A couple of months ago, a friend sent me a video (below) on how to bake traditional Egyptian focaccia, Aisha Dancein the oven at home. Aisha (or eish) dance it is a soft pita dotted with bran flakes and eaten daily or even several times a day by many people in Egypt. The word for bread in Egypt, aishit also means “life”, alluding to the importance of bread in culture; AND dance means traditional or authentic, indicating the founding role of this particular bread. Even though I use wheat, water, and leavening microbes from more than 10,000 miles away from Egypt and don’t have a clay oven made from sediment from the Nile River, I really wanted to try this bread. I tried the recipe in the video with sourdough instead of the favorite yeast in the video, and I tried both the refined flour suggested and also spelled, which is the traditional grain of Egypt.
Part of my inspiration to try this bread comes from all the delicious ways it is eaten in Egypt. Here is an excerpt from a item in the Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram describing how this bread is traditionally served throughout the day.
Baladi bread was served at practically every meal. For breakfast it was accompanied by fuul (stewed broad beans) seasoned with olive oil, together with fried or boiled eggs and cheese. It was eaten with tehina and molasses, the latter once procured in urns from Qena in Upper Egypt but now purchased in shops.
At lunch, baladi bread was a versatile accompaniment to any dish: it was dipped molochiya (green mallow) or cut into triangles to absorb sauces and sauces from dishes. Dinner included loaves of baladi bread stuffed with white baramili cheese (barrel-matured) along with arugula, a taste to die for.
Unlike the pita or naan I’ve made in the past, the dough on this bread is quite moist and the rising process involves a bed of bran flakes that acts as a non-stick rising surface. Hydration does aish baladi a little spongier than typical pita, and the bran coating adds a toasty flavor to the bread.
In the video below I learned that shaping this wet dough has a steep learning curve where you essentially roll little balls of dough in your hands and then onto the bran flakes. The pastry chef in the video notes that you can also use an ice cream scoop, and after a few tries with my hands, I happily switched to the ice cream scoop. I suggest you watch the video to see the hand shaping method and how to move the dough onto the peel before baking.
Ideally you would like to have the following equipment for this recipe but I also added alternative solutions in brackets:
Ice cream scoop (hand formed)
Two large baking pans at least 13×17 inches, for proofing, one serves as a lid (one large, deep baking pan, cling film as a lid)
Wood peel (parchment paper)
Refractory stone or steel (inverted baking tray)
Here are photos of the stages of the process. The images are of the batch of wholemeal spelled flour, unless otherwise indicated with the words “AP” (all purpose) or “bread flour”. In the recipe notesI discuss the performance of different flours and target dough hydration. Different flours absorb more or less water AND the recipe works with a wide range of dough consistencies, from terribly wet to easy to stretch and transfer.
Edit Photo Gallery
Naturally leavened Aish Baladi (Egyptian focaccia).
The traditional Egyptian flatbread Aish Baladi is a soft and unique pita with aromatic bran flakes toasted in the oven on the outside. Made with whole grain spelled or all-purpose flour, this bread is delicious for both sweet and savory applications, and the high-hydration dough and unique shaping and proofing setup are fun challenges for the home baker.
Portions
8-10 pocket loaves
Ingredients
- 400 grams flour (3+ cups) *see notes
- 290 grams water (1 cup + 3-4 tablespoons) *see notes
- 200 grams of mature sourdough (3/4 cup)
- 10 grams of salt (1 and 3/4 teaspoons)
For the baking sheet or baking pan (can be stored in the freezer and reused)
- 250 grams of wheat bran
- 125 grams of flour
Overall baker’s percentage (with sourdough starter in flour and water totals)
- 100% flour
- 78% water
- 2% salt
Instructions
- For my test batches, all fermentation (bulk and final proof) was done at room temperature in a cold winter kitchen, 60 degrees Fahrenheit, and my process took about 8 hours from mixing to loading the dough into the oven . In a summer kitchen, the process for this bread could be much shorter, depending on the room temperature. It’s also fine to refrigerate the dough after or during bulk fermentation to prolong the process. Keep in mind that feeding your sourdough starter to get 200 grams takes another amount of time: overnight or up to 4 hours if the feeding ratio is small, such as 1:1:1.
- Retaining some of the water (about 45 grams or 3 tablespoons), combine the ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix for 2-3 minutes. If you’re mixing by hand, try the rubaud method. If the dough wraps around the hook or you can lift it with one hand out of the bowl, add the reserved water to make the dough more moist. See the notes below or the photos in the gallery for information on your target dough consistency.
- Continue mixing another 3-4 minutes, ideally until you can stretch the dough outward 5-6 inches before it breaks. If you use wholemeal spelled flour, the elongation is not very strong.
- Transfer the dough to a straight-sided container, if you have one. Cover and let the dough rise until it has expanded by about 75%.
- Mix the bran and flour for the leavening phase. Cover the bottom of a large baking dish or baking pan, at least 13 x 17 inches, with the mixture.
- Using a spatula, loosen the fermented dough from the sides of the bowl and stir a little to deflate it.
- With a damp ice cream scoop, scoop the dough and transfer it to the bran on the baking sheet. You should get 8-9 balls, so space things out for three rows of three dough balls. If modeling by hand, watch the video: you will need a floured hand and a damp hand. Cover the dough with a second baking tray or pan of the same size. If you use cling film, make sure it doesn’t touch the dough.
- The dough shouldn’t need to rise much longer than preheating the oven, so start preheating the oven to 500°F with a baking stone or steel on a center rack. My oven takes about 30 minutes to fully preheat the stone and I test with an infrared thermometer.
- Use a little of the bran and flour mixture to dust the husk.
- Dust the top of the dough with flour and flatten it slightly with your fingers if it is domed, then slide the fingers of both hands through the bran and under the dough. Lift and move your fingers slightly to remove some of the excess bran as you transfer it to the husk. Lightly roll out the dough so that it is uniform. Aim for the dough to be 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick for a soft pocket. Slide the dough onto the hot stone.
- Cook for about 4 minutes or until the pocket has formed. There is no need to turn it upside down. Occasionally with low gluten spelled flour, the dough will not puff up in a pocket. Give these loaves a couple more minutes to bake.
- Repeat this process with all the doughs. I can usually get four loaves of bread on the stone at once.
- Use pliers to remove the aish baladi from the oven when they are cooked.
- Leave to cool slightly on a rack or serve hot. Store in a bag or beeswax wrap for 1-2 days, then freeze.
Notes
* Amount of water and flour choices: Start by retaining a little water in the recipe, mix, then add as much water as needed to get a dough that’s still dry enough to stretch when you pull a piece out, but wet enough to almost pop out of the bowl. If you use all-purpose flour, you may not need all 290 grams of water. If you use bread flour, stronger wholemeal flour, or high-extraction flour, your dough will likely need more than 1 pound of water to reach the desired consistency. See the photo gallery for images of the target coherence.
