Saturday, September 27, 2008

Daring Bakers - Lavash Crackers


It's Daring Bakers Reveal Day again - I can't believe how quickly it came around! This month, Shellyfish of Musings from the Fishbowl is hosting, and she has chosen a recipe which is quite different from what has gone before. We had to make lavash crackers this month, with vegan dips. There was a fair bit of scope for choice in this challenge, in that you could choose to make your crackers with or without gluten, and sweet or savoury. The dips could be whatever you fancy, as long as they were vegan.

Like city kids who think that milk comes in bottles (or cartons these days - showing my age), I thought that lavash crackers came in boxes, and had never even contemplated that you could make your own. Silly me - a quick Google search revealed that lavash is an ancient Armenian flatbread with Iranian links, and that it has been made for thousands of years. I am pretty sure that the ancient Armenians and Iranians did not pop on down to the local Safeway to pick up a box of lavash.

I decided to make my crackers with gluten, as I already had the right flour. Here is my dough post-knead and pre-rise - it's like a cute little bald head:


I was fascinated by the prospect of being able to make sweet lavash crackers, as it was a concept that I had never come across before. Accordingly, I made half the dough as sweet lavash crackers with cinnamon sugar rolled in:


and the other half savoury with poppy seeds rolled in, like I had purchased many times:


The crackers were great - crispy, crunchy and tasty, but just not enough of them. Don't discount the browner ones - they were the crunchiest, almost like thin potato crisps.

For my vegan dips, I chose to make a
sweet potato spread, a beetroot dip and a strawberry dip (consisting of half this recipe plus a 250g tub of non-dairy cream cheese to give it some body):



I was a little hesitant about how the troops at work would take to this rather unusual offering, but they loved it, and cleaned up the dips, the lavash crackers and a box of bought crackers. I was relieved, because I was swimming in an ocean of dips and had no idea what I'd do with them if I had heaps left over.

Now you will have noticed the rather unusual photographs featuring my dips, which are actually photos of photos on my work mobile phone. My troubles began when I decided to skip taking photos of my dips until they were prettily arranged in their serving bowls on a platter beside the crackers. Alas, I served them at work and forgot my digital camera, but being a resourceful chick, I took photos of the dips on my mobile phone, assuming that I would have a USB cable for the phone at home. WRONG! OK, I thought I'd splash out and buy one - unfortunately, this strange phone has a unique kind of USB cable that is so rarely required that I would have had to purchase it online from Nokia at the princely sum of AUD$65. My phone is not connectivity enabled, so my attempts to send the photos to someone else's phone to download failed. Finally, a phone shop sales guy suggested that I buy a bluetooth dongle for my computer to send the photos from my phone directly to my computer. However, for reasons that I won't explain, the purchase turned into the drama from hell, and I left the dongle in the shop with a very sour taste in my mouth. So, I apologise for the quality of the photographic evidence of my dips, but there it is - life is what happens when we are planning something else.

Thanks to Shellyfish for hosting Daring Bakers this month and for teaching me that lavash doesn't come in a box. Do check out some of the other Daring Bakers' lavash crackers by visiting the blogroll
here - it is amazing how different the same recipe can turn out in the hands of over a thousand people.

24 comments:

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

Your crackers look great! Those dips sound delicious! Very well done!

Cheers,

Rosa

Anonymous said...

Nice work Cakelaw! Sweet potato spread sounds like a great idea.

Tammy said...

Your crackers looks fabulous and your dips sound delicious too!!

steph- whisk/spoon said...

i usually buy my lavash at woolie's! these look great and beetroot dip would be my fave!

Cakelaw said...

Thanks Rosa.

Hi Dana, The sweet potato spread was nice - the maple syrup in it set off the other flavours nicely.

Thanks Tammy.

LOL - me too, Steph.

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad you enjoyed the challenge! Your dips sound really yummy - I didn't get pics of mine up, either, if that makes you feel better!

zorra said...

Well done! By the way where I live you can't buy Lavash and a lot of other things in stores, so I have to a lot by myself. ;-)

Cakelaw said...

Hi Shellyfish, thanks for this challenge - I would never have thought outside the box (literally) and made my own crackers otherwise.

Thanks Zorra! I am a spoiled urban dweller with everything at my fingertips, and I whinge vehemently if the supermarket doesn't have what I want.

Babeth said...

Great job! The dips you created sound so yummy.
xoxo

Ivy said...

Cake, your crackers sound great. I had never heard of them before as we don't get them in Greece but they sound easy enough to make.

Mary said...

I think your crackers look great! And I'm going to have to check out your dips! (I was afraid of swimming in excess dip too!)

Gretchen Noelle said...

Your crackers look very similar to how mine turned out. So sorry to hear about all your phone trouble - what a pain!

Judy@nofearentertaining said...

Great lavash! Too funny about the dip pictures. Could you just email them to yourself and then save them from your email?

Absolutely love the dips!

Susan @ SGCC said...

Beautiful job, Cakelaw! Everything looks great, despite the camera snafu. I do things like that all the time. ;)

Clumbsy Cookie said...

You've done 3 dips! Wow, and all sound great!

Unknown said...

it seems they're delicate. good on you, Gaye! those crackers look great.

Cakelaw said...

Thanks Babeth - Glad you liked them.

Hi Ivy - you would find them a cinch to make.

Thanks Mary - scary thought, isn't it!

Thanks Gretchen - your kind thoughts are appreciated.

Thaks Judy. I tried to send them to someone else's phone, and it appears that I haven't been given this right.

Thanks Susan :)

Thanks Andrea - I think I got a litle carried away!

Hi Arfi, thanks :)

Kittynn said...

That happens to me all the time - I never take photos the right time and when finally the battery of my camera is full, or anything else that kept me from taking those pics, there's nothing left to make a photo of ;)

Dharm said...

Like you , I always thought that crackers only came in boxes and never contemplated making my own. Well, now we know dont we! Great job!

Cakelaw said...

LOL Kittyn.

Thanks and agreed Dharm - DBs is an educational experience.

Y said...

I was wondering about those strange dip photos! :) Very resourceful, you are! And your crackers look great.

Cakelaw said...

Thanks Y :)

Deeba PAB said...

Love the lavash, love the toppings & HEART your choice of dips. What a photographic tale of horror. You've done well despite all odds & managed to post pictures! GREAT!!

Cakelaw said...

Thanks Deeba - after making those dips, I was determined to post pictures of them.