Greek Flatbread Lagana
Lagana is a Greek custom, which is observed to this day. It is a flat bread, which you serve on the Clean Monday table. Lagana marks the beginning of the fast of Great Lent. Try this recipe from Mount Athos and learn how to make your own homemade lagana and accompany it with your favorite dish.
In a bowl, we add the water, the yeast, the sugar, and we whisk well.
We set it aside for about 15-20 minutes until the yeast is activated.
After 15 minutes, we add the flour, the salt, and the oil into the bowl and mix with our hands or with a mixer until the dough is homogenized.
We add little olive oil into a bowl.
Then, we add the dough into the bowl and cover it with plastic wrap.
We set it aside to rest for about 30-45 minutes.
Then, we knead the dough in the bowl for 1-2 minutes until it is smooth.
We cover with plastic wrap and let it double in volume for about 1-2 hours.
We can make 2 thin flatbreads or a fluffier one.
We punch down the dough and divide it into 2 pieces.
We lay a sheet of parchment paper on a working surface.
Then, we add the dough and dust it with some flour and we roll out. If we can’t roll out, we can dust it with more flour.
We transfer the dough to a baking pan along with the parchment.
We do the exact same procedure for the other dough.
We create the coating by mixing the water and the sugar in a small bowl until the sugar completely dissolves.
Then, we brush this mixture over both flatbreads and generously sprinkle sesame seeds on top.
We set them aside for 20-30 minutes, in order to rise again.
When the dough has risen, we can use our index finger to make indentations all over the dough.
We drizzle the dough with some extra Greek virgin olive oil.
Then, we bake in a preheat oven (220°C) for about 15-18 minutes.
When our “lagana” is golden, we remove it from the oven.
If we want, we can add aniseed.
We do not add the salt from the beginning, because it will "kill" the yeast.
If we don’t have a mixer, we can wet our hands with a little water.
If we decide to make one fluffy flatbread, the baking time will be about 20-25 minutes. Otherwise if we want our “lagana” to be crispy we should bake for 10-15 minutes.
When our dough has risen, we can use our index finger to make indentations all over the dough. This gives the "lagana" its characteristic appearance.
It is very important that our oven is properly preheated so that the flatbread can turn out as crunchy as possible.
The baking time differs from oven to oven.
