Solving secret of a special bread

We’ve grown accustomed to hearing about the Big Five. Bread-making has its own Big Four – flour, water, salt and yeast. Hennie Fisher explains

MOST bread consists of all four ingredients — flour, water, salt and yeast — or a combination of some of them and as many additions as human creativity could come up with over time.

However, good old-fashioned bread rarely consists of anything more than these ingredients, such as the delightful papathas we encountered on a recent trip to the Lesotho highlands.

Freshly baked twice every day in the local village of Semonkong and delivered to the lodge where we stayed, they are somewhere between a large, rather solid pita bread and an English muffin.

They were served fresh at the dinner table and split and toasted for breakfast the next morning with fresh butter. For lunch time sandwiches they were filled and toasted almost like tramezzini. Utterly delicious and served in copious numbers.

The lodge staff informed us that the lady who supplied the breads to them was very wary of sharing her recipe with anybody else, so I had to engage in a game of deduction.

As the lifestyle is unhurried and relatively simple around these small villages in Lesotho they are in all likelihood rather uncomplicated little breads to make.

My guess is that they were not even baked in an oven but rather cooked over an open fire. I also don’t imagine them containing anything more than the previously mentioned four basic ingredients. While I did not get the recipe or a demonstration, I was able to buy some of the flour on the way back home so I immediately set about testing some recipe ideas upon my return. Here follows a passable version of these great breads.

600g white bread flour (or even a small portion of that substituted for brown bread flour) 10g instant yeast 10ml salt 10ml sugar 500ml lukewarm water Mix all the ingredients together at once, either by hand or in a mixer using the dough hook. Ensure the water is not overly hot since this could cause the yeast to become inactive, but the warmer the water the faster the bread will prove once mixed. The mixture will appear rather sloppy and somewhat wet, but as the breads are relatively soft the moisture is needed to shape the breads. Knead thoroughly to develop the gluten and to make a shiny, wellamalgamated mass. Set aside covered with a damp tea-towel until more than double in volume.

Divide the dough into six equal portions and flatten each piece out into a round the size of a small side-plate. Place on a very wellfloured board and cover with a damp (but not wet) tea-towel. Warm up a non-stick pan until relatively hot. Carefully lift one of the breads up with both hands and slide directly into the pan. Cook for about 30 seconds and then flip over to cook the other side — this prevents large bubbles from forming on the surface of the first side that may not bake too well when turned over. Once nice and golden, flip over and cook the remaining side for a crisp even surface.

Repeat with the remainder of the breads.