Delicious Armenian Bread
Here is another great bread. This bread is so good, you don't even have to add butter...crusty and delicious! To crush the fennel seeds, I put them in a plastic baggie and used a hammer.
MAKES 2 LOAVES
2-1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 package fast-acting dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons lightly crushed fennel seeds
1. Put the above ingredients in the mixer bowl and mix them on setting 1 with a flat beater while you are preparing the liquid mixture below.
3/4 cups warm water with 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil heated to 120-130 degrees (around 45 seconds in a microwave oven on high)
2. Add the heated water and olive oil to the mixer pot with the flour mixture and mix on speed 1 for a minute or so (to dampen the flour), then turn the speed up to 4 for 1 minute. Change to the dough hook and kneed the mixture on 2 for 10 minutes. (Add a little flour if the dough is too wet until the dough will not stick to the pot or your hand.)
3. Remove the dough hook and cover the pot with plastic wrap.
Let the dough set in the pot in a warmed oven (around 110 degrees) for 45 minutes or until doubled.
4. Punch the dough down, then cut it into 2 pieces and shape into loaves around 12 inches or so long.
Place the shaped dough on a heavy baking sheet with a little cornmeal scattered on it by sprinkling it through a strainer. Cover the loaves loosely with plastic wrap and let them rise in the kitchen until doubled while the oven is heating. It should take around 20 minutes for the dough to double, depending on the temperature of your kitchen.
TURN OVEN ON TO 425 Degrees.
1 egg white beaten with 3 tablespoons water
1/2 cup sesame seeds
5. Brush the loaves with the egg white and water mixture and pat the sesame seeds thickly all over the bread's top and sides. Let them set and rise for 15 more minutes.
Cut three shallow diagonal slashes with a very sharp knife or razor on the top each loaf and bake them for 25 minutes or until sesame coated crust is lightly browned and the loaves sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.
Remove the loaves from the oven and set them on a rack to cool or eat while still warm.
Delicious!
Tags: bread recipes, ethnic recipes
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