Snowshoe Naan

* Exported from MasterCook *

SNOWSHOE NAAN

Recipe By : BAKERS' DOZEN (ALFORD AND DUGUID) SHOW #1A26
Serving Size : 8 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories :
Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
2 1/2 cups warm water
1 teaspoon dry yeast
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
4 cups unbleached hard white or all-purpose flour -- (4 to 5)

1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon Nigella (black onion seed)

You will need a large bowl, and unglazed quarry tiles or a baking stone for
the next-to-bottom
rack of your oven.
Place water in a large bread bowl, add yeast, and stir. Add whole wheat
flour and 1 cup white
flour and stir well, then stir 100 times in the same direction to develop
the gluten (one minute).
Let this sponge stand for 1/2 hour to 3 hours, covered.
Sprinkle salt over the sponge, then add another cup flour and stir. Continue
adding flour and
stirring until you can stir no longer. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured
surface and knead
thoroughly, about ten minutes, until dough is smooth and easy to handle.
Clean out bowl, oil lightly, and return dough to bowl. Cover with plastic
wrap and let rise in a
convenient place for 2 to 3 hours. When the dough has more than doubled in
volume, push down
gently and turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into
eight equal pieces and
shape each into a flat oval shape, approximately 4 inches wide by 8 inches
long. Leave these
flat disks out on the work surface and cover with plastic wrap to let rise
for approximately 20
minutes. Place quarry tiles or large baking stone on a rack in the lower
third of your oven,
leaving a 1 inch space between the tiles and the oven wall to allow air to
circulate. Preheat oven
to 450'F.
Five minutes after the oven has preheated, begin shaping the first bread.
Place a small bowl full
of cold water by the edge of your work surface. Using your fingertips, first
dip them in the water
and then, beginning at one end of the disk of dough, make tightly spaced
indentations all over
the surface of the dough, so that it looks pitted, though not pierced
through. Now stretch the
dough gently into a long oval strip by draping it over both hands and
pulling them apart gently.
The dough should stretch and give, and after several tries will extend to
make a long oval about
12 inches long with attractive stretch marks along it from the stretched
indentations (hence, the
name "snowshoe bread").
Place the bread back on the work surface, sprinkle with a pinch (less than
1/8 teaspoon) of black
onion seeds, then using both hands, place the bread directly on heated
quarry tiles or stone.
While the bread bakes, begin to shape the next bread. Cooking time for each
bread is
approximately 4 minutes. You will soon develop a rhythm so that you can bake
two breads side
by side across your oven, one going in when the other is half done. When
done, breads will have
golden patches on top and a crusty browned bottom surface. To keep breads
warm and soft,
wrap them in a cotton cloth five minutes after they come out of the oven.
Serve warm or at room temperature.
Yield: 8 rippled flatbreads about 12 inches long and 3 to 5 inches wide,
with both soft and crispy
textures.


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