife, to prevent dough from sticking. The dough will be sticky, soft and stretchy. Try not to knead in any additional flour beyond the six cups.
Mixer Kneading Instructions: In an upright mixer, stir in the first three cups of flour and mix well on low. Then gradually add the remaining two cups and mix for a few minutes, still on low, then turn out onto a floured surface and knead by hand briefly until dough is smooth and comes together.
After kneading by hand or machine, return the dough to the mixing bowl and cover with a plastic bag or cloth. Ferment in a cool area 3 to 5 hours. It will double in volume.
Heat oven to 425 Fahrenheit. Meanwhile, divide the dough into four equal balls, cover with a cloth, and let rest while the oven comes to temperature (30 minutes).
In a small bowl, mix the ingredients for the egg wash and set aside. On a floured surface, dimple and flatten the balls with wet fingertips into 12 inch long ovals. Brush lightly with egg mixture and place on the tiles. Bake ten to twelve minutes, rotating the breads halfway through, for even coloring and baking. The breads will be shiny and darkreddish brown, with a lighter center.
Eat warm or room temperature. These breads will keep for two days uncut in a plastic bag. They make excellent toast after that.