Warm-weather baking

With the temperature up near 90 every day here in the mid-Hudson Valley, I've still had a hankering to bake, but not to crank the oven up to 500 for a couple of hours. The solution is the delicious seasoned Armenian crackers called lavash, that bake at only 350 for 20 or so minutes. The recipe is adapted from Peter Reinhart's The Bread-Baker's Apprentice (so the measurements are in ounces, not grams). My touch is to substitute some sourdough (or levain). But you can make it with just flour. (see note)



Recipe:

5.25 ounces all purpose flour
3 ounces levain (see my recipe for levain) 
.13 ounce salt
1/2 teas. instant yeast
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 ounces water
Assorted seeds and seasonings: E.g., sesame, poppy, and flax seeds, paprika, coarse sea salt, whatever you like

NOTE: If not using levain, increase flour to 6.75 ounces and water to 3.5 ounces.

1. Combine all ingredients. Dough should be tight, but if crumbly add a bit more water, a tablespoon at a time.
2. Knead for 10 minutes. The dough should be silky and smooth, a lovely dough to work with.
3. Ferment in bowl covered with plastic wrap, at room temp for 2 to 2-1/2 hours
4. Preheat oven to 350 deg. F.
5. Press out into a rectangle on a floured countertop, then roll out as evenly as possible to fit a standard sheet pan (do not use an insulated cookie sheet). You may have to occasionally pick up and move the dough or let it rest a few minutes if it keeps snapping back. Take your time and get the dough as paper-thin as possible.
6. Cover the sheet pan with parchment paper and transfer the dough, stretching out by hand to fit. Trim any dough that hangs over the edge.
7. Lightly mist the dough with water, and sprinkle with alternating rows of seeds and seasonings, overlapping slightly. Press seeds into dough with your hands
8. Bake in center of oven 15-20 minutes until crackers just start to brown.
9. Remove from oven and cool on rack.
10. Break into shards and serve.

Flying breadbox

Well, this is pretty funny. British Airways is running an ad campaign saying they found a star baker with a "secret recipe" to keep rolls fresh at 30,000 feet. (BTW, those are BA's rendering of dinner-roll clouds above, not Post Honey Bunches or peanut clusters)

Wow!  A couple of things:

1. The fact that they are trying to lure you aboard their planes with the promise of fresh dinner rolls is, to a baking enthusiast like myself, nothing short of fantastic. Bizarre, when you consider all the other facets of flying, but fantastic. As I wrote in the May issue of Saveur, the revolution has arrived.

2. Big deal. It's a challenge keeping bread fresh in a plane? Planes are kept extraordinarily dry (to keep rust at bay) and cool. Kind of like...hmm...what's the best analogy I can come up with... oh, like a breadbox! Really, a plane is really a flying breadbox. In fact, you may well feel like you've locked in a breadbox after an 8-hour flight to London.

So my note to British Airways. Thanks for thinking about the bread, but let me know when you've accomplished a really challenging feat -- like keep bread fresh for more than 4 hours in a New York August! (And putting my bags on the same plane as me.)