World Shabbat Breads: Greek Country Bread (Pan de Horiadaki)
May 29, 2018
If you’re looking to mix up your Shabbat bread routine, consider this luscious pan de horiadaki from the Greek Jewish community of Salonika. It’s light and airy on the inside, crisp and crusty on the outside, and, with no egg, it’s a great alternative to water challah if you’re baking for vegans or people with egg allergies.
In The Cookbook of the Jews of Greece, Nicholas Stavroulakis writes that in the pre-war communities of Greece, Shabbat preparations began on Thursday afternoon, when the prozyme, or basic leavened dough for the Sabbath loaves, was prepared and left to rise overnight. Early on Friday morning, bakers would add flour, oil, and water to the prozyme and shape the loaves shaped for the second rising.
It’s worth noting that this dough would also be used to bake bread for the entire coming week; unlike most Ashkenazi communities, who adopted the custom of braided loaves of challah or berches as Shabbat bread, non-Ashkenazi Jews often ate the same type of bread on Shabbat as they did during the rest of the week.
This was the case in Greece, where among Romaniote Jews (who settled in Greece by the first century BCE, and possibly as early as the Babylonian Exile in the sixth century BCE) and Sephardim (who settled in Greece following the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492) there was no universal shape or recipe for Shabbat bread. Traditions varied by locality; Stavroulakis notes that in Ioannina, populated mostly by Romaniotes, the bread could variously be made into individual round laves, or one large loaf for the whole family—no braids in sight.
Disappointingly, Stavroulakis does not include a recipe for this bread from Ionannina (or any other Shabbat/weekday breads, for that matter) in his cookbook. But that’s okay, because once you taste this delicious pan de horiadaki recipe from the Greek Sephardic stronghold of Salonika, slightly adapted from Maggie Glezer’s A Blessing of Bread, you’ll be happy to stick with it for all of your Greek-Jewish bread needs. Glezer writes that she sourced this pan de horiadaki from Rica Sabetai, a Holocaust survivor and native of Salonika (today known as Thessaloniki).
Greek Country Bread (Pan de Horiadaki)
Makes two 2-pound rounds
7 ½ cups (1 kg) bread flour
1 teaspoon (3 g) instant yeast
3 cups (675 g) warm water
1 tablespoon (20 g) table salt
1 tablespoon (15 g) granulated sugar
2 tablespoons (30 g) extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for oiling the pans
In the bowl of a stand mixer (or a large bowl, if you’re not using a mixer), combine the flour and yeast. And the warm water and mix it in by hand until all the flour is moistened and a rough dough forms. Cover the dough and let it rest for 10 to 20 minutes.
If using a mixer: using the dough hook, mix the dough on medium speed until it is very smooth, 10 to 15 minutes. Otherwise, knead by hand until very smooth. If the dough seems too firm or too moist, add extra flour or water in 1-tablespoon increments as needed.
Add the salt, sugar, and oil, and either mix on medium speed or kneed by hand until the sugar and salt have dissolved, about 2 minutes. The dough should feel smooth, soft, and only slightly sticky.
Place the dough in a large bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel. Let rise until it has doubled in bulk, about 2 hours.
Oil two 8- or 9-inch round cake pans with olive oil. Divide the risen dough into two pieces. Deflate and round them into tight balls. Roll them in their pans to slightly coat in oil, then cover them with plastic wrap or damp towels. (At this stage, the dough can also be refrigerated for up to 24 hours.) Let the dough rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. (If dough has been refrigerated, it may take up to 2 hours to rise.)
Remove the risen rounds from the pans. Shape them into tightly rounded loaves and put them back seam side down in their pans. Lightly oil their tops and cover with plastic wrap or damp towels. (At this stage, the loaves can be refrigerated for up to 24 hours). Let the loaves proof until tripled in size, about 1 hour. (If loaves have been refrigerated, they may take up to 2 hours to proof.)
Immediately after shaping the bread (or 1 hour before baking if the dough has been refrigerated), position an oven rack in the upper third of the oven, remove any racks above it, and preheat to 400° F.
When the loaves have tripled in size and are highly domed, lightly oil them again. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, until very deeply browned. After the first 35 minutes of baking, turn the pans around so that the bread browns evenly. When the loaves are done, remove them from the oven and let them cool on a rack.
Sources: A Blessing of Bread: The Many Rich Traditions of Jewish Bread Baking Around the World (Maggie Glezer, 2004); The Cookbook of the Jews of Greece (Nicholas Stavroulakis, 1986)