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Thursday, May 3, 2012

Tandir non (Bread baked in a special clay oven)

Hi my dears! How are you? Hope everything is fine and your life is full of happiness and joy! Sorry for such a long break, as always I was busy with many other things. But, I always remember you and my blog and feel so guilty the day I didn't post anything. I had a great experience with baking bread in a clay oven - "Tandir" or "Tandur":)A lot of thanks to my friend Malika opa, who showed me the process. She shared with me some secrets of "tandir". She also showed me how they love to eat fresh and hot baked bread, greasing garlic and tomato on top of it. I must tell it's really yummy! Bread is soaked with tomato juice and garlic gives specific flavor to it! Here is the photo:
So, the next day, I wanted to try it on my own, well actually not on my own-with my husband:) I prepared the dough and he prepared the oven. It was fun, but a little bit stressy, as I was afraid if I could make it right:) I had to try it, or it will not be me:) I decided to make my bread without adding any yeast.
 So, here is the recipe of my bread:
 1.5 liters of full fat milk
 5 tbsp of olive oil (or any vegetable oil)
 1.5 tbsp of salt
 1 tbsp of sugar
 1 cup of toasted sesame seeds
 You can also add 1 full tsp of baking soda if you want, but that is optional
 4 cups of all purpose white flour
 Whole wheat flour as needed
 Heat up milk and add in oil, sugar, salt. Stir well, until sugar and salt dissolved completely. Take milk from heat and add in toasted sesame seeds. Add in 4 cups of white flour and soda, finally mix everything. Now slowly add in whole wheat flour, until you will form soft, but not sticky dough. At the end, oil your hands and work you dough for about 5 min. Cover and let it rest for 1 hour. Meanwhile, prepare clay oven. Fire the wood and let it fire a while. At the beginning, oven will be dark inside. You have to wait until it will be light. Divide the dough for about 10 pieces or more, depending to the size of the bread you want to bake. I made them small, so I divided in 14 pieces. Divide and work them into smooth balls, prepare your tools:
When oven is ready to bake, start shaping out your breads:
You will need a special tool called "rapida" to put your bread on it and stick it into the walls of the oven. Before sticking the bread, you have to grease the back of it with a little bit of water, just to make it sticky enough.
Now, stick it to the oven's wall:
When bread is golden-brown in color, it is ready. You will have to take it carefully. Always keep your face out or you can burn out your eyelashes:) Also take care of your hands, wear something with long sleeves and wear also cotton gloves. Believe me it is fun and great experience, one must have in his/her life:)! Oh, I forgot to tell you about potatoes! After we were done with our breads, we buried some potatoes in that remaining coal, waited a while and then enjoyed delicious and flavorful potatoes!!!
Enjoy your the most tasty breads ever!!!