World Bread Day: Kesra

I think I spent a good couple of days trying to think of what to bake for World Bread Day 2008. Should I do something standard, something sourdough, something really complicated? I tossed around ideas of brioche and filled pastries and nutty sourdoughs and flatbreads until I was dizzy with the possibilities. In the end though, I decided that I'd try a bread with a slightly unusual formula: Kesra.


Kesra is a Moroccan flatbread that I found while bumming around the internets one night. Crunchy from a bit of cornmeal, unique for its single rise, and nutty with sesame seeds on top. A quick yeast bread that I could whip up and taste within 2 hours of getting into the kitchen.


And taste it I did - I apologize for the sub-par photos, but it was cloudy and rainy when I made this, and the smell alone made cutting into it an immediate necessity. I do so love the addition of sesame seeds, and the single rise gave this a very tight crumb. In the future, I'd probably tweak it with some milk to soften it, a bit more cornmeal for a more noticeable crunch, and an egg wash to really get it to brown up and be shiny. I might even lower its ease of preparation and do the standard rise then proof method for an airier crumb. But it's a pretty terrific bread as is, perfect for a smear of hummus, which is exactly how I had it.

Thanks go to Zorra for hosting this wonderful bloggy event, as I'm sure I'll be salivating over other people's entries once she has a roundup up!

*Update* Here's the roundup! Go check out some absolutely mouthwatering yeasty goods!


Kesra
From Kitty Morse's The Vegetarian Table: North Africa

1 pkg active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water to proof yeast plus
2 cups warm water
1 tsp sugar
4 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup cornmeal plus
1 Tbs cornmeal for dusting
2 tsp salt
2 Tbs unsalted butter, melted
2 tsp sesame seeds

In a small bowl, mix the yeast with 1/4 cup warm water. Stir in the sugar. Set aside until the mixture starts to bubble, 10-15 minutes.

In a mixer with a dough hook, mix the flour, 1/3 cup cornmeal, and salt. Make a well in the center and pour in the yeast mixture and melted butter. Knead, gradually adding the remaining 2 cups water as needed until the dough is smooth and elastic to the touch (8 to 10 minutes). Note: You probably will not need all of the water, I only needed 1 1/3 cups and it was incredibly wet and elastic - a bit difficult to separate and shape, actually.

Grease two baking sheets and dust them with the 1 Tbs cornmeal. Separate the dough into two balls of equal size and set each ball on a baking sheet. Press them into circles 8 inches in diameter. Sprinkle 1 tsp of sesame seeds over each loaf, gently pressing them into the dough. Cover the dough with a greased piece of plastic wrap (don't forget to grease - this dough was sticky) and a towel and set aside in a warm place until doubled (about 1 hour, can take longer).

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Prick the top of each kesra with the tines of a fork. Bake for 10 minutes. Lower the heat to 375 and bake until crusty and golden, 15-20 minutes.