Lavash Crackers – BBA Challenge bread 17

These crackers are so easy and quick to make, and so satisfying, the only explanation I have for not making them a second time is that I’ve been sort of been preoccupied by making a whole lot of other bread recipes in the past few months. It’s hard to fit in repeats. In fact, the only reason I’m looking forward to the end of the BBA Challenge is so that I can spend more time retrying my favorites.

This is one of them.

Once of the best things about these crackers is their versatility because they take on the character of whatever toppings you select. Want a basic cracker? Sprinkle with coarse salt, sesame seeds, or poppy seeds. Want Indian flavors? Top with toasted cumin seeds or dust with garam masala. Use whatever herbs or spices you have on hand and each batch of crackers will be different.

To make the crackers, I mixed together a quick dough with flour, salt, yeast, honey, vegetable oil, and water. Then I kneaded the dough for about 10 minutes. The dough was smooth, firm, elastic, and extremely satisfying to knead. Then I let the dough ferment in an oiled bowl for 90 minutes, and then transferred the doubled dough to the counter. I used my trusty rolling pin (my husband’s grandmother’s well oiled wooden rolling pin) to roll the dough out as thin as I could. The dough was quite elastic and not as easy to roll thinly as I’d wanted. In retrospect, I should have used the pasta roller to get the thinness I was looking for, but by letting the dough rest for a few minutes between each rolling attempt, I was able to get a fairly thin sheet of dough.

I then transferred the sheet of dough to a parchment lined sheet pan, misted the dough with water, and sprinkled on the seeds. For this batch, I used kosher salt, toasted cumin seeds, and poppy seeds, arranged in stripes along the length of the dough. Then I baked the sheet for 20 minutes. Once cool, I shattered the sheet into crackers by snapping it into pieces with my hands.

See step-by-step pictures of this bread here.

The entire process is simple, requiring no pre-ferment, lengthy fermentation, or unusual ingredients. It’s so easy, you could make them for dinner tonight.

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The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge is a group of home bakers, scattered across the planet, focused on one goal: completing every recipe in Peter Reinhart’s book, The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, in order, and writing about our experience. Want to join us? Buy or borrow a copy of the book, open a big bag of flour, and plunge in!