I digress from coffee for a moment. Lahoh was Friday's baking project. I wanted to bake some sort of bread, and this just seemed simpler. Only one rising, and you don't need a baking tray. I've only been out of college a few months, so I'm still lacking basic human equipment, such as a baking tray.
Lahoh are shaped like over-sized pancakes, but they are bread in essence. They begin as a yeasted batter and are left to rise for one hour, after which they are poured into a non-stick frying pan and left to cook for one minute and a half. Their preparation is simple. Still, they are a special flatbread to behold. Ripping a piece of Lahoh is like ripping a soft pancake. They are spongy on the inside, with a crisp underside. Eating them feels decadent, my girlfriend pointed out, and we agreed that the cause was the feeling of eating a fried food. Eating white Pita feels simple in contrast.
The most unique property of Lahoh is its many surface holes. It looks as though a machine has perforated the flatbreads in one hundred different spots. And until I made it myself, their source was sheer mystery to me. The solution was much simpler, and related to the high water content in the dough. Lahoh dough is a wet batter, and when heated in the pan, its moisture escapes in the form of bubbles, leaving behind bubble imprints.
You can see the formation of bubble-holes taking place over the short cooking time:
Lahoh Recipe
1¼ hours | 1 hour prep
SERVES 16
* 1 kg flour
* 1 tablespoon dry yeast
* 1 tablespoon fine salt
* 2 tablespoons sugar
* 1 1/2 liters lukewarm water
1. Combine all the ingredients and mix until you get a smooth batter without lumps.
2. Place the bowl, covered with aluminum foil, in a warm place for about an hour, and allow the batter to rise.
3. Choose a good Teflon frying pan.
4. The frying pan must be cold. 5. Oil very lightly, you can use a spray, place on a high flame and pour in a ladleful of the batter.
6. When the batter begins to bubble (after a minute or a minute and a half), turn the frying pan over onto a dry towel.
7. Keep the lahoh in a pile, back-to-back, face-to-face.
Cool the bottom of the frying pan with tap water, and put back on the stove.
