Lagana with Tahini (Greek flatbread cooked for the first day of lent)

In the whole of Southern Europe there are different versions of flatbread. In Italy it’s called Focaccia, in France it’s called Fougasse and in Greece it’s called Lagana.

This type of bread we can find in Spain, Portugal and Turkey too and generally in all the countries of the mediterranean and they used them in the era when they used wood fuelled ovens to see whether the oven had reached the required temperature for baking.

Our version, Lagana is eaten mostly on the first day of Lent which in Greece is called ‘Clean Monday’. Here I will give you a recipe which came about because I didn’t have bread flour to make it with.

I had put a little bit of wholemeal flour, the rest was all purpose flour and as I had a jar of tahini handy I put that into the dough too to make up the correct amount needed.

Everyone loved it… except someone said it needed a little more salt; so if you like put a bit more in…

Diffuculty: 2 of 3

Duration:Baking 20 minutes, 2-8 hours waiting time

Serves:4 large laganas

Ingredients

700 gr All purpose flour

300 gr Wholemeal flour

14 gr dry yeast or 40 gr fresh yeast

I tsp sugar

25 gr Salt

650 ml Water

80 gr tahini

A little extra flour for rolling the dough

Sesame seeds to sprinkle on the bread

Method

Put the flour in the bowl of the mixer along with the yeast, the sugar and the salt.

If you are using fresh yeast put the salt in later with the water.

Mix the dry ingredients until well mixed.

Put in 550 ml of water and mix at a low speed for 1-2 mins and after at a medium speed, to achieve an elastic dough put the rest of the water in bit by bit.

Remember that the more we mix the dough the denser it becomes so we don’t ever put all the water in at once.

Also because all flours are different as is water depending on location, the moisture of the place in which you are working and the temperature, the dough may not take all the water.

Put in the tahini and continue to mix the dough.

Once mixed put the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with a tea towel or plastic wrap and put in a warm place to allow the dough to rise to swell to double its size.

We can prepare the dough at night if preferred and leave it overnight in the fridge and use it the next day.

In this case we would leave the dough outside the fridge for at least an hour before baking.

Take the dough and divide into 4 pieces with a sharp knife.

Use a rolling pin to achieve the shape you want.

With a sharp knife make some cuts in the pastry- one in the centre and others on each side diagonally making a sort ‘ear of the wheat” type design.

Put the shapes of dough onto a baking tray covered with greaseproof paper and using your hands flatten and create the final shape you wish for the bread.

Spread some water over the dough using a brush.

Sprinkle on the sesame seeds (white or black) or poppy seeds if you like!

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 220c for 20 mins.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a rack.