Inspired Abroad: Bread

I was not prepared for the copious amounts of delicious bread that I would eat while we were in Israel.  I figured that I'd try typical middle eastern dishes like falafel, hummus, and israeli salad, but I certainly didn't expect that bread would end up being the main attraction.  Maybe it was a case of low expectations, but almost everywhere we went, we were greeted with pleasingly textured, full-flavored, and generally well-crafted bread.  The pictures below could imply that the great bread owed its success to the varied dips, spreads and pairings, but don't be fooled.  While these supporting actors were worthy of sharing the limelight, the bread was the star of the show.

Jerusalem - Crusty wheat loaf with pestos, sun-dried tomato, tapenade, 
and deliciously sticky butter
This bread helped us get over the 14 hours of flying.

Aboulafia & Sons in Old Jaffa near Tel Aviv - Baked pita with z'atar 

Eating this freshly baked bread straight from the oven was the stuff dreams are made of.

Dallal Bakery in Neve Tsedek, Tel Aviv - French-style Chocolate Babka
If you haven't had babka before, it's like the best cinnamon roll ever, but with chocolate.

On the bus, in the blinding snow, across the border in Jordan -
Me and my festive birthday Challah!  

Back in the kitchen...

Bread making is not my strongest skill, so I consider myself a novice.  As a novice, I like relatively quick and easy recipes where I don't have to wait multiple hours for dough to rise, or worry too much about a perfectly formed loaf.  Therefore I bring you an adventure in bread making and eating with Laffa, a flat bread seen on the streets in Jerusalem (see this post for the beautiful laffa wrapped falafel).

Left: Flour & salt
 Right: Water, yeast, and olive oil

Combine.

Mix.

Rise for 1 hour.

Portion and flatten.

Cook for a few minutes on each side.

Enjoy!

This blog had a very easy recipe with straightforward instructions.  The bread was incredibly easy and delicious.   Although I could've eaten the entire stack of laffa by myself, I made the even easier labneh to go with it.  Labneh is a spreadable cheese-like substance made from drained yogurt.

Pour plain yogurt into cheesecloth-lined colander, over a bowl.

Drain until you reach your desired consistency.  I left mine in the fridge overnight.

Remove from cheese cloth. 

Add a salt.  Z'atar and olive oil optional.

No instruction necessary.

I found an easy recipe for labneh here.  I used Trader Joe's European Style plain yogurt (~$3).

Did I stop there?  Of course not.  I also tried a slightly more complicated bread: Chocolate Babka.

Clearly there are more steps here, but if you are a well-practiced bread maker, or even an intermediate pastry enthusiast, this recipe was very satisfying. I used a recipe from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook (my favorite book), it's also available online.

Tips: The original recipe says it yields three loaves, I cut bread dough and chocolate recipes perfectly in half, and it still yielded two 9x5 loaves. The proportions for the streusel are off, so if you halve the bread recipe like I suggest, use 4 tablespoons butter, 1/3 cup flour, and 1/2 cup powdered sugar.

Obviously bread takes some practice and little patience but I encourage you to at least try the laffa recipe. It's pretty hard to screw up, and it really, really yummy. Do I need to say more?