After one year and 104 recipes, I finished the Brooks Bakes Bread Project on March 27, 2012. You can still find me baking and cooking at my new blog, Tangled Up In Food.

Categories: Flat Breads

Armenian Thin Bread
October 3, 2011

by stacy
Published on: October 3, 2011
Categories: Armenian Thin Bread, Flat Breads
Tags:No Tags
Comments: No Comments

“Throughout the Middle East one finds many versions of the crisp flatbreads.  The one I have chosen here is simple to make, a good keeper, and extremely pleasant in flavor and texture.”
-James Beard, Beard on Bread

My final loaf in the “Flat Breads” chapter was Armenian Thin Bread, which I made last night (two chapters down, nine more to finish!)

Here are the ingredients:

Armenian Thin Bread Ingredients

What I love about flat breads is how straightforward they can be.  I mixed the ingredients together and then kneaded my dough.  The dough took a long time to rise–almost 2 hours–and then I divided it into fourths and rolled it out into sheets.

My oven racks were still positioned from when I made two sheets of Bread Sticks, so I was able to bake both baking sheets at once.  I rotated the baking sheets halfway through the 15 minute baking time to ensure even baking.

Armenian Thin Bread

Armenian Thin Bread tastes very similar to Pita loaves–soft, spongy, and delicious–but the process for making Armenian Thin Bread is much simpler.  It is an excellent bread to serve with hummus, but it also tastes wonderful plain…like the loaf that disappeared right after coming out of the oven.

Note: This bread is not a very good keeper; it is best eaten fresh out of the oven.

 

Norwegian Flatbread
October 2, 2011

by stacy
Published on: October 2, 2011
Categories: Flat Breads, Norwegian Flatbread
Tags:No Tags
Comments: No Comments

“[Norwegian Flatbread] entails a deft rolling job, but is well worth the trouble because of the crisp, mealy flavor that is excellent with smoked fish or salt meats cut paper thin.”
-James Beard, Beard on Bread

It has been such a beautiful fall weekend that I have gotten behind in my posts.  On Friday night I made Norwegian Flatbread for dinner, served with hummus and squash (since Mike and I have vegetarian leanings, we didn’t have any smoked fish or salt meat handy).

Here are the ingredients:

Norwegian Flatbread Ingredients

It was surprising easy to find barley flour–the wide selection at my local Cub Foods grocery store never ceases to amaze me.

With only four ingredients, this is one of the simpler recipes in Beard on Bread.  I mixed the ingredients together, kneaded the dough, and rolled it out.  The dough was supposed to be “paper-thin”–I could only roll my dough out to be five-sheets-of-paper-thin.  Next, I cooked the dough on the stove on medium heat for about 10 minutes on each side.

Norwegian Flatbread

Since I didn’t want to spend the whole evening watching Norwegian Flatbread cook, I used my frying pans in addition to my griddle.

Norwegian Flatbread

Norwegian Flatbread isn’t much to look at, and because I didn’t roll my dough out thinly enough, my bread was chewy instead of crispy.  However, it paired nicely with hummus and the barley flour provides a unique, whole-grain flavor and hearty texture.

Lefse
July 2, 2011

by stacy
Published on: July 2, 2011
Categories: Flat Breads, Lefse
Tags:No Tags
Comments: No Comments

“Lefse is a rather unusual flatbread of Scandinavian origin…it is easy to prepare and delightful to eat.”
-James Beard, Beard on Bread

Since I grew up in northern Minnesota, where it seems like everyone has a Swedish great-grandmother, a Norwegian grandfather, or a Finnish surname, I am familiar with lefse.  (And for the record, I’m also one-quarter Finnish.)  Making a delicious batch of lefse seemed like the perfect way to start off my holiday weekend.

Here are the ingredients:

Lefse Ingredients

The brown bag in the front is cardamom, a spice which is frequently used in Scandinavian baking.  My father makes an incredible cardamom bread using my great-grandmother’s recipe.

The lefse was easy to prepare–I just had to mix all the ingredients together and roll out the dough.  I mixed 3 cups of flour into my dough instead of the 3 1/2 called for by the recipe, using the extra 1/2 cup to flour my rolling surface and the rolling pin.

Lefse Dough

Lefse is definitely trickier than Beard lets on.  In my experience, lefse is a very thin bread, about the thickness of a pancake, and it is served rolled up.  Actually rolling dough that thin is a challenge.  My first batch was definitely too thick–after cooking on the griddle the pieces puffed up to almost one-half inch.  By the third batch, I was able to get a much thinner bread, but still not thin enough to roll up.

Lefse Baking

Thickness issues aside, the lefse was delicious.  It had a perfect amount of sweetness and a delicate, rather than overpowering, flavor from the cardamom.  Mike and I ate our way through most of the batch and just like Beard said it would be, it was delightful.

Lefse

 

Pita Bread
May 11, 2011

by stacy
Published on: May 11, 2011
Categories: Flat Breads, Pita
Tags:No Tags
Comments: No Comments

“Pita loaves are great fun to make.”
-James Beard, Beard on Bread

Pitas are the only commercially produced bread that I’ve bought since starting this project.  I was in the mood for some beef pita pockets and vegetarian pita pizzas for dinner this week, so on Monday night I decided to try making some pitas myself.

Here are the ingredients:

Pita Bread Ingredients

Because Beard’s recipes run on the salty side, I cut the amount of salt in half from one and a half tablespoons down to three quarters of a tablespoon.

Pitas are rather time-consuming.  After letting the dough rise for an hour and a half, I divided it into 8 small balls and then let those rise for a half hour.  Then, I rolled each ball out into a circle (some of which were more circular than others) and let the circles rise for another half hour.  Finally, it was time to put the pitas in the oven.

Pita Bread After Third Rising

Since I don’t have two ovens, or an oven large enough to fit two cookie sheets in it at once, I had to bake the pitas two at a time.  This recipe requires a bit more finesse than the bread recipes I’ve tried to this point.  Per instructions, I set the oven at 500 degrees.  For the first batch, I baked them on the bottom shelf for 5 minutes (per Beard) and on the top shelf for 2 more minutes (Beard recommends three to five minutes, but my oven runs hot).  The pitas came out a little over-browned.

Pita Bread

For my second attempt, I took the pitas out of the oven after their five minutes on the bottom shelf.  This was much more successful: the pitas were “puffed up like balloons and just very lightly browned” as Beard says they are supposed to be.

Pita Bread

The next morning, the pitas had mostly deflated.

Pita Bread

I saved sampling them until today, when we made pita pizzas with hummus, feta cheese, spinach, tomato, and onion.  The texture was perfect–soft and spongy.  The flavor was excellent as well, so cutting the salt amount in half was definitely the right decision.  I’m already looking forward to the beef pita pockets we’re making tomorrow night with the rest of the batch!

Pita Pizza

page 1 of 1

104

  

0
Loaves baked   Loaves to go
About the Baker
I'm a paralegal living and working in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area. Besides baking, blogging, and eating bread, I love knitting and enjoying the Minnesota outdoors. My husband, Mike, is the Brooks Bakes Bread website developer, bread photographer, and chief taste tester.
October 2023
S M T W T F S
« Mar    
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031  
Recent Comments

Recent Posts
  • Sourdough Bread by stacy

    “Despite my own feeling that sourdough bread is much overrated and is difficult to perfect at home, I am including one recipe in this collection because interest in the subject is so tremendous…Certainly it is just as unpredictable as Salt-Rising Bread, and I am not sure it is worth the […]

  • Salt-Rising Bread by stacy

    “You may try the same recipe [for Salt-Rising Bread] without success three or four times and find that it works the fifth time. Or you may get a loaf that is halfway good. If it works, fine; if it doesn’t, forget it. I am including it in this collection because […]

  • Mrs. Elizabeth Ovenstad's Brea… by stacy

    “I learned to bake this bread in Norway, at Mrs. Ovenstad’s farm near Oslo.  She bakes it twice a week…” -James Beard, Beard on Bread I put this recipe off until the end night because I couldn’t find any whole-wheat kernels locally.  I ended up substituting cracked wheat instead, which […]

  • Pumpernickel Bread I by stacy

    “This is an extremely interesting bread, but since it is practical to make only in large quantity, I recommend it solely to those of you who have large kitchens and large bowls.  Besides this, the dough is very sticky and takes a lot of deft working to get it to […]

  • Mother's Raisin Bread by stacy

    “This was a raisin bread that my mother made very often, modeled on one she had admired at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.  During World War I she used to do benefit teas for the British Red Cross, and there were always requests for this bread, thinly sliced and […]

  • Plain Saffron Bread by stacy

    “This bread is reminiscent of Cornish and Welsh teas, where saffron buns and bread have been exceedingly popular for generations…It makes fine toast.” -James Beard, Beard on Bread “No offense to you or your cooking, but I think it tastes like water out of a garden hose.” -Mike, who discovered […]

  • Verterkake by stacy

    “A very special Norwegian sweet bread baked in round loaves, verterkake takes its name from verterol, or brewer’s wort…dark beer can be substituted in its place.  The bread is densely textured and has a highly interesting, spicy flavor…” -James Beard, Beard on Bread Mike: It tastes…interesting. Me: In a good […]

  • Kugelhopf by stacy

    “This is supposedly a recipe that Marie Antoinette took with her from Austria to France, where it became increasingly popular.  It is traditionally baked in a special Kugelhopf mold, which gives it a festive look.” -James Beard, Beard on Bread The recipe for Kugelhopf can be found on the James […]

  • Crackling Biscuits by stacy

    Since I live north of the Mason-Dixon Line, I couldn’t find any pork cracklings.  I also couldn’t find lard in a quantity less than five pounds, and Minnesota has blue laws that prohibit the sale of most alcohol on Sundays (such as the white wine the recipe calls for).  Also, […]

  • Swedish Limpa by stacy

    q7j373d0d3

Categories
Recent Comments
  • stacy about English Muffin Bread
    That pan looks like an interesting product, thanks for the tip! If you're making muffins, I don't think you…
  • Mac about English Muffin Bread
    Being genuinely lazy, I use a Lodge 7B iron muffin pan. It has seven 3-1/4 inch muffin slots about…
  • stacy about Gluten Bread
    Thanks for the info!
  • Leisa about Gluten Bread
    I think the problem (at least from your picture of ingredients) is that you used wheat gluten which is an…
  • stacy about English Muffin Bread
    Thanks for all the tips, especially the idea about sprinkling semolina on the tops of the muffins! I will…
  • Carl about English Muffin Bread
    Same here - I have been using Beard's recipe, and now make about 8-10 decent sized english muffins with the…
  • gigi about Bavarian Rye Bread
    I've been baking several of these bread recipes also. It's great that I have something to compare my results.…
  • stacy about Whole-Wheat Bread Made with Hard-Wh…
    Hi Carla, The recipe is published in Beard on Bread--for copyright reasons I'm not able to post it on…
  • Carla about Whole-Wheat Bread Made with Hard-Wh…
    Looks yummy...can you share your recipe...thank you...:)
  • stacy about Plain Saffron Bread
    Thanks for sharing about your family tradition! Now I am interested to try it with thimbleberry jam--I can't get…
Welcome , October 14, 2023