Bread Baking Day#30- Aegean farmer’s bread

Aegean farmer's bread

Bread is one of  the sacred food, both the polytheistic and the monotheistic religions of all the times. For especially Aegean region community, the relationship with bread has persisted in one way or another throughout the history,coming until today. And there is no doubt that it is going to continue to be part of the material and spiritual culture of this region.

I am thrilled with the idea, when I read that a “bread baking day event” is celebrated every month all over the world. So with my Aegean farmer’s bread recipe, I decided to participate this month’s Bread Baking event (BBD) of Kochtopf . The subject is: BBD#30: Breads with a Twist.

This will be my first experience as a blogger!

Aegean farmer's bread

• 1 cup wheat flour
• 1 cup yellow flour (a very fine durum wheat flour especially for the production of farmer’s bread – ?????? ???????)
• 1/2 t.  fresh yeast
• 3/4 cup lukewarm water
• 1 t. sugar

Dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup lukewarm water and let work 15 minutes.  Add 1 t. sugar and let stand in a warm place. Then add all the ingredients together into a bowl and mix them, until you get a sticky dough. If you have a food mixer, mix for 5 minutes. If not, knead for 15 minutes with hand.

Cover the dough with a kitchen towel and let it rest at least an hour to rise.

Aegean farmer's bread

• 2 cup wheat flour
• 1/2 cup bran
• 1/2 cup barley
• 1/2 cup rye
• 1 3/4 cup lukewarm water
• 1/2 t. instant yeast
• 1 t. salt
• sesame seed and aniseed for topping

Combine all the above ingredients in a large bowl. Add the rised dough that you prepared before. Mix for 10 minutes with a food mixer. If you don’t have a chef food mixer, knead the dough about 15 minutes with hands.

Cut dough in four and shape them as a ball. With the help of a rolling pin, roll out one of the ball dough. Brush with hazelnut oil the edges of the rolled out part of the dough. Then close the rolled out part of the dough over the round part of the dough. Repeat the same to the other balls. Dust the top of the breads with flour and sprinkle with sesame seed and aniseed.

Place them into a parchment covered oven tray and let them rise for almost two hours.

Bake in a preheat oven 180° C for 30 minutes and 200° C for 10 minutes in order to have a little bit thick crust.

Aegean farmer's bread