Day 1: Clean Monday/Kathara Deftera, March 18, 2013

(One of our family kites begining its ascent over a Toronto, Canada park on Clean Monday, 2013. Kite flying on Clean Monday is a long-held tradition in Greece.)

Great Lent begins today, March 18, 2013.  We are happy to return to our blog, sharing some of our recipes -- both old and new, and sharing our love for the Orthodox faith.  We are thrilled that you are reading our blog, once again, and look forward to your comments.

So, what do we do in our family for Clean Monday?  This year, we decided that we would finally make our own Lagana.  Lagana is a bread that is usually eaten only on this day.  It is a flattened loaf with sesame seeds on top, and goes with all the foods that you may have for Koulouma (the meal on Clean Monday).  The best part of making your own lagana -- or any bread for that matter, is that it gives you plenty of time to get out and fly a kite today!  In Greece, there are many places where people gather, have picnics, and fly kites.  Some say that kite flying represents letting go of all the troubles of winter.  Others say that flying kites represents sending your spirit to God through Great Lent.  We are unsure of the real story, since it seems that each part of Greece has its own interpretation. 

We would like to focus on the Lagana.  Lagana is eaten only once a year, so we had one chance to get it right.  And, since we were inviting friends and family for our koulouma, we doubled the recipe.  There are many recipes available for lagana.  Some include masticha, some had oil, some had shortening, and some used tahini.  We went for the most straight forward recipe that we could find. Also, we felt that using a recipe which uses shortening would be inappropriate given that today's meal shouldn't include ingredients such as shortening (since many types of shortening do not clearly explain the source of the fat). After reading several other online sources, we realized that most people are using and interpreting the same recipes - whether from Diane Kochilas, Vefa Alexiadou, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, or a recipe handed down from various family members.  We chose to follow a recipe from Marilyn Rouvelas, as written in the very popular book, "Greek Traditions and Customs in America".  

So, here's what we did with our own 'stab' at making lagana bread:

First, we gathered the ingredients.  We doubled the recipe for our needs, but these are the original amounts to create 2 loaves.

You will need: 
1 packet dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
1 cup warm water ( just above body temperature)
4 cups all purpose flour
a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil (for brushing the loaves)
2 Tablespoons sesame seeds

The directions are just like making any kind of bread.  We have re-worded the directions from the Rouvelas book to give you more details.  The book has very basic directions, and we thought more precise details would be helpful for those of us who have never made lagana before.  

First, dissolve the yeast in the water, and add the sugar.  Mix in enough flour to make a paste, so the mixture is just a little thinner than a pancake batter.  Set this aside and let the yeast bloom (become bubbly).

Add the yeast and the sugar to the warm water.

Add enough flour to make a thin batter.

Allow the mixture to sit, and watch it bubble. 

Let the yeast, sugar, and flour mixture double in volume.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour and salt.  Make sure this is really well mixed because the salt will stop the yeast from working.    

Mix the flour and salt very well.  Then, add the yeast mixture to the bowl.

Once the yeast mixture becomes foamy and doubles in size, then add it to the flour mixture.  Start your mixer (or mix by hand) and mix until everything is well combined.  Knead the dough for about 10 minutes.  The dough will pull away from the sides of the bowl, and leave the bowl clean.

The dough will start to pull together.

The dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and leaves the bowl clean.

Cover the dough and allow it to rise until it has doubled in size.  This will take about 2 hours, so go fly a kite!  This also gives you enough time to get your cookie sheet covered with some parchment paper, silicone baking sheet, or coated with some pan spray.

Let the dough sit in the mixing bowl.

Cover the dough and wait for it to rise.

See you in two hours!

Next, separate the dough ball into two parts.  Roll out each part to get an oblong, flat loaf.  You can use a rolling pin or use your hands and pull and stretch to achieve the shape.  The loaf will look like a rounded rectangle.  Lay it  on the cookie sheet and let it rest.  

Shape the dough with your hands.

Or shape the dough with a rolling pin.

Set it on a prepared cookie sheet and let it rest. 

While the dough is resting for about 30 to 45 minutes, brush the top with the vegetable oil and sprinkle with sesame seeds.  Then, using your finger tips, poke six to eight holes in the top of the bread -- not all the way through the dough, just enough to make a permanent indentation.  

Brush each loaf with oil.

Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Press your fingertips into the loaf.

Now the loaf is ready for the oven.

Bake at 375º F for 20-25 minutes until the colour is a light, golden brown.

Loaves right out of the oven, ready to eat!

We followed the directions to make the dough, but when it came time to rolling or pressing the shape of the loaves, we found it much easier to roll with the rolling pin than to press out the shape.  We did obtain the original shape by pressing with our fists, and then with open palms, but in the end, the rolling pin was easier, smoother, and faster.  Brushing with oil and sprinkling sesame on each loaf was fast, so we had to let the loaves sit a little longer to have the complete second rise.  Then, we forgot to poke the holes in the first loaf before putting it in the oven!  EEK!  But, five minutes into the baking process, when we finally remembered, we were able to still poke into the bread -- just not as deeply as if the bread were completely raw.  This one is going to get cut before anyone sees it, so nobody will see the mistake!  Unless you are with people who make lagana for themselves, we do not believe that this would be a noticable omission.

Also, even though the directions tell us to bake for 20 minutes, we did not find that quite long enough.  The first two loaves that we made were very light in color.  Although they were baked in the center, that lovely golden colour was not there.  We did bake the second two loaves for an extra ten or twelve minutes to get the desired hue.  We also realized that maybe the silicone sheets inhibited the browning of the bread on the bottom.  Silicone may not get hot enough to produce that brown colour, but it is hot enough to bake the bread through.  Although we usually use the mats for baking cookies and sweets, parchment paper was the better choice for the bread.  In the future, we will stick to using parchment paper!

Marilyn Rouvelas' book gave directions in the most basic form.  There were not many detailed descriptions in her method.  We did read several other sources to make sure we understood the process, and that is how we were able to provide more details for you today.  You can see in the pictures that you are making a basic bread dough, rolling a flatter loaf, and poking holes in the top.  If you can follow these basic steps, then you can make lagana.  We are thrilled that we took the time to do this today.  It will be a nice addition to our Koulouma tonight.  And, it was perfect timing to go fly a kite! However, here in Toronto the weather today was freezing.

Kali Sarakosti.